http://michelangelo.syr.edu
Marcello Venusti, Portrait of Michelangelo,
after 1535
Leone Leoni, Portrait Medal of Michelangelo, 1561
Psalms 51:13: “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and
sinners shall be converted unto thee.”
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
(largely invented by the artist himself)
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very
little to the artistic example of others.
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Tornabuoni Chapel,
Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Michelangelo, Studies of Three Nudes, 1531-32
Michelangelo, Head of Leda, 1529-30
Bernardo della Volpaia, Studies of
Ancient Monuments, Codex Coner,
c. 1510-15
Michelangelo, Studies after the
Codex Coner, c. 1515
Studies of Roman monuments, c. 1515
Michelangelo, Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1535
Filippo Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac,
1401
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo’s ideas came to him fully formed.
“Not even the best of artists has any
conception that a single marble block
does not contain within its excess,
and that is only attained by the hand
that obeys the intellect.”
Michelangelo, Sonnet 151, c. 1538-41
Michelangelo, Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1535
Michelangelo, Sacrifice of Isaac, c.1535
Study for a Christ in Limbo, c. 1530--3
Michelangelo, Studies for a cornice and for nudes for the Sistine Ceiling, 1508-9
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo’s ideas came to him fully formed.
3. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling laying on his
back.
“I’ve grown a goiter at this work, like
the cats of Lombardy…”
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo’s ideas came to him fully formed.
3. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling laying on his back.
4. Michelangelo was a melancholic who did not have
much of a sense of humor.
“You have a face sweeter than
boiled grape juice, and a snail
seems to have passed across it,
it shines so much, and it is
more beautiful than a turnip.”
Michelangelo, Sonnet 20, c. 1523
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo was the ultimate solitary genius, who largely worked alone.
3. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling laying on his back.
4. Michelangelo was a melancholic who did not have much of a sense of
humor.
5. Michelangelo did not appreciate female beauty.
Michelangelo, Head of Leda, c. 1529-30
Contract for the Vatican Pieta, 1498
Michelangelo, Head of Leda, c. 1529-30
“If by a happy heart
the face is made
beautiful and by a
sad one ugly…”
“…it would be good
for both to paint her
with a happy heart
and a dry face: it
would make her
beautiful and me not
ugly.”
“Of divine things one speaks on a
blue field”
Michelangelo, Se dal cor lieto divien bello il volto, c.1544
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo was the ultimate solitary genius, who largely worked alone.
3. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling laying on his back.
4. Michelangelo was a melancholic who did not have much of a sense of
humor.
5. Michelangelo did not appreciate female beauty.
6. Michelangelo was the ultimate solitary genius, who
largely worked alone.
Michelangelo, Sketches of blocks of marble for the tomb of Julius II, c. 1516
Michelangelo, Sketches of blocks of marble for the tomb of Julius II, c. 1516
‘Master Andrea, those men whom I have not called to work and whom
you have not called either, will not be paid for the day’s work.’
Notice to Master Andrea, 1524
Plan for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, 1559-60
MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO
1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic
example of others.
2. Michelangelo was the ultimate solitary genius, who largely worked alone.
3. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Ceiling laying on his back.
4. Michelangelo was a melancholic who did not have much of a sense of
humor.
5. Michelangelo did not appreciate female beauty.
6. Michelangelo was the ultimate solitary genius, who largely worked alone.
7. Michelangelo was a poor man, often underpaid for his
work.
Michelangelo, Study of a Gate (Porta Pia?), 1561
Marcello Venusti, Portrait of Michelangelo,
after 1535
http://michelangelo.syr.edu