Verrocchio Exhibition at the National Gallery, Washington D.C.

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
September 15, 2019 - January 12, 2019

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Phoitography by Anne Lloyd

What do you see when you examine a work of art by Leonardo da Vinci?

Is it a masterpiece by an "Artist as Hero"? This was the memorable description of Leonardo - and of Raphael and Michelangelo - by Kenneth Clark in the classic television series, Civilization.

Perhaps, wearied by all the current media-hype over the five hundred year anniversary of Leonardo's death in 1519, you are counting the days to 2020. 

If you have the opportunity to view Leonardo's early masterpiece Ginevra de' Benci  (1474/1478) in its current setting at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., you may change your opinions about Leonardo and Renaissance art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibition, showing

Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci

The current setting for Ginevra de' Benci is a place of honor in an exhibition devoted to a different artist of Renaissance Italy. This not a 'back-handed" compliment to Leonardo since the protagonist of the National Gallery exhibit is Andrea del Verrocchio.

Verrocchio was the master of the studio in Florence where the young Leonardo was sent by his father, Ser Piero da Vinci, to learn the craft of art. Verrocchio, as the National Gallery exhibition shows, was a supremely gifted artist and a very efficient businessman. Leonardo worked in Verrocchio's study from 1466 to 1476. Indeed, he thrived to such an extent that the older artist's reputation withered under the shadow of Leonardo's legend.

Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence restores a sense of balance to the lives and creative works of Verrocchio and Leonardo. It shows that Verrocchio is such a major Renaissance artist that his career does not need - or deserve - to be appraised in terms of Leonardo's. A very good exhibit, last year at Yale, did exactly that.

Verrocchio at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. tells the whole story and it confirms that this neglected artist was one of the greatest Renaissance masters. Painting, sculpting, drawing and teaching - Verrocchio excelled in all of these pursuits. He was the best of all teachers for Leonardo - and other major Renaissance artists.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit showing

Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin, c.1465/1480

Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) was born in Florence just as the Renaissance gained impetus as a defining force in European affairs. Like many great artists, he trained as a goldsmith, then launched himself into painting and sculpting with impressive skill. 

Verrocchio, however, was very much a figure of the "springtime of the Renaissance." He was ready and able to work as a collaborative artist. The government and mercantile patrons of Florence during the early decades of the Renaissance expected the works of art they commissioned to be of the highest quality and delivered on time and within the budget. 

The best method for satisfying such patrons was an efficient workshop rather than the work ethic of a solitary "hero." That is exactly the kind of establishment which Verrocchio set up when he had gained sufficient means and reputation to do so.

Andrea del Verrocchio & assistants (Leonardo da Vinci & Pietro Perugino)

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, c.1470/1474

In the paintings produced by Verrocchio's workshop, the division of labor is often very clear. The hands of Verrocchio's assistants, Leonardo and Pietro Perugino, are detected in Madonna and Christ with Two Angels (c.1470-1474) on loan from the National Gallery  in London. After close inspection and repeated changes in opinion, the lily-holding angel on the left is attributed to Leonardo, while Perugino, the teacher of Raphael, is credited with the angel on the right.

Exactly what year Verrocchio founded his studio has not been established. Very little is known about Verrocchio's youth. Most of his early oeuvre, in metal work especially, has not survived. However, a small covered vase, likely used to hold saintly relics, is of interest in regard to his rise in the Florentine art community. Though attributed to Verrocchio later in his career, it is likely to be the kind of exquisite object d'art that would have caught the eye of would-be patrons as he made a name for himself as a professional artist.

Andrea del Verrocchio (attributed) Small Vase with Cover, c. 1480/1485

The delicate silver-gilt settings on this agate vase are worked with motifs  that can securely be traced to Verrocchio. Curator Andrew Butterfield is confident that this is a work by him. Butterfield also notes that the vase is inscribed "LAV. R. MED." This means that it was owned by Lorenzo de' Medici, "Il Magnifico."

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, ca.1513/1520,

Lorenzo the Magnificent (1444-1492) thought so highly of Verrocchio's skill that he commissioned numerous works. This grim-faced portrait, however, had different patrons and an unusual history, brilliantly investigated by Andrew Butterfield, the chief curator of the National Gallery exhibition. 

