Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Michelangelo - Part 4

Portrait of Michelangelo c1550-5
 leadpoint and black chalk with traces of white heightening
on paper
© Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Painter, on panel and in fresco, sculptor and architect, writer of sonnets, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the first artist recognised by contemporaries as a genius. Hero of the High Renaissance. He was the only artist of whom it was claimed in his lifetime that he surpassed Antiquity.

 He was born in Caprese in the 1470s and trained first as a painter with Ghirlandaio, and then as a sculptor under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici. In 1496, already known as sculptor, he went to Rome, where he carved the 'Pietà' for St Peter's.

Back in Florence in 1501 he began work on many sculptural and painterly projects most of which were left unfinished in 1505, when he was summoned to Rome to begin work on a sculpted tomb for Pope Julius II, a project that dogged him until 1545. From 1508 to 1512 he painted the vault of the Sistine Chapel with scenes from the Old Testament, from the Creation to the Story of Noah. Immediately celebrated, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with its innumerable figures in complex, twisting poses and its exuberant use of colour, is the chief source of the Mannerist style.

The National Gallery, London

This is part 4 of a 4-part series on the works of Michelangelo:

(Inconsistencies with the caption fonts is an ongoing glitch in the blogger software)


1536 A naked man
black chalk on paper 25.9 x 16.8 cm
The Museum Casa Buonarroti, Florence

1538 Madonna del Silenzio
sanguine on paper 21.7 x 16.5 cm 
 Portland Collection, Welbeck Abbey, UK

1538-41 Christ on the Cross, flanked by two lamenting angels, a skull at the base
black chalk 36.8 x 26.8 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1540 The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist
brown brush wash on poplar wood panel
62 x 49.5 cm
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford. UK


1540 Study for a man rising from the tomb
black chalk 23.3 x 29.3 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1542-46 Architectural study
pen & brown ink on paper 28.2 x 20.8 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1542-47 The Virgin Annunciate
black chalk on paper 34.5 x 22.3 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1542-50 The Holy Women at the foot of the Cross
drawing  21 x 14 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1543 Portrait of a woman
chalk on paper 21.2 x 14.2 cm
The Royal Collection, Windsor, UK

1546 Children Carrying a Deer to a Caldron
engraving by Enea Vico (Italy)
28.6 x 41.3 cm (plate)
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI

1547-61 Section through the Dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica with Alternative Designs for the Lantern; Figure Sketches
black chalk, lead-point, and stylus on paper 
© Teylers Museum, Haarlem

1547 The Annunciation
black chalk on paper
28.1 x 19.5 cm
Casa Buonarroti, Florence

1550-53 The Epifania
black chalk, rubbed in places
232.7 x 165.5 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1550-64 The Virgin and Christ Child
black chalk 26.5 x 11.7 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

c1550 The Brazen Serpent
print 37.2 cm (wide)
Royal Academy of Arts, London

c1550 Study for figure of Christ
black chalk on paper
26.7 x 16.5 cm
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

1555-60 Two studies of a naked man caught in an upward movement
black and blood stone
14.5 x 5.3 cm
Louvre, Paris

1555-60 A nude man in violent motion
black chalk 10.1 x 6 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

c1555-64 Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St John
black chalk and white lead
41.2 x 28.5 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

1559-1564 Design for an Equestrian Statue of Henry II of France
chalk on paper 13 x 12 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

c1555-64 Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St John
black chalk & white lead
41 x 27.8 cm
© The Trustees of the British Museum, London

c1560 Male Nude
black chalk on laid paper
23.4 x 10 cm
The Armand Hammer Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC


c1560 Male Nude
black chalk on laid paper
23.4 x 10 cm
The Armand Hammer Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Archers Shooting at a Herm, Triumph of Bacchus, and Other Studies
pen and brown ink, and brush and grey and brown wash, on tan laid paper
37.5 x 27.4 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

Head of a Bearded Man black
chalk, with some incising, on cream antique laid paper
15.7 x 9.4 cm
Harvard Art Museums Photo
© President and Fellows of Harvard College

Profile Head of a Young Man (attributed to Michelangelo)
red chalk on cream antique laid paper 13.6 x 10 cm
Harvard Art Museums Photo
© President and Fellows of Harvard College

Study of a nude woman, back view
pen and brown ink on beige paper
37.8 x 20.9 cm
Louvre, Paris

Study for the ignudo on the left of the figure of Isaiah in the Sistine Chapel
black stone 30.8 x 20.6 cm
Louvre, Paris

Studies for the Battle of Cascine
black stone, stylus, traces of 
sanguine
26.7 x 15.3 cm
Louvre, Paris

Sketches of figures, naked man, right arm turned behind his back
 sanguine
 35 x 15 cm
Louvre, Paris

Two Nudes Fighting
pen and brown ink on laid paper 7.9 x 4.1 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Three men carrying a body on their shoulders;
study for a Deposition?
sanguine 29.2 x 17.9 cm
Louvre, Paris

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