L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 2014 www.italoamericano.com 8 Michelangelo in North America: Quest for Genius In a few months, the travel- l i n g e x h i b i t i o n o f Michelangelo's precious draw- i n g s f r o m C a s a B u o n a r r o t i , F l o r e n c e , w i l l p r o c e e d t o Nashville and Phoenix, after having had its only Canadian venue in Toronto, at the Art G a l l e r y o f O n t a r i o . Michelangelo (1475-1564), was a multi-talented and multi-disci- p l i n a r y a r t i s t : s c u l p t o r , draughtsman, architect, poet, and, reluctantly (on his part) painter. He accomplished things that made the whole world mar- vel. Over a career which lasted s e v e n t y - s e v e n y e a r s , Michelangelo created some of the most famous works of art of all time, including the two Pietà, the statue of David and the ceil- ing of the Sistine Chapel. In the privacy of his studio he drew relentlessly on paper not only to perfect his skills but also to give free reign to his ideas and emo- tions. Drawing was foundational to the artist's creativity, some- thing he did every day, whatever t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s . A s Renaissance writer and historian Giorgio Vasari points out in his L i v e s o f t h e M o s t E x c e l l e n t P a i n t e r s , S c u l p t o r s , a n d Architects -(1550)-considered to be the ideological foundation of a r t - h i s t o r i c a l w r i t i n g - "Michelangelo was so obsessed by drawing that he used to spend on it all the time he possibly could". In order to achieve per- fection he made endless anatom- ical studies, dissecting bodies of men and animals to discover the concatenation of their bones, muscles, nerves and veins. He worked relentlessly, slept very little and often got up at night. Wearing a hat with a candle lit over his head so that he could k e e p h i s h a n d s f r e e , Michelangelo drew the human b o d y t o e x p r e s s n o t o n l y i t s physical beauty but also the wide range of the soul's emo- tions and joys. Moreover, he remembered everything he ever drew, and given his highly reten- tive memory, which allowed him never to repeat himself, he never made two figures alike or in the s a m e p o s e . I n f a c t Michelangelo's celebrated motto was " Always vary what you do, as it is better to make a mistake than repeat oneself". For all the artist's voluminous output in pen and ink, graphite, and black, red and white chalk, only six hun- dred authenticated Michelangelo drawings are known to exist to day. According to Vasari, short- ly before death, Michelangelo b u r n t a l a r g e n u m b e r o f h i s drawings, sketches and cartoons for two reasons; he was afraid of being plagiarized and he did not want other people to "see the labours he endured". The thirty d r a w i n g s o n v i e w i n Toronto, with the exception of one which belongs to the perma- nent collection of the Art Gallery o f O n t a r i o , c o m e f r o m C a s a B u o n a r r o t i , t h e P a l a z z o i n Florence Michelangelo owned but where he never lived. His n e p h e w , M i c h e l a n g e l o t h e Younger, subsequently convert- ed it into a museum. Its collec- t i o n s i n c l u d e t w o o f Michelangelo's earliest sculp- tures, the Madonna of the Steps and the Battle of the Centaurs. A t e n - t h o u s a n d - b o o k - s t r o n g library has accumulated there over the centuries, a facility which also includes the family's archive, some of Michelangelo's letters and over two hundred d r a w i n g s . B y t h e t i m e Michelangelo's last direct heir d i e d i n 1 8 5 8 , t h e C a s a Buonarroti was considered the l a r g e s t r e p o s i t o r y o f Michelangelo drawings in the world. The drawings on view are both figurative and architectural sketches including plans for for- tifications, the extraordinary s t a i r c a s e o f t h e L a u r e n t i a n Library in Florence, the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, still unbuilt, the New Sacristy in the same church, San Giovanni dei Fiorentini on Via Giulia, Rome, the Porta Pia city gate and the Arch of Constantine. A s e l e c t i o n o f t h e s e w o r k s i s accompanied by a video showing the buildings as they exist today. In addition, two impressive com- puter programs allow visitors to explore an unbuilt project for Clement's VII 's private library in Florence, a triumph of innova- tive architecture, and the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini in Rome. Particularly outstand- ing are five figurative drawings. Madonna and Child (1524) is truly a revolutionary drawing. The child is three dimensional to the point that it almost steps out of the paper itself like a sculp- ture. The Virgin who, at an earli- e r s t a g e , w a s l o o k i n g a t t h e child, looks far away into the horizon of mankind in the draw- ing's final form and thus fore- sees the whole redemptive force o f C h r i s t . T h e d o u b l e - s i d e d Cleopatra (1532-33) illustrates with great craftsmanship the theme of love and death. As Michelangelo himself points out in one of his note- books: " Unbridled lust is sense and not love, and it kills the soul". On one side Cleopatra is at the peak of her unmatched physical beauty, but the asp is already creeping onto her nipple, foreshadowing the image of hor- ror and death portrayed at the back. A true masterpiece. A very intense Man's Face (1510) in red chalk, stands out as a preparatory sketch for The Flood fresco on the ceiling of t h e S i s t i n e C h a p e l a t t h e Vatican. Studies for the Head of Leda (circa 1530) is an excep- tional preparatory drawing in red pencil for a painting later destroyed because of its explicit sexual nature. Most critics of the Renaissance think this is the best d r a w i n g M i c h e l a n g e l o e v e r made. In order to reach this kind of perfection he had to remain endlessly patient and work in solitude, a necessary condition to fully express his art. Vasari, who truly knew him well, states that the artist must have time for reflection, solitude and concen- tration. Michelangelo, however, also valued and cultivated "the friendship of many great men and of many talented learned people, when it was appropri- ate". More than any other, he interacted with Tommaso de Cavalieri, a young Roman aristo- crat, intensely interested in the arts, and Vittoria Colonna, with whom he exchanged verse. She was a noblewoman who devel- o p e d a v e r y s p e c i a l a r t i s t i c friendship with the Florentine master. The early death of her husband, in 1525, gave Colonna the opportunity to develop and maintain her literary contacts and become one of the most popular poets of sixteenth-cen- tury Italy. W h a t e m e r g e s f r o m t h i s show curated by Lloyd DeWitt and David Wistow, is a journey into Michelangelo's creative process, his private world, and the deep recesses of his imagi- nation, the true workings of a Renaissance man. This unique jewel delights the eye and enriches the soul and heart from a consummate technical and humanistic per- spective. FRANCESCA VALENTE Michelangelo's portrait of Cleopatra holding an asp to her breast has been cele- brated as an ideal Renaissance composition of an idealized woman. With pearls, braided hair and a slender neck, the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt faces her death by snakebite with a detached, elegant gaze Michelangelo, study for fortifications for the Porta al Prato in Florence Michelangelo, Madonna and Child, c. 1524 black and red chalk, white heightening and ink.

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