In 1478, Medici supporters commissioned a wax statue of Lorenzo, celebrating his survival in the assassination attempt known as the Pazzi Conspiracy. Butterfield maintains that Verrocchio made or assisted with the wax statue, now lost. This work later served as the source for an extremely lifelike terracotta bust of Lorenzo, made about 1513.

Verroccio sculpted another statue of a Medici-family member which has survived: a terracotta portrait of Lorenzo's brother, Guiliano, the "golden youth" of Florence. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

                   Andrea del Verrocchio’s Giuliano de' Medici, c. 1475/1478

Wearing lavishly-decorated jousting armor, Guiliano beams a victorious smile. In 1475, he wore this or similar armor in a tournament which he won. Three years later, he was murdered, stabbed nineteen times while attending Sunday religious services. The Pazzi conspirators, who tried and failed to kill Lorenzo, were the perpetrators and they paid a fearful price for their deed.

The portrait busts of Lorenzo and Guiliano share an exhibition gallery with with one of Verrocchio's greatest works, the bronze statue, David with the Head of Goliath, dating to around 1465. Verrocchio's David, along with the more famous statues of the Old Testament hero by Donatello and Michelangelo, testifies to the always-tense political situation in Florence. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit

showing Verrocchio’s  David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465

An independent city-state and a republic, Florence was surrounded by powerful enemies, Milan, Urbino and the Papacy. Strong leadership, by the Medici, was needed to oppose these external foes, but political factions in Florence feared that this powerful family would erode the democratic constitution, as eventually happened.     

The image of the young, heroic, giant-killing David was selected by the Florentines as the perfect symbol of their small, dynamic state. Three statues of David were commissioned by Donatello, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. Each represented a pivotal moment in the development of  sculpture in Florence. Donatello's David, dating to the 1440's, is an enigmatic figure, relaxed and arrogant, posing in a homoerotic stance. Michelangelo's David (1501-1504) is likewise nude, but stands tense and belligerent.

Verrocchio's David with the Head of Goliath, created around 1465, is one of his earliest works that can be dated. His David is clothed, wearing a kilt and a form-fitting tunic or jerkin. He is confident, but ready for action, just in case the Philistines try to avenge their fallen champion. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrea del Verrocchio’s Head of Goliath, c. 1465

Lying at David's feet is the head of Goliath. It is a detail which Verrocchio's youthful hero shares with Donatello's. There the comparison ends. 

Goliath's decapitated head is treated by Donatello's David with smirking contempt. Verrocchio presents him with compassion, indeed empathy. At one point, when the body of Verrocchio's David and the head of Goliath were still separate, the latter was assumed by visitors to Verrocchio's studio to be the head for a statue of St. John the Baptist. There could be no higher, if unintended, praise for Verrocchio since John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence.

How and why did this emotional transformation occur? So little is known of Verrocchio's life that we can only ponder debatable theories for his sympathetic depiction of the fallen Goliath. 

Perhaps the best explanation lies with the rise of Humanism as the dominant philosophical school of thought in Italy during the 1400's, notably in Florence. Based on dedicated study of classical texts, many newly translated from Greek, Humanism stimulated an awareness of the psychological complexity of people, ancient and modern.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit

showing Verrocchio’s  David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465

Verrocchio's David perfectly matched the mood and mission of Florence at the moment when the freedom-loving Tuscan city, Humanist scholarship and the "new art" of fifteenth century painting and sculpture were coming into a full-flowering.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

Andrea del Verrocchio’s Bust of Christ, c.1470/1483

The humanity with which Verrocchio depicted David and Goliath appears in work after work in the National Gallery exhibition. Especially notable is the Bust of Christ which Verrocchio originally modeled for one of his major full-bodied works, a statue of Christ and St. Thomas. This portrait of Jesus, renowned in its day as "the most beautiful head of Christ ever made," was then reworked as a terracotta bust. The version of this bust on view at the National Gallery, was likely a collaborative effort, with the head sculpted by Verrocchio and the torso handled by an assistant.

Later, with the tilt of the head changed left to right, this 'fully human, fully divine" Jesus would anchor a scene of bustling human activity in a famous painting: Leonardo's The Last Supper.

