Michelangelo burned most of his designs before he died. But now a sketch can be attributed to him, which is a preparatory work for one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance artist – and has a few small weaknesses.
An art historian from the University of Cambridge has achieved a minor sensation: he has identified a drawing from the 16th century as a study by Michelangelo. The red chalk sketch shows a naked man from behind. According to Paul Joannides, professor emeritus of art history and one of the world’s leading experts on Michelangelo, it is a design for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
Joannides associates the study with a man fighting the snakes on the ceiling painting “The Brazen Serpent”. The sketch was probably made in 1512. The “Brazen Serpent” is one of the last sections of the world-famous ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, which Michelangelo painted between 1508 and 1512.
However, the figure in the newly discovered drawing is shown from a different angle in the final painted version. “When you look at the drawing, you would assume that the figure is seen horizontally, but it isn’t. It needs to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise. If you put the two images side by side, you can see it. After examining it was obvious that the drawing is a preparation for this character,” Joannides explains, according to the Guardian.
Measuring 15.7 by 19.3 centimeters, the drawing was originally attributed to Rosso Fiorentino, a 16th-century follower of Michelangelo. An anonymous European collector acquired it in 2014. He had a photo sent to Joannides through an intermediary, as he thought he recognized a resemblance to a figure on the ceiling fresco mentioned above.
The study is a rare and therefore special find. There are very few finished drawings by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel that have survived. The Italian Renaissance artist Giorgio Vasari wrote in his artist biographies published in 1550 that shortly before his death Michelangelo burned a large number of sketches and drawings – for fear of being perceived as less perfect.
According to Joannidis, despite Michelangelo’s excellent knowledge of the anatomy of the male body, the drawing that has now surfaced actually has weaknesses. Among other things, the pose is almost impossible to take, the left thigh is too long and the spine is “blocky”.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 to 1564) is one of the most important artists of the Italian High Renaissance. He worked as a painter, sculptor and builder and wrote poetry. In addition to the Sistine Chapel, his world-famous works include the David sculpture in Florence and the Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.