Michelangelo was born in 1475 in the town of Caprese in the Florentine territory of Italy. At age 13, he shocked his family when he began an apprenticeship with the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence. Michelangelo developed his artistic skills and became involved with the Florentine ruling family of Lorenzo de' Medici, and with the poets, artists and scholars in the Medici circle. Early in his career, Michelangelo's pursuit of artistic perfection in the representation of the human body led him to study anatomy. He also began his lifelong practice of making drawings and sketches in preparation for his sculpture, painting and architectural commissions. With the death in 1492 of his patron and Florentine statesman Lorenzo de' Medici, government upheaval ensued in Florence, and Michelangelo left the city for Bologna and then Rome where he continued to work and study classical sculpture. Dating from this Roman period is his early sculpture Pietà (1498-1500), executed for Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Michelangelo's colossal statue of David (1501-1504) was completed during a stint back in Florence. From 1508 to 1512, the artist worked on the more than 300 painted figures for the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Following completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo completed his work on Moses and The Dying Slave for the tomb of Julius II. By age 70, he had spent 40 years on Pope Julius' tomb.
Before he left Florence in 1534, again for Rome, Michelangelo developed his designs for the Laurentian Library and the Medici Tombs. In Rome, he received a commission from the Pope to paint the frescoes for the Last Judgment wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's Last Judgment was controversial, even before its unveiling, because of the nearly total nudity of the saints depicted in it. After completing his fresco work at the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo focused most of his attention on architecture. His late architectural commissions include work on St. Peter's Basilica and the Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill) in Rome.
Michelangelo continued to work well into his later years. His last work, the Rondanini Pietà, was left incomplete. The artist died in 1564 at the age of 89. Today most of Michelangelo's completed works remain in Italy, and approximately 500 drawings are held primarily in British, French, and Italian collections, including the Casa Buonarroti.
Michelangelo: Drawings and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti, Florence opens at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where it will be on view from June 23 to September 2, 2001. The exhibition encompasses 47 objects from the Casa Buonarroti, Michelangelo Buonarroti's familial home in Florence, Italy, and includes 24 drawings by the Italian master himself, nine of which have never before been exhibited in the United States. After leaving the High, the show will travel to only one other American venue, the Toledo Museum of Art (September 21 November 25, 2001).
Pepper Bullock and Bill Goodwin, representing Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, the exhibition's presenting sponsor, say of the company's participation in the project: "Northwestern Mutual Financial Network is proud to partner with Atlanta's High Museum of Art in presenting the first major showing of Michelangelo's masterful drawings ever to visit the Southeast. Our Financial Representatives have a long respected history of providing financial services to Americans for many generations, and recognize the importance of bringing to our community classic works of art that have withstood the test of time."
Michael E. Shapiro, the Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director of the High Museum of Art, comments on the importance of the show: "This exhibition offers a window into Michelangelo's private world. Viewers will gain privileged access to the artist's masterful pen sketches, his evocative chalk drawings, his precise architectural studies and even his personal notes and scribbles. With this exhibition, the High Museum of Art has made possible a rare viewing experience for American audiences. We will continue to bring the world's finest art to the States through the strong relationships we have forged and our increasing prestige among the world's leading visual arts institutions." Dr. Pina Ragionieri, director of the Casa Buonarroti, serves as the project's organizer. Ragionieri noted: "To bring the myth of Michelangelo across the Atlantic, together with the memories of the Casa Buonarroti, is truly an emotional experience. And to speak to Americans about a sublime protagonist of the Italian Renaissance by means of his life as a man and artist, and, to offer some of his splendid drawings for their admiration, is also a great responsibility. I take great pleasure and pride in arranging this important rendezvous and hope to have found in this exhibition an appropriate way of communicating the superhuman dimension of Michelangelo's creative adventure."
The exhibition's guest curator is Gary M. Radke, Professor of Fine Arts at Syracuse University and noted expert in Italian Renaissance art. David Brenneman, the High's Frances B. Bunzl Family Curator of European Art, is the curator of record for the High.
Michelangelo: Drawings and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti, Florence is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in conjunction with the Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
In Atlanta, the exhibition is presented by Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. Additional support is provided by Delta Air Lines and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
The exhibition explores Michelangelo's work within the context of his family's intellectual and artistic accomplishments. The Buonarroti family actively promoted Michelangelo's fame and lovingly preserved his personal notebooks. Their home, now a private foundation, boasts one of the world's largest surviving collections of his drawings. Michelangelo's drawings will be featured in three exhibition sections: Michelangelo and the Casa Buonarroti, Works for San Lorenzo and Works for the Sistine Chapel. Besides preserving works by Michelangelo, the Buonarroti family also commissioned and collected modern and antique masterpieces by other artists. Included in the exhibition is the renowned life-size bronze bust of Michelangelo by his pupil Daniele da Volterra. Also on display will be the world's best surviving Roman copy of the right arm of Myron's famous Discus Thrower. The show aims to present Michelangelo's work in a new, more intimate light. "His drawings impress with their speed and surety of execution, bringing viewers extremely close to the man himself," stated guest curator Radke.
