COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1940.465.a
AMICA Library Year:
1998
Object Type:
Drawings and Watercolors
Creator Name:
Buonarroti, Michelangelo
Creator Nationality:
European; Southern European; Italian
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1475 - 1564
Gender:
M
Creator Name-CRT:
Michelangelo
Title:
Studies for the Sistine Ceiling: Ignudo
Title:
Studies for the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Nude Figure next to the Prophet Daniel
Title:
Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel
Title Type:
Former
Title Type:
Alternate
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full view
Creation Date:
1510/1511
Creation Start Date:
1510
Creation End Date:
1511
Materials and Techniques:
red chalk over black chalk
Dimensions:
Sheet: 33.5cm x 23.4cm, Secondary Support: 34.4cm x 24.4cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1940.465.a
Credit Line:
Gift in memory of Henry G. Dalton by his nephews George S. Kendrick and Harry D. Kendrick
Inscriptions:
lower right, in black ink: 55 [crossed out] ; SECONDARY SUPPORT, lower left, in purple crayon: [illegible] O a ; lower center, in graphite: 80
Provenance:
Pierre Jean Mariette (Lugt 1852, stamped, lower left, in black ink); Burckel, Vienna; Dr. Alexander de Frey, Tamesvar, Romania; Henry G. Dalton, Cleveland; George S. and Harry D. Kendrick, Cleveland. Sale: Paris, Galerie Jean Charpentier 12-14 June 1933 (de Frey collection), no. 7, pl. ii (verso, as school of Michelangelo).
Context:
Michelangelo, who is universally recognized as one of the greatest artists, regarded himself as primarily a sculptor. The peak of his early career, however, was the vast ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel, in which he depicted scenes from the Old Testament. This is a preparatory drawing for the monumental nude youths who sit at the four corners of every other narrative scene in the fresco. It is one of a small group executed during the second phase of Michelangelo's work on the chapel ceiling (1511-1512), in which he used red chalk with a precision more typical of penwork. During the first phase, in 1508, Michelangelo had used traditional techniques: most often black chalk for loose figure studies and pen and brown ink for more finished drawings. In 1510 Michelangelo's patron, Pope Julius II, became engaged in war, and the ceiling project was discontinued until the following year. When work resumed, Michelangelo began the unusual practice of using red chalk for finished drawings instead of fine hatching in pen and brown ink, presumably after finding a supply of red chalk hard enough for such exact work. In the Cleveland drawing Michelangelo first traced an earlier drawing to the sheet with black chalk and then drew the elaborate shading over it in red chalk, probably studying the subject from a wax or terracotta model. The precise function of the drawing was to provide a detailed image of the surface modeling to copy directly onto the wet plaster of the ceiling within the outlines that had been transferred from a full-sized cartoon.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1940.465.a.tif
Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel
