Michelangelo and Beyond

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, ca. 1510/11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase Joseph Pulitzer Bequest 1924, inv. no. 24.197.2

Renaissance master Michelangelo had a unique understanding of the new view of a dynamic body. His works had a formative influence on the artists of his time, but his importance extended far beyond his time and influenced artists into the 20th century. Michelangelo and Beyond shows the rediscovery of the ancient Greco-Roman idea of the ideal body during Michelangelo’s lifetime and the revolutionary advances in the depiction of the human figure.

Raffael, Dürer, Rembrandt, Mengs, Rubens, Boucher, Klimt and Schiele are also on display alongside Michelangelo, each of whom developed their own perception of the body, be it through emulation, evolution or absolute rejection of Michelangelo’s ideal.

On display are drawings, prints and sculptures that examine the depiction of the ideal body throughout the centuries. Key works by Michelangelo, including drawings that arose in connection with the unfinished fresco of the Battle of Cascina, plus famous pieces like the Seated Young Male Nude and drawings from the Sistine Chapel will be featured. Raffael’s nudes in red chalk and Dürer’s meticulous measurements, which followed a different set of rules to those adopted by Michelangelo, are also included. Rembrandt’s unfiltered, true-to-life bodies and the Farnese Hercules bronze statue, which represents a separately developed body type, are must-sees. Drawing on the idea of the “dark side of the moon”, the depiction of the naked female body specifically is highlighted. The exhibition ends with pieces by Klimt and Schiele, marking the decline of the canon.

Overall, the items in the exhibition range from Michelangelo’s early works to pieces by artists in the early 20th century. It shows the adoption, evolution and ultimate decline of Michelangelo’s ideal body.