Verrocchio, I believe, should be regarded as a Humanist in the visual arts. Verrocchio's "close study" of the human body paralleled the diligent efforts, in translating ancient texts and writing learned commentaries, that transmitted this knowledge to an eager audience of young scholars throughout Italy and then in all the major nations of Europe.

Verrocchio's students, along with Leonardo and Perugino, likely included Domenico Ghirlandaio, in whose studio the young Michelangelo briefly worked.  Thus, we can trace a pedigree of creative genius from the workshop/studio of Verrocchio to the "artist as hero" of the High Renaissance.

In the case of Verrocchio's "passing the baton" to Leonardo, signature works by each artist reveal the way that this was accomplished.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Andrea del Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers, c. 1475/1480

Verrocchio sculpted his half-length marble, Lady with Flowers, during the years, 1475 to 1480. At the same time, the young Leonardo painted Ginevra de' Benci, but not as the head-and-shoulders portrait as it now is. The curators of the Verrocchio exhibit make a very cogent case that Ginevra de' Benci was originally a half-length portrait before being cut-down at a later date. Viewed in this way, Leonardo's Ginevera strikes a similar pose to Verrocchio's Lady, which likely influenced Leonardo's painting.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) 

Copy of exhibition wall illustration, contrasting a hypothetical version of       Leonardo’s Ginevra de' Benci with Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers

For all of Verrocchio's success as a sculptor, it was his great ability in drawing that proved key in the dissemination of art innovation and techniques to the next generation of Florentine masters. Of all the many achievements of the National Gallery exhibition, the insights into Verrocchio  as draftsman are perhaps the most crucial to a re-assessment of his art.

Andrea del Verrocchio, Head of a Woman with Braided Hair, late 1470s

I was prepared to be impressed by Verrocchio's statues and sculpture. The gallery display of his drawings was a complete, if pleasurable, shock. The magnificent drawing from the British Museum collection, Head of a Woman with Braided Hair literally stopped me in my tracks each time I visited the Verrocchio exhibition - and I have been there three times! 

So masterful is the gradation of shading around the eye lids, that you half-expect them to open and Woman with Braided Hair to return your gaze.

This is double-sided work, with a finished drawing  on one side. An equally impressive preparatory sketch on the reverse, Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand. The identity of Woman with Braided Hair is a matter of speculation, with some scholars believing it to be a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, the most beautiful woman of Florence. If so, it might have been a presentation piece for Guiliano de' Medici, who regarded her with courtly affection. Alas, Simonetta Vespucci died from tuberculosis, aged twenty-two, shortly before Guiliano was cut down by the Pazzi assassins.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

 Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s  Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand

Head of a Woman with Braided Hair and her compatriot provide the central, focusing point of this gallery of Verrocchio's drawings. These are all superlative works of art, worthy of comparison to Michelangelo's drawings. There are only twenty-five known drawings by Verrocchio, so to be able study this selection at the National Gallery is an experience not likely to be repeated for many, many years to come.
  

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) 

Andrew Butterfield, Curator of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery

Andrew Butterfield, the eminent authority  on Verrocchio's sculptures, has done the art world an enormous service for the outstanding job of curating this magnificent exhibition. Similar accolades are due to him as editor and principle author of the exhibit catalog, truly a Renaissance masterpiece in its own right. I plan to review the catalog in order to more fully explore Verrocchio's art, especially his drawings. 

The greatest praise - and thoroughly deserved - that can be paid to Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence is to affirm that the study of Renaissance art will never be the same. The vital role of the workshop/studio system and of collaborative effort are themes which the exhibition underscores, in addition to documenting Verrocchio's individual contributions.

And what of the Renaissance "Artist as Hero" school of thought? Well, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo are still there. Donatello and Masaccio, too. They will just have to squeeze a little closer, to make room on the pediment frieze for Andrea del Verrocchio.  

