Http://michelangelo.syr.edu. Marcello Venusti, Portrait of Michelangelo, after 1535.

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.”

1. Michelangelo was largely self-taught and owed very little to the artistic example of others.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO(largely invented by the artist

himself)

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

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

Michelangelo, Sonnet 151, c. 1538-41

“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, Sacrifice of Isaac, c.1535Michelangelo, 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

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

“I’ve grown a goiter at this work, like the cats of Lombardy…”

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

“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

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

Michelangelo, Head of

Leda, c. 1529-30

Contract for the Vatican Pieta, 1498

Michelangelo, Head of

Leda, c. 1529-30

Michelangelo, Se dal cor lieto divien bello il volto, c.1544

“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”

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

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

Notice to Master Andrea, 1524

‘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.’

Plan for San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, 1559-60

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.

MYTHS ABOUT MICHELANGELO

Michelangelo, Study of a Gate (Porta Pia?), 1561

Marcello Venusti, Portrait of Michelangelo, after 1535

http://michelangelo.syr.edu