Cleveland Museum of Art to host rare grouping of Michelangelo’s sketches
His full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni but we know him simply as Michelangelo. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, poet and inventor who was hundreds of years ahead of his time. He lived during the time of the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy with a number of his works of painting, sculpture and architecture renowned among the most famous in the world.
Through January 5, 2019 the Cleveland Museum of Art presents “Michelangelo: Mind of the Master.” The collection is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Teylers Museum of Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Among the collection is a centerpiece group of drawings once belonging to Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689) that has been housed in the Teylers Museum since 1790. This is in fact the first time ever that the drawings have been allowed to leave the country and will be on display at only two locations in the United States (The Cleveland Museum of Art and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California).
The collection includes first draft works by the artist that he used in order to complete a number of his paintings, sculptures and architectural creations and traces his life from the age of eighteen until just before his death at age 88.
“This group of drawings encapsulates the various ways Michelangelo drew throughout his long career, from anatomical renderings to sketches for the nude male figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling to drawings from live models for a sculpture on one of the Medici tombs,” says Emily Peters, CMA curator of prints and drawings. “The Teylers group of Michelangelo drawings is among the best preserved in the world, and the red and black chalks used by the artist retain a vibrancy and freshness that allow visitors to really appreciate the immediacy and power of Michelangelo’s thinking on paper.”
The exhibition includes 51 drawings that include those drawn on the reverse of other works on view in the show.
When they arrive, visitors to the exhibition enter an introductory gallery “Drawing in Italy before Michelangelo” that shows examples of drawings in Florence prior to Michelangelo’s arrival. Prior to the great artist coming of age, artists used pen and ink as well as metalpoint. Anatomical studies were rare as well as the use of nude figures. Early examples of Michelangelo's work shows anatomical studies taken from cadavers showing the muscle structure with the skin removed.
The following groupings consist of “Michelangelo’s Florence” where through the influence of the Medici family he was introduced to various scholars, poets and artists who created works for the first family of Florence.
This is followed by “Early Works: New Models for Art” that shows works inspired as he was studying in the garden of the Medici family in which numerous examples of Greek and Roman sculpture were on display. There are also examples of further sketches of cadavers from the hospital of Santo Spirito in Florence as well as two rare studies for his “Battle of Cascina” fresco that was commissioned by the city of florence and finished in 1504.
The next area is “Medici Florence” from the 1510s to the 1520s that saw him executing complex commissions for not only the Medici family but also Pope Julius II including sketches of the Medici tombs, the Basilica of San Lorenzo and lastly the sculptural tomb of Pope Julius II that was eventually completed in 1545. In his later years, Michelangelo continued commissions from Rome including the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the architectural rendering of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
The final room consists of a huge library table with chairs in which various books and prints from the collection are laid out for patrons to view.
Over the course of the exhibition, various programs will be offered including the following:
MIX: Anatomy
Friday, October 4, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
$10 in advance, $15 at the door; exhibition admission included. CMA members free.
Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo was a master painter, sculptor and architect. Drawing was at the heart of his creative process, and he had a lifelong interest in anatomy. Tonight, get drawn in to Michelangelo: Mind of the Master with figure drawing, gallery talks, guest artist displays and soundscapes by Mick Batyske, who has deejayed private events for the likes of Jay-Z, Michelle Obama, Sotheby’s, Vanity Fair and MTV.
Lecture: Michelangelo’s Figures, Turned and Toned
Saturday, October 12, 2:00 p.m.
Gartner Auditorium
Free; ticket required
Michelangelo devised an extraordinary number of figural poses throughout his career, from the soldiers in the Battle of Cascina to the ignudi on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the damned in the Last Judgment. Cammy Brothers, associate professor of visual studies at Northeastern University, considers how the artist used drawing to create so many figures, what they shared and how his approach compared to that of contemporaries such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
Curator Talk: Michelangelo: Mind of the Master
Tuesday, October 29, 12:00 p.m.
Tuesday, November 19, 12:00 p.m.
Friday, December 13, 6:00 p.m.
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Hall
Preregistration and exhibition ticket required
Curator Emily Peters leads a tour through the exhibition.
Performance Apollo’s Fire Baroque Bistro
Friday, September 27, 12:00 p.m.
Ames Family Atrium
Free; no ticket required
Members of Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s Grammy-winning baroque ensemble, celebrate Michelangelo and the sounds of his homeland. Dances and love songs by Monteverdi and Uccellini meet traditional street tunes, such as the “Pizzica di San Vito,” in this rustic and playful tour of street music from Renaissance Italy.
Fretwork Presents “Music from the Age of Michelangelo”
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 p.m. Gartner Auditorium
$33–$45, CMA members $30–$40 Fretwork, the world’s leading consort of viols, performs a program inspired by the exhibition Michelangelo: Mind of the Master. In 1501 (Michelangelo was born in 1475) Ottaviano Petrucci published the Harmonice Musices Odehecaton, or One Hundred Harmonic Pieces of Music, featuring works by all the major composers of the time; much of the program is drawn from this book. Don’t miss this illuminating concert featuring works by Marbriano de Orto, Johannes de Piñarol, Josquin Desprez and more.
Chamber Music in the Galleries
Wednesday, November 6, 6:00 p.m.
Free; no ticket required
Film
Michelangelo—Love and Death
Friday, October 18, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 20, 1:30 p.m.
Morley Lecture Hall
$15, CMA members $11 Directed by David Bickerstaff, this recent film journeys from the print and drawing rooms of Europe through the chapels and museums of Florence, Rome and the Vatican to explore the tempestuous life of the great Renaissance artist. (UK, 2017, color, Blu-ray, approx. 90 min.)
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Sunday, December 29, 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, December 31, 1:30 p.m.
Morley Lecture Hall
$10, CMA members $7
Michelangelo clashes with Pope Julius II over the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in this lavish historical drama based on Irving Stone’s novel and directed by Carol Reed. (USA/Italy, 1965, color, Blu-ray, 138 min.)
Admission to the exhibition is Adults $15, seniors and adult groups $10, member guests $7, students and children 6-17 $5 and children 5 and under as well as CMA members Free.