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves. Original Photos: Anne Lloyd. All rights reserved                                                                                           
Images courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Introductory Image:
Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin (Detail), c. 1465/1480. Bronze: overall: 73.03 cm (28 3/4 in.); base: 125 cm (49 3/16 in.) Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de' Benci.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s Putto with a Dolphin, c. 1465/1480

Andrea del Verrocchio & assistants (Leonardo da Vinci & Pietro Perugino) Madonna and Child with Two Angels, c.1470/1474. Tempera on panel: overall: 97 x 71 cm (38 3/16 x 27 15/16 in.) The National Gallery, London, Bought, 1857

Andrea del Verrocchio (Attributed) Small Vase with Cover, c. 1480/1485. Sardonyx with silver-gilt mountings: height: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.); diameter: 9 cm (3 9/16 in.); diameter: 5 cm (1 15/16 in.) Gallerie degli Uffizi, Tesoro dei Granduchi, Florence.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, ca.1513/1520, probably after a model by Andrea del Verrocchio and Orsino Benintendi, ca/ 1478. Polychrome terracotta: overall: 65.8 x 59.1 x 32.7 cm (25 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 12 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Giuliano de' Medici, c. 1475/1478. Terracotta with traces of polychromy: overall: 61 x 66 x 28.3 cm (24 x 26 x 11 1/8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington, Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1465. Bronze with traces of gilding: overall: 120 cm (47 1/4 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Head of Goliath, c.1465. Bronze with traces of gilding: overall: 120 cm (47 1/4 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s David with the Head of Goliath, c.1465.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Andrea del Verrocchio’s Bust of Christ (Detail), c. 1470/1483. Polychrome terracotta: overall: 68 x 71.2 x 40.6 cm (26 3/4 x 28 1/16 x 16 in.) Private collection. Photo: Yale University Art Gallery.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrea del Verrocchio's Lady with Flowers, c. 1475/1480. Marble: overall: 60 x 48 x 25 cm (23 5/8 x 18 7/8 x 9 13/16 in.) Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019) Copy of exhibition wall illustration, contrasting a hypothetical version of Leonardo’s Ginevra de' Benci with Verrocchio’s Lady with Flowers.

Andrea del Verrocchio. Head of a Woman with Braided Hair (recto); Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand (verso),late 1470s. Recto: black chalk or charcoal, lead white gouache, pen and brown ink, reworked with oil charcoal on cream prepared paper; verso: charcoal on white paper: overall: 32.4 x 27.3 cm (12 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.) On loan from the Trustees of the British Museum, London.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)  Gallery view of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery, Washington D.C., showing Verrocchio’s Head of a Woman Leaning on Her Right Hand.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Andrew Butterfield, Curator of the Verrocchio exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.   
                                                                                                                                           

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer

Metropolitan Museum of Art
November 13, 2017–February 12, 2018

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer joins a long list of landmark exhibitions at Metropolitan Museum of Art. These exhibits do far more than just present great works of art for us to enjoy.  New insights, sometimes revolutionary in their implications, emerge from the Met exhibitions.

Many of these exhibits, like Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, appeared in the Tisch Galleries on the second floor of the Met. I have been privileged to see quite of few of them over the years and to review the more recent ones in Art Eyewitness.

To name but a few: Byzantium: Faith and Power (2004), Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity (2013) and Ancient Egypt Transformed: The MIddle Kingdom (2015). These brilliant exhibits transformed the Tisch Galleries into portals to the past and to the living essence of art. 

Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer does no less.  However, the exhibit curator, Dr. Carmen Bambach, faced a seemingly impossible obstacle which her colleagues generally do not encounter. Michelangelo's greatest masterpieces do not travel.

David, "Il Gigante," cannot be loaned to museums like the Metropolitan. Nor can The Pieta - though it was sent over from the Vatican for the 1964 New York World's Fair.To view the statue, art lovers stood on a conveyor-belt like the moving walkway between the East and West buildings of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. That permitted about a 45 second look at The Pieta.

With Michelangelo's "greatest hits" off-limits, Dr. Bambach focused on what was available. In an epic eight year quest, she secured the loan of several smaller sculptures, a very good copy of The Last Judgement, much reduced in scale, a splendid selection of Michelangelo's drawings and a number of contrasting art works by other Renaissance artists.Two hundred pieces of art are on view, the greatest number of works by Michelangelo ever presented in a single exhibition.

Michelangelo, Three Labours of Hercules, 1530–33

Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2017

With these drawings - and a "special effects" masterstroke - Dr. Bambach has curated a comprehensive and readily comprehensible introduction to the life of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564).

