Existing comment:
This exhibition examines Michelangelo Buonarroti's genius as a draftsman and designer within the widest possible scope of his creativity as a sculptor, painter, and architect. In 1568 the biographer Giorgio Vasari lauded Michelangelo's incomparable command of disegno, an Italian word that encompasses the meanings of both "drawing," in concrete terms, and "design," in the abstract sense of the creative idea. Michelangelo's disegno ultimately explained his mastery and versatility in the three major arts -- sculpture, painting, and architecture -- to his contemporaries. They revered work "by his hand," and the notion of authenticity as understood in his time is explored here in a variety of ways.
Born in Caprese (southeast of Florence) on March 6, 1475, Michelangelo was first praised as Il divino (the divine one) at the age of 41, by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. The accolade accompanied mention of the artist's name for the rest of his life, as he was befriended by nobles and honored by popes and monarchs. He died on February 18, 1564, a wealthy, famous, and unusually long-lived man, already the subject of a number of biographies. Although he considered himself foremost a sculptor, he was widely recognized as Il divin' disegnatore, "the divine draftsman and designer."
This exhibition presents more than 200 works from 48 public and private collections in Europe and the United States. The 133 drawings by Michelangelo reunited here are infrequently on public display because of their fragility and rarity. The selection features drawings in a variety of media and of a great diversity of types -- small and large in scale, famous and little known. The exhibition also includes his earliest surviving painting, three marble sculptures, and an architectural model in wood, as well as an array of complementary works by Michelangelo's teachers, associates, and pupils, and by other artists, including ancient sculptors, who inspired him. Together, these artworks chart the inventive powers and complexity of Il divin' disegnatore |