More than 450 years after his death, Michelangelo is still at the top of his artistic game.
The creator of the sublime Sistine Chapel fresco is at the center of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newest exhibit, which will be largest grouping of his original drawings ever assembled for public display, museum officials say.
More than 130 of his drawings, his earliest painting, a handful of marble sculptures, a wood model for a chapel vault and works by other artists from his era will be on display as part of “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer,” opening on Monday.
The works come from 50 public and private collections across the U.S. and Europe, and many of them considered among his greatest pieces, officials say.
“This selection of more than 200 works will show that Michelangelo’s imagery and drawings still speak with an arresting power today,” Carmen C. Bambach, the exhibit’s curator, said in a statement. “Five hundred years seem to melt away in looking at his art.”
Michelangelo was first a draftsman — drawing first before starting on painting or sculpting, according to The Met. His very first painting, “The Torment of Saint Anthony,” finished in 1488, came after his training as a teenager within the workshop of Ghirlandaio, and soon after that, he completed “Young Archer,” which is his first-known sculpture. Both works will be on view at The Met.
Visitors will follow his life’s work from a modest, but impressive start, to the glory he received for “David” and “The Last Judgment,” and even personal drawings he made for close friends, like Tommaso de’Cavalieri. The man gained so much notoriety for his work that he was dubbed “Il divino,” or “the divine one.”
Suggested admission is $25. Open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sundays through Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at 1000 Fifth Ave. Visit metmuseum.org.