Michelangelo is known to have burned many of his drawings toward the end of his life and was only prevented from destroying more by the art historian, Giorgio Vasari. But the great Florentine would have approved of an exhibition which emphasizes the importance of disegno or drawing. Disegno was the foundation of Michelangelo's art and life.

“Draw Antonio," Michelangelo wrote to his studio assistant, Antonia Mini. "Draw and don't waste time.” 

Mini did not waste any time selling the trove of drawings that Michelangelo had given him to inspire his practice of disegno. Deeply in debt, Mini sold the drawings, ironically insuring that they would survive to bear witness to Michelangelo's rise to greatness.

Michelangelo learned the basics of art in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448/49–1494). Several of Ghirlandaio's sketches are on view in the opening gallery, along with early efforts by Michelangelo. Ghirlandaio was a master of the fresco technique in painting and the main thrust of his desegno was to prepare the images to be painted in his frescoes.

Michelangelo must have profited by working with Ghirlandaio but he claimed to have taught himself art.There is some truth to that claim as Michelangelo's drawings have a sustained power and insight that Ghirlandaio's seldom match. 

Michelangelo, Portrait of Andrea Quaratesi, 1532

Michelangelo's Portrait of Andrea Quaratesi, created in black chalk in 1532, is one of the finest Renaissance character studies, matching the best of Hans Holbein's similar works. 

After a bit more than a year,1488-89, Michelangelo left Ghirlandaio's studio to survey the art collection of Lorenzo da Medici. Il Magnifico had created a sculpture garden at the Medici palace in Florence. Michelangelo was permitted to sketch the antiquities and then try his hand at sculpture.
  
In a famous encounter, Lorenzo da Medici commented favorably on the small sculpture of an aged satyr that Michelangelo had made. He noted, with wry humor, that the mythological creature would not likely have had a full set of teeth, as Michelangelo had depicted. The thirteen-year-old artist took a file and chipped away one of the satyr's teeth. Il Magnifico was so impressed that he invited Michelangelo to join his court.

Michelangelo's apprenticeship was over.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Michelangelo’s Study of Adam & Eve after Masaccio

The young Michelangelo also spent a lot of time in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence, sketching the frescoes created by the tragically short-lived Masaccio (1401-1428). Michelangelo's copy in red chalk of Masaccio's Expulsion from the Garden of Eden adheres closely to Masaccio but we can glimpse the beginnings of his version of this fabled event, immortalized on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Lorenzo da Medici died in 1492 and within a few, short years, the searing drama of Masaccio's fresco was repeated in the lives of countless people in Italy, including Michelangelo. The French invasion of 1494 and the wave of puritanical religious fervor under Savanorola led to the fall of the Medici. The fragile political framework of the Italian city-states, especially Florence, never recovered, though the cultural awakening of the  Renaissance continued. 

Michelangelo found himself without a patron, a refugee from the lost Medici paradise. He  sought work first in Bologna and then in Rome under the revived power of the Papacy. 
Michelangelo  took with him an impressive portfolio of artistic skills. But his years with the Medici gifted him with a philosophical treasure of equal value: the Neo-Platonic philosophy of Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494). 

Pico's teaching emphasized human dignity, the ability of individuals to shape their own destiny and the ideal of perfection as goal. Human beings could thus worship their Divine Creator with deeds, as well as prayers.

Michelangelo, Il Sogno (The Dream), 1530's

Michelangelo's The Dream, from the collection of the Courtauld Gallery in London, illustrates Pico's philosophy in action. A young man, perfect in bodily form, listens to the word of God, transmitted by an angelic trumpeter. The young man grasps the globe, while behind him rages scenes of cruelty, violence, lust and greed.

The symbolism in The Dream invites speculation and interpretation. Some commentators believe that the idealized youth is grappling with melancholy, as well as resisting temptation. The drawing was created in the early 1530's, following the terrible Sack of Rome in 1527 by the mercenary troops of Emperor Charles V.  It was certainly a depressing period in Italian history.

The Dream was probably part of a group of presentation drawings which Michelangelo made as gifts for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. A young Roman nobleman, Tommaso de’ Cavalieri was also the recipient of Michelangelo's passionate friendship. Quaratesi likely was, as well. 

Michelangelo's homoerotic yearnings for these young nobles is quite evident. Yet the degree to which this passion was physically pursued will never be known. Michelangelo's private life, extremely limited by his obsessive work ethic, left him little time for self-indulgence. 

