Cleveland Museum of Art
Figure Studies for the Sistine Ceiling (verso)
Michelangelo BuonarrotiLinkedCulture matchlcp-b00e0cf62ae8
- Date
- 1510–11
- Medium
- red chalk heightened with traces of white
- Culture
- Italy, 16th century
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 119616
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Universally considered one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo devoted four years to painting the vast ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel. This preparatory study portrays one of the 20 athletic male nudes, known as ignudi, who serve as supporting figures at each corner of the Old Testament scenes painted down the center of the ceiling. Michelangelo worked out the positioning of the ignudi in red chalk drawings before beginning to paint each section of wet plaster. The energy and monumentality of the figure in red chalk, whose body extends beyond the sheet, suggests the heroic athleticism of Michelangelo’s sculpture.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift in memory of Henry G. Dalton by his nephews George S. Kendrick and Harry D. Kendrick
- Provenance
- 1741: Pierre Crozat, Paris (L. 3612), his sale, 1741 | 1775-76: Pierre Jean Mariette (L. 1852), Paris, his sale 1775-76, lot 236 | Bürckel family, Vienna | 1933: Dr. Alexander de Frey, Temesvar, Romania, his sale, 1933, lot 7 (as school of Michelangelo) | 1934-37: with Wildenstein & Co., New York | 1937: purchased by Henry G. Dalton (1862-1939), Cleveland | 1939: by descent to his nephews George S. and Harry D. Kendrick, Cleveland | 1940-: gift to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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