Michelangelo on Sunday
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Michelangelo, Composition sketch for St. Lawrence Before the Emperor, pen and brown ink, partly over red chalk. The Samuel Courtauld Trust, the Courtauld Gallery, London. Detail photos Rachel Cohen.
Two important exhibitions of Michelangelo drawings in recent years. The drawing below was in the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer (Nov. 2017 - Feb 2018).
It's a composition sketch for a planned sculptural relief at the church of San Lorenzo, the subject is St. Lawrence Coming Before the Emperor. The Emperor is enthroned on the viewer's left.

Michelangelo began in red chalk, on the left, and then began to use pen and brown ink, and eventually abandoned the chalk.
It seems so alive, the materials let you see it coming together over time, and there is another drawing, too, of a limb, I think, sinew, muscle and bone, another idea that you can hold and hold aside, as you watch the figures gesture in their world.
Wishing you a peaceful holiday weekend.
- Wed, Feb 17, ‘21Rogues' Gallery, Daumier
- Mon, Feb 15, ‘21Joan Mitchell, Snow
- Fri, Jan 22, ‘21Winter Gardening Pissarro
- Tue, Dec 29, ‘20library of exile
- Sat, Nov 28, ‘20Malangatana, Missing Voices
- Sun, Nov 22, ‘20Emerging Buddhas 56th Street
- Thu, Nov 19, ‘20I just had time
- Mon, Nov 16, ‘20Delaney and Lang, Over and Under
- Mon, Nov 9, ‘20Jazmine Harris Washington Park Court
- Tue, Nov 3, ‘20Monet on Election Day
- Mon, Nov 2, ‘20Kerry James Marshall, Another Chance
- Sat, Oct 24, ‘20Toledo Company
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