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Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer

Bambach, Carmen C. with essays by Claire Barry, Francesco Caglioti, Caroline Elam, Marcella Marongiu, and Mauro Mussolin (2017)

This title is in print.

A New York Times Best Art Book of 2017

Watch the trailer
Inside the Catalogue—"Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer".

Read an interview with Carmen C. Bambach on Now at The Met.

Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) Award for Excellence, Winner (2018); BIGNY Book Show, Winner (2018); Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize, Winner (2019)

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (6)
Exhibition
Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer
November 13, 2017‐February 12, 2018

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), a towering genius in the history of Western art, will be the subject of this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. During his long life, Michelangelo was celebrated for the excellence of his disegno, the power of drawing and invention that provided the foundation for all the arts. For his mastery of drawing, design, sculpture, painting, and architecture, he was called Il Divino ("the divine one") by his contemporaries. His powerful imagery and dazzling technical virtuosity transported viewers and imbued all of his works with a staggering force that continues to enthrall us today.

This exhibition will present a stunning range and number of works by the artist: approximately 150 of his drawings, three of his marble sculptures, his earliest painting, his wood architectural model for a chapel vault, as well as a substantial body of complementary works by other artists for comparison and context. Among the extraordinary international loans are the complete series of masterpiece drawings he created for his friend Tommaso de' Cavalieri and a monumental cartoon for his last fresco in the Vatican Palace. Selected from 54 public and private collections in the United States and Europe, the exhibition will examine Michelangelo's rich legacy as a supreme draftsman and designer.