Deconstructing Michelangelo's process from a Sistine Chapel study

"I can see the humanity in a way, the figure breathing."

"I can see the humanity in a way, the figure breathing."

Curator Carmen Bambach on Michelangelo's "Studies for the Libyan Sibyl."

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/337497

Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world.

Photography by Paul Lachenauer

Photo of Sistine Chapel ceiling by Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

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Contributors

Carmen C. Bambach
Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints

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A small wooden carved box featuring figures and a tree in relief.
The author of After Sappho offers a queer feminist reading of Eve and the serpent, reimagining sin as likeness, desire, and bodies transcending gender and species.
Selby Wynn Schwartz
January 9
A close-up detail of a painted face rendered in muted green, blue, and gray tones.
Author Leena Krohn reflects on Helene Schjerfbeck’s portrait of Sigrid Nyberg.
Leena Krohn
December 18, 2025
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