Michelangelo was a devout Christian and during his later years was a member of the religious circle inspired by the reform-minded poet, Vittoria Collona. Michelangelo was a close friend of Collona, for whom he created a powerful depiction of the Pieta, very different from the famous statue he had carved decades before.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017), Michelangelo's Pieta, ca. 1540 

Throughout his life, Michelangelo labored to create visual images testifying to the glory of God. This was done  chiefly through depictions of the male nude, including those of the dead Christ in his mother's arms. For Michelangelo, the youthful male body represented the epitome of God's creative handiwork.

This was such a far-reaching ideal that Michelangelo extended it to the way he portrayed women. A number of cultural historians, including Camille Paglia in her book, Sexual Personae, maintain that Michelangelo used male models for female characters in his paintings. Looking on his painted panel of the Holy Family called the Doni Tondo, the lithe, athletic body of the Virgin Mary certainly lends weight to that argument.

The Doni Tondo is not in the Metropolitan Museum exhibition but confirmation of this theory can be found in one of the the Met's own treasures, Michelangelo's Studies for the Libyan Sibyl which he painted on the Sistine Ceiling. The rippling arm muscles, the broad shoulders and ramrod straight spinal column are matched by the strength of character of the Libyan Sibyl's face. 

Michelangelo, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, c.1510–11

It should not it be forgotten that the finished version of the Libyan Sibyl is holding a massive volume, a Wisdom Book. The Libyan Sibyl represents the incarnation of mind/body perfection possible to a person, male or female, who is devoted to God's truth.

The incomparable physique of the Libyan Sibyl sketch is also evident in a preparatory study made around 1504 for the famous, now lost, cartoon for the Battle of Cascina fresco. Looking at Male Back with a Flag, one is struck by the obvious fact that Michelangelo retained much of his sculptor's technique even when he sketched and painted.

 Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017), Detail of Michelangelo's Male Back with a Flag, c. 1504. 

That was especially true of the Sistine Chapel frescoes. Unlike the Battle of Cascina, the cosmic drama of the Book of Genesis was carried through to completion. With skill and audacity to match Michelangelo, the Metropolitan has replicated the fabled Sistine Chapel ceiling with a lighted photo version above the Tisch galleries. The scale, though reduced, approximates the experience of looking at the original in Rome.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer

The effect of being able to study Michelangelo's studies for the figures of the Sistine ceiling and then to look above you at the wondrous copy is enlightening in a way that no close study of the many fine books dealing with the Sistine frescoes can ever be. 

The sheer brilliance of the Metropolitan exhibit enables you to look at the original study for the Cumaean Sybyl, check it against the dazzling overhead display and thus progressively see how the image was incorporated into the whole design of the Sistine Chapel fresco.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Detail of Michelangelo' s Study of the Cumaean Sibyl (top),

followed by details of Metropolitan Museum reproductions of the Cumaean Sibyl

Even straining your neck to look at the original in the Vatican does not allow you to do that. My wife, Anne, an accomplished artist herself, described the effect. 

"I finally get the Sistine Chapel," Anne said. 

The sensational impact of the re-imagined Sistine Chapel is reinforced by the presence of a sculpture group in the very next gallery. To see a Michelangelo statute in the United States is a rare treat. There are two in this group, along with contrasting portrait busts, one from ancient Rome and another of Julius Caesar by Andrea Ferrucci (1465-1526). 

.Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit, Michelangelo's David/Apollo at left.

The standing sculpture, David/Apollo, begun around 1530, was never completed by the overworked Michelangelo. As a result, this non-finito work is impossible to identify as either David or Apollo. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit, Michelangelo's Brutus at center.

That's not case with the bust of Brutus. Sculpted in 1539, Brutus exerts a living presence. Here unquestionably is the portrait of a noble Roman. This forceful evocation of Caesar's assassin also points to the power-politics of Michelangelo's era.

Michelangelo was a supporter of the Republic of Florence, which had been suppressed by one of the Medici successors to Lorenzo the Magnificent. This was the brutal Duke Alessandro, assassinated in 1537 by his cousin, Lorenzino da Medici. Lorenzino was motivated by Republican sentiments similar to Michelangelo's. Alessandro's death, alas, did not lead to the restoration of the Florentine Republic. Michelangelo may have left his bust of Brutus unfinished in silent protest to the passing of Florence's republican tradition.

