Michelangelo

Michelangelo Lite

A Review of Michelangelo

CD-Rom Multimedia is an information technology with so much promise for adding depth and flexibility to our thinking about any number of topics. You would think that this is obvious to any producers in this field. So, why are multimedia publishers imitating one of the least substantial products of older print technology, the coffee-table art book? You remember these tomes, some the size and weight of pavement slabs, with stunning art prints and perfunctory text. They were designed solely for the idle thumbing-through or as a sign to guests of your fine taste in -- well, in thumbing-through material, I guess. Too many current multimedia titles emulate such "Lite" treatments, when just a little effort could make them so much more. European publisher, E.M.M.E. Interactive, in their otherwise lovely and promising title, Michelangelo, too often falls into the limited coffee-table genre.

There is, indeed, much to admire among the 500 images that are reproduced here. The Windows, MPC program boasts "the most comprehensive collection of Michelangelo's work ever published." I was not counting, but I can assure any viewer that the many paintings and sculptures enjoy crystal clear and richly colored reproductions, especially considering that they require only a 256 color Windows driver. Emphasis is put on the Vatican Museum Collection, and we get multiple views and details of the major works. Some lovely period orchestration (Midi-based) sets a tranquil background mood, just as the warm tones of most menu screens help set us into Michelangelo's world. The casual fan of Italy's revered Master, is in for an eyeful. Beyond that, however, Michelangelo stumbles.

The program opens abruptly with a menu of main arenas of information: Biography, Gallery, Sistine Chapel, Last Judgment, Index, and a Game. Without the benefit of introduction or some overall statement of purpose, I was left disoriented from the beginning. Like most things in Michelangelo, the Biography by Place section is pretty to behold but unwieldy. Michelangelo's life story is given us through the cities in which he worked and lived, an innovative touch that ends confusing rather than clarifying the tale. Book and filmstrip icons are laid upon gorgeous city maps of the relevant Italian regions, while a linear chronology of historical and biographical events occupies a corner window. Map icons open up informative text and occasional narrated slideshows. Hypertext hot-keys call up profiles of notable people, or images from the Gallery. And every pixel is illustrated with breathtaking artwork of the period. Main events in Michelangelo's Europe (1453-1600) are available as well, though no attempt is made to connect the artist and his work with his context. The viewer may be excited to learn that Luther's Reformation and Copernicus's scientific revolution began in this era, yet little is said about the art's relationship to them. One beauty of computer multimedia is the ability to make such connections easier, in this case, perhaps, via more creative hypertext links or parallel time-lines, if not some actual interdisciplinary analysis. The information in the Biography section is superficial, and the user must struggle too hard to keep track of the chronology.

For art newbies like myself, two of Michelangelo's more popular works are singled out for detailed treatment. The Last Judgment section, however, is a disappointment, containing only one uninformative slideshow and too few detailed close-up images of a very detailed work. The religious source for each section is explained, along with some entertaining anecdotal material. But, again, there is nothing here that establishes for us any grander aesthetic or cultural significance for the great mural.

Happily, the Sistine Chapel section contains more substantial treatment. The text offers special qualities to look for in the paintings and some sense of what is so masterful about this masterpiece. The numerous plates often are detailed enough to convey Michelangelo's painting style.

The Gallery section collects fifty-four works, by my count. Many have more than one view or detail available. Each painting or sculpture occupies a large window, which can be zoomed to full-screen, while the commentary is squeezed awkwardly into a narrow column. Again, the text is uneven. At its best, the commentary invokes various scholarly views of the work, directs the viewer's eye to certain details, and connects the art to its context as well. The material on the statue of David, for instance, gives us this and should have been the standard. Instead, too much barren descriptions or silly anecdotes standing in for useable information.

Several recited slideshows and a few video portions are welcome breaks from the text, but they are leaden uses of the medium's possibilities. The narration is saved for biographical and historical matters, when it should have been used to illuminate the art. A spoken presentation of work in detail could have freed the user from juggling reading and viewing. This is precisely the kind of traditionally awkward handling of knowledge that imaginative multimedia might overcome. Filmed sequences, too, could have been invaluable in communicating a sense of scale and proportion, especially to the sculpture. Imagine getting a video walkaround of David, Moses, or the Pieta.

Anyone who just wants to see the great artist's work compiled on their computer will forgive E.M.M.E.'s Michelangelo its shortcomings. When you are working with this kind of source material, so well reproduced, you cannot go far wrong. And, my point is not that the producers of Michelangelo should have made this title just as I might have. But so many golden opportunities are missed here to make a thoughtful understanding of great art more accessible. I am not at all certain that any of us needs the coffee-table genre translated to CD-Rom. Users and producers must ask for more.