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| 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)
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| 1536 A naked man black chalk on paper 25.9 x 16.8 cm The Museum Casa Buonarroti, Florence |
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| 1538 Madonna del Silenzio sanguine on paper 21.7 x 16.5 cm Portland Collection, Welbeck Abbey, UK |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 1540 Study for a man rising from the tomb black chalk 23.3 x 29.3 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 1542-46 Architectural study pen & brown ink on paper 28.2 x 20.8 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 1542-47 The Virgin Annunciate black chalk on paper 34.5 x 22.3 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 1542-50 The Holy Women at the foot of the Cross drawing 21 x 14 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 1543 Portrait of a woman chalk on paper 21.2 x 14.2 cm The Royal Collection, Windsor, UK |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 1547 The Annunciation black chalk on paper 28.1 x 19.5 cm Casa Buonarroti, Florence |
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| 1550-53 The Epifania black chalk, rubbed in places 232.7 x 165.5 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 1550-64 The Virgin and Christ Child black chalk 26.5 x 11.7 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| c1550 The Brazen Serpent print 37.2 cm (wide) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| c1550 Study for figure of Christ black chalk on paper 26.7 x 16.5 cm The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
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| 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 |
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| 1555-60 A nude man in violent motion black chalk 10.1 x 6 cm © The Trustees of the British Museum, London |
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| 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 |
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| 1559-1564 Design for an Equestrian Statue of Henry II of France chalk on paper 13 x 12 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| 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 |
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| c1560 Male Nude black chalk on laid paper 23.4 x 10 cm The Armand Hammer Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| c1560 Male Nude black chalk on laid paper 23.4 x 10 cm The Armand Hammer Collection National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| Study of a nude woman, back view pen and brown ink on beige paper 37.8 x 20.9 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| 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 |
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| Studies for the Battle of Cascine black stone, stylus, traces of sanguine 26.7 x 15.3 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| Sketches of figures, naked man, right arm turned behind his back sanguine 35 x 15 cm Louvre, Paris |
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| Two Nudes Fighting pen and brown ink on laid paper 7.9 x 4.1 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| Three men carrying a body on their shoulders; study for a Deposition? sanguine 29.2 x 17.9 cm Louvre, Paris |