It is incredible to think that when Michelangelo stopped working on Brutus in 1539, he had a quarter of a century of life before him. Could he not have finished the bust of Brutus?

The obvious answer to this question is provided by the Metropolitan exhibit which cogently outlines his later epic works: the Last Judgment fresco and the architectural design of the basilica of St. Peter's. Michelangelo might cease working on a statue like Brutus but he never stopped working.

There is another reason, I believe, that many of the statues from his later years remained non-finito. Michelangelo was motivated by spiritual impulses that compelled him to work to the point that Spirit, God's spirit, was satisfied and then to move on. It was a case of God's will be done rather than Michelangelo's.

Michelangelo composed a beautiful poem, a madrigal, around 1534. These verses, translated by the great Renaissance scholar, Creighton Gilbert, confirm that Michelangelo certainly believed that he was obeying God's will.

Beautiful things are the longing of my eyes,                                                              

 Just as it is my soul’s to be secure,                                                                                 

 But they’ve no other power                                                                                              

That lifts to Heaven, but staring at all those.                                                                    

A shining glory falls                                                                                                          

From furthest stars above,         

Toward them our wish it pulls,                                                                                       

 And here we call it love.                                                                                                

Kind heart can never have,                                                                                                

To enamor and fire it, and to counsel,                                                                            

More than a face with eyes that they resemble.

If my interpretation of this madrigal is correct, Michelangelo believed that God's face, with eyes that resemble stars, watched over his creative achievements. It was not Michelangelo's "kind heart" but heavenly inspiration that impelled him to attempt and to achieve the impossible.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) The Metropolitan Museum reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with Michelangelo's Creation of Adam at center. 

Any person fortunate to visit Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer at the Metropolitan is likely come to the same conclusion. The evidence is overwhelming.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved    

Madrigal by Michelangelo Buonarroti, c.1534. Translated by Creighton Gilbert in Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo, Princeton University Press, 1980, first edition published by Random House, 1963.

Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Anne Lloyd

Introductory Image:
Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Daniele da Volterra's Portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1544, oil on wood, 34 3/4 x 25 1/4 in. (88.3 x 64.1 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564) Three Labours of Hercules, 1530–33. Drawing, red chalk; 10 11/16 x 16 5/8 in. (27.2 x 42.2 cm) ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST / © HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2017, www.royalcollection.org.uk.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564) Portrait of Andrea Quaratesi, 1532.

Drawing, black chalk; 16 3/16 x 11 ½ in. (41.1 x 29.2 cm) The British Museum, London

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Photo of Michelangelo’s Study of Adam and Eve after The Expulsion from Paradise fresco by Masaccio, c. 1503-04. Red chalk. Musée du Louvre, Department des arts Graphiques, Paris (3897 recto)

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564) Il Sogno (The Dream), 1530's. Black chalk. Sheet: 15 5/16 × 10 15/16 in. (38.9 × 27.8 cm) Sheet: 15 5/16 × 10 15/16 in. (38.9 × 27.8 cm) London, Courtauld Gallery, Prince Gate Bequest (1978) inv. D 1978.PG.424

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Michelangelo's Pieta, ca. 1540, Black chalk,  28.9 x 18.9 cm (11 3/8 x 7 7/16 in. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 1.2.o.16


Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian,1475–1564) Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto), Ca. 1510–11. Red chalk, with small accents of white chalk. Sheet: 11 3/8 x 8 7/16 in. (28.9 x 21.4 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1924. 24.197.2


Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017), Detail of Michelangelo's Male Back with a Flag, c. 1504.  Albertina, Vienna.123v

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Detail of Michelangelo' s Study of the Cumaean Sibyl and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's reproductions of the Cumaean Sibyl on the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing Michelangelo's David/Apollo (C. 1530) and Brutus (1539), Marble Portrait of Emperor of Caracalla, Third Century A.D., and Andrea Ferrucci's Julius Caesar (c.1512-14) 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of the Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michelangelo's Brutus, center.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer, showing the Metropolitan Museum reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with Michelanglo's Creation of Adam at center.