Also featured in the exhibition are personal sketches, writings and studies from Michelangelo's notebooks. They include a sonnet in his own hand beside a caricature of himself painting the Sistine ceiling, labeled blocks of stone giving instructions to workmen at the quarry and tiny drawings of food that allowed an illiterate assistant to prepare three of his meals. Featured architectural studies for the Medici chapel and library at San Lorenzo include early, hurried sketches as well as more finished, labeled plans. Quick studies for figures in the Sistine Chapel (a page of nudes, the torso of Adam from the Expulsion from the Garden, a risen Christ) reveal his total mastery of the human figure in motion and at rest. According to Radke, "Michelangelo's drawings concentrate all the power and intensity of his sculpture, painting and architecture into more precious and accessible dimensions."
The exhibition also illustrates the technical aspects of Michelangelo's works, helping viewers to recognize and appreciate the challenges the artist faced as he worked out his thoughts on paper. Included in the show are examples of every major drawing medium in which Michelangelo worked: charcoal, pen and ink, pen and wash, red chalk and black chalk. A small wax model of a "River God" illustrates his "sketching" in three-dimensions. Works in the exhibition range from just five inches long (a study for an arm for the Sistine Ceiling) to a nearly two-foot tall cartoon (full-scale study) of the "Madonna and Child," as well as the artist's largest surviving architectural drawing (the over three-foot wide study for the façade of San Lorenzo).
The fully illustrated, 152-page catalogue was written by Dr. Pina Ragionieri, director of the Casa Buonarroti, and translated by Miranda MacPhail, with contributions by guest curator Gary M. Radke. It includes essays about the artist's life, his family's activities as collectors and promoters of the arts, Michelangelo's work at San Lorenzo and his work in the Sistine Chapel. Each object in the exhibition is illustrated and accompanied by detailed commentary. The catalogue is published and distributed by the High Museum of Art and will retail for $30.
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905, is a leading force for the visual arts in the Southeast. The Museum has two locations. Its main facility is the critically acclaimed 1983 building designed by Richard Meier and situated in the heart of midtown Atlanta's arts and business district. The High's annex, the High Museum of Art Folk Art and Photography Galleries, is located in downtown Atlanta. The High Museum of Art boasts collections of 19th- and 20th-century American art; an acclaimed collection of decorative art, including the Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection of American Decorative Art and the Frances and Emory Cocke Collection of English Ceramics; a collection of European art highlighted by Italian works from the 14th through 18th centuries donated by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; burgeoning collections of photography and modern and contemporary art, including the recently acquired Lenore and Burton Gold Collection of 20th Century Art; and a significant collection of folk art, including the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Collection of Folk Art. The High is located at 1280 Peachtree Street at 16th Street in midtown Atlanta.
The Agony and the Ecstasy : A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo by Irving Stone - Goes through Michelangelo's life as a novel. The biography includes a bibliography, glossary and a list of the artist's works.
Michelangelo : The Vatican Frescoes - Antique & Auction News: "[T]his unique volume presents the restored Sistine Chapel in its entirety, from the Creation to the Last Judgment, and features remarkable new pictures of the frescoes. . . . This beautiful lavish work will be enjoyed by both those who have been fortunate enough to have seen the chapel in person, as well as interested readers who haven't." San Diego Union-Tribune: ". . . excellent . . . the most complete [book] on the restored frescoes, and the first to include the refurbished Last Judgment behind the altar. . . . The art book of the year." USA Today: "[A] gorgeous, lush tome with more than 250 color photographs-including before and after photos-that richly convey that delicacy of the master's work." Ingram: "For the first time ever, Michelangelo's complete Vatican masterpiece is shown in the vivid colors of its recent restoration. This comprehensive history of the painting of the Sistine Chapel catalogs each fresco image in detail. 200 full-color photos."
By most accounts, there are fewer than a dozen drawings and no paintings or sculpture by Michelangelo (1475-1564) in American collections. The two dozen drawings in this show by the artist will temporarily triple the number of his works in the United States. Included are sketches and preparatory studies Michelangelo made for the frescoes on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and numerous architectural studies for the San Lorenzo complex in Florence.