Michelangelo Life Drawings

Michelangelo

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486238760
• eBook ISBN: 9780486138503
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

Throughout his long life, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) never ceased to practice drawing with pen, pencil, or chalk. In the 60 years of creative activity encompassed by this volume, the artist produced scores of sketches, drawings, and studies — nudes, heads, figure studies, Madonnas, anatomical drawings, studies of children and animals, mythical representations, and religious works. This book reproduces 46 of his finest drawings, embodying most of his artistic themes and techniques, and executed in his characteristic media of pen and ink, and red and black chalk. The extraordinary strength, grace, and clarity of his renderings are beautifully illustrated on every page.
The compositions, carefully reproduced on fine-quality paper, range from youthful studies modeled after ancient sculpture and early Renaissance frescoes to the otherworldly religious creations of his old age. Many are preliminary drawings executed in connection with some of his most important commissions: the marble David of 1501–04; the famous cartoon of 1504 for the projected fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio, The Battle of Cascina; the paintings on the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, executed 1508–12; and the imposing fresco of The Last Judgment in the same chapel, executed 1535–14; as well as several of the more highly finished allegorical presentation drawings of the early 1530s. In some cases, e.g. The Battle of Cascina, the drawings are all that remain of a lost masterpiece. All drawings are accompanied by brief descriptive captions including date, medium, size, and current location.

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page

1. Studies of torsos and heads. Ca. 1501-05. Pen and ink. 254 x 168 mm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (22 verso).

2. Study for an arm of the marble David and the figure of the bronze David. 1501-03. Pen and ink. 265 x 188 mm. Louvre, Paris (714 recto).

3. Man digging, and other figure studies. Ca. 1501. Pen and ink. 265 x 188 mm. Louvre, Paris (714 verso).

4. Mercury (with overdrawing transforming it into an Apollo), and another nude study. Ca. 1500-02. Pen and ink. 399 x 210 mm. Louvre, Paris (688 recto).

5. Various studies, including a tracing of the Mercury-Apollo from the other side of the sheet. Ca. 1500-06. Pen and ink. 399 x 210 mm. Louvre, Paris (688 verso). Only the putto and the captive are definitely by Michelangelo.

6. Male nude. Between 1496 and 1504. Pen and ink. 340 x 168 mm. Louvre, Paris (R.F. 70-1068 verso).

7. Male nude; arm; bearded man. Ca. 1504. Pen and ink. 340 x 168 mm. Louvre, Paris (R.F. 70-1068 verso).

8. Figure studies from antique sculpture(the draped figures perhaps from frescos). Ca. 1503. Pen and ink. 263 x 387 mm. Musée Condé, Chantilly (29 recto).

9. Male nude, study for The Battle of Cascina. Ca. 1504. Pen and ink with traces of black chalk. 408 x 284 mm. Casa Buonarroti, Florence (73F recto).

10. Three nude men (study for The Battle of Cascina?); sketch for the Bruges Madonna. Ca. 1504. Black chalk; pen and ink. 315 x 278 mm. British Museum, London (1859-6-25-564 recto).

11. Various figure studies. Ca. 1504. Black chalk; pen and ink. 315 x 278 mm. British Museum, London (1859-6-25-5...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents