Cleveland Museum of Art

Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel (recto); Figure Studies for the Sistine Ceiling (verso)

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Date: 1510–11
Medium: red chalk over black chalk or charcoal
Culture: Italy, 16th century
Department: Drawings
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

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. When Michelangelo ran out of room for the figure's left foot, he turned the paper over and drew the foot in detail along with three additional sketches of the big toe.

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