This spring, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), will present 25 drawings by Michelangelo (born Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475; died 1564), on loan from the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. A property once owned by the artist, Casa Buonarroti is the world’s largest repository of his drawings, architectural studies, letters, poems, and memoirs. This selection of drawings will be on view at the MFA from April 23–June 30, 2013, in Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, Master Drawings from the Casa Buonarroti, the first opportunity for visitors to see these works in Boston. It will showcase 11 figure drawings and 14 architectural designs (for churches, military fortifications, a library, and a gateway), several of which are large, multi-sheet works. Because of the delicate nature of the drawings, they are infrequently displayed and are rarely seen in the United States. The exhibition will offer an intimate view of the hand and mind of the artist at key points in his career through the display of figure drawings and architectural studies.
Among the works on view will be Cleopatra (c. 1532–33) and Madonna and Child (c. 1524), from the middle chapter of Michelangelo’s life as he sought to surpass himself after completing the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512 at the age of 37.
Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane, in the MFA’s Lee Gallery, is organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia (where it was on view through April 14). It is produced in partnership with Fondazione Casa Buonarroti and Associazione Culturale Metamorfosi. The exhibition is sponsored in Boston by Bank of America. It is presented under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic’s “2013, Year of Italian Culture in the United States,” designed to enhance the close bonds between Italy and the United States.
“There are very few works by Michelangelo on view in the United States—and, in fact, the MFA does not have any in its collection—so for Boston, this exhibition represents a unique opportunity to see many outstanding drawings by one of the greatest of masters,” said Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA.
Cleopatra (front)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
about 1532–1533
Black chalk
*Florence, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 2 F
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The reference to “sacred and profane” in the exhibition title points to Michelangelo’s practice throughout his career of alternating between interpretations of the divine (sacred) and the worldly (profane). It also alludes to his reworking of a single motif, whether figural or architectural, in order to achieve a kind of ideal or perfection. The artist’s drawing of Cleopatra is an example of an ideal figural composition, a “divine head” as it became known. An imaginary portrait of the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt—the seductress who captivated Julius Caesar and Marc Antony before dying by a self-inflicted snakebite in 30 BC—it embodies both the sacred and the profane. During a 1988 exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, the last major showing of Michelangelo’s drawings in the US prior to the current tour, curators discovered that there were two sides to the black chalk drawing. The paper backing was removed and a second image was revealed on the reverse side (verso). It provided a dramatically different view of the enigmatic Cleopatra, who is depicted on the first side (recto) of the allegorical drawing as an idealized woman, adorned with braided hair and pearls befitting an oriental queen, a serpent draped around her long, elegant neck. This Cleopatra is divinely beautiful, but her counterpart, hidden for centuries, appears in a disturbing state of anguish, her eyes in shock—a worldly, profane image of the notorious ruler. Visitors to the exhibition at the MFA will be able to view both sides of the work, which will be displayed in a case on a pedestal.
Cleopatra is one of several drawings by Michelangelo created as special gifts for friends. It was given to Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman to whom the artist was devoted. Cavalieri treasured it for some 30 years, but as the work gained prominence, Cavalieri was compelled by the Duke of Florence, Cosimo I de’ Medici, to relinquish it. Cavalieri remarked that it was like losing one of his own children. The portrait was returned to the Buonarroti family years later with other works by the master that had been similarly acquired by the duke.
Madonna and Child
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
about 1525
Black chalk, red chalk, lead white and wash
*Firenze, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 71 F
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Michelangelo’s deeply moving image of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child, Madonna and Child, is another masterwork in the exhibition. Drawn on two sheets joined together in the middle, it measures approximately 21 by 15 inches. Because of its large scale, it is thought to be a “cartoon,” a preparatory drawing for another work of art—possibly a painting. Around the time that the artist drew it (1524), he was also sculpting his monumental marble statue of the Madonna and Child for the Medici Chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. The ethereal, lightly sketched Madonna offers a contrast to the intensely worked, sculptural depiction of a robust Christ child. It is one of the Michelangelo’s most technically complex drawings, showing his masterful use of Renaissance-era materials—black and red chalk, red wash, white heightening, and ink.
The variety of drawings in the exhibition, which range from quick sketches to highly finished designs, provides a rare opportunity to observe Michelangelo in action. We are all curious to know how an artist of this caliber composed his ideas, and how he developed his initial bursts of creativity into the ideal forms for which he became known,” said Helen Burnham, the Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints and Drawings at the MFA, who organized the exhibition in Boston.
One of Michelangelo’s earliest interpretations of the Virgin is showcased in the exhibition. Study for the Head of the Madonna in the ‘Doni Tondo’ (about 1506) illustrates the artist’s delicate use of a warm red chalk for the portrait, generally regarded as drawn from a male model, a typical studio practice in the Renaissance. It was a preparatory drawing for his “tondo,” or round frame painting, Doni Tondo or The Holy Family (c. 1506–08), commissioned by wealthy banker Agnolo Doni, which is housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
about 1535
Black chalk, red chalk, pen and ink
*Florence, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 70 F
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Another figure in the exhibition, The Sacrifice of Isaac (c. 1535), illustrates how Michelangelo had virtually abandoned the bold strokes of his youthful pen and ink drawings, favoring instead a more delicate approach at this point in his life composed of soft gradations of chalk and delicate accents in pen and ink. His retelling of the Bible story, in which God instructs Abraham to prove his devotion by offering up his son, Isaac, reflects the artist’s incorporation of the heroic torso he often used to depict another sacrificial figure—Christ. Michelangelo has given Isaac a classically inspired, sculptural body, which he twists so that the child can see the angel who has been sent by God to stop Abraham from completing his deed.
Plan for the Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
1559-1560
Black chalk, pen and ink, white heightening and wash
*Florence, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 124 A
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In addition to figure drawings, Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane will highlight designs for real and imagined structures, some of which were executed, and others that never left the drawing board because they were too costly, ambitious, or fantastical to be realized. The Casa Buonarroti has the largest collection of the artist’s architectural drawings in the world, ranging from plans for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, to drawings of imaginary fortresses with pincers and shells like giant crabs. They document his legacy as an architect, among his many other accomplishments as draughtsman and painter, as well as sculptor (Pietà, 1499; David, 1504).
This can be seen in three studies for the façade of the Medici Basilica of San Lorenzo. The Medici family was among the most important and powerful in Florence, and four members became popes. During Michelangelo’s lifetime, the patronage of Medici popes Leo X (1475–1521), Clement VII (1478–1534), and Pius IV (1499–1565) advanced his career and gave him the opportunity to develop his talents as an architect by studying classical models and trying to achieve an ideal structure through multiple plans for a single project.
Project for the Façade of San Lorenzo in Florence
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
1516
Black chalk, pen and ink with brown wash
*Florence, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 45 A
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
It is likely that Michelangelo brought the major drawing for the first phase of the design, Project for the Façade of San Lorenzo in Florence, with him to Rome to show Pope Leo X, who commissioned th Project for the Façade of San Lorenzo in Florence, e façade to glorify his family. However, because of the great cost of the marble, the pope canceled the project some years later and it remains unfinished to this day. Measuring approximately 28 by 34 inches, and made of six sheets joined together, the drawing is the second largest of Michelangelo’s works on paper to survive.
Another major project that never came to fruition was for a small, possibly secret, library for the basilica’s Laurentian Library, a building that Michelangelo had been commissioned to design. Pope Clement VII asked the artist to draw up plans for the repository of the Medici collection’s rarest books—ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts. The Plan for the ‘Pichola Libreria’ of the Laurentian Library (1525–26) served as the ground plan for the third and final chamber in the Laurentian Library. It is based on an equilateral triangle, an ideal, perfectly balanced shape, which is also one of the most ancient mystical symbols—a triad incorporating the world, nature, and the divine—as well as a representation of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Michelangelo left Florence in 1534 before completing this inner sanctum. He did, however, see to completion the staircase that had been commissioned by the pope for the vestibule in the library.
The exhibition features a sheet on which a student’s work was drawn over by Michelangelo, who sketched column bases for the Laurentian Library and added in a pen and ink drawing for the staircase. The structure achieved acclaim as a masterpiece of late Renaissance architecture.
Study for the Porta Pia in Rome
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475–1564)
about 1561
Black chalk, pen and ink with brown wash, white heightening
*Florence, Casa Buonarroti, inv. 102 A
*Organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at The College of William & Mary in Virginia
*Courtesy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Another design for a completed work—shown in the US for the first time during this exhibition tour—is Study for the Porta Pia in Rome (c. 1561). It is a compilation of various ideas for a monumental city gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, named in honor of Pope Pius IV, who promoted urban improvements in the city. The gate, one of Michelangelo’s final architectural projects, still exists today:
Porta Pia Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian (Florentine), 1475 – 1564) October 2008
*Photo used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) License from Gwenaël Piaser.
*Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston