Detail View: The AMICA Library: Sheet of Studies for the Libyan Sibyl
|
AMICA ID:
|
MMA_.24.197.2
|
|
AMICA Library Year:
|
2000
|
|
Object Type:
|
Drawings and Watercolors
|
|
Creator Name:
|
Buonarroti, Michelangelo
|
|
Creator Nationality:
|
European; Southern European; Italian
|
|
Creator Role:
|
artist
|
|
Creator Dates/Places:
|
Italian, 1475 - 1564
|
|
Creator Name-CRT:
|
Made by Michelangelo Buonarroti
|
|
Title:
|
Sheet of Studies for the Libyan Sibyl
|
|
View:
|
verso
|
|
Creation Date:
|
1508-12
|
|
Creation Start Date:
|
1508
|
|
Creation End Date:
|
1512
|
|
Materials and Techniques:
|
Red chalk (recto), black chalk (verso), spots of brown wash at lower right of recto; triangular section at right margin replaced
|
|
Dimensions:
|
11-3/8 x 8-7/16 in. (28.9 x 21.4 cm)
|
|
AMICA Contributor:
|
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
|
Owner Location:
|
New York, New York, USA
|
|
ID Number:
|
24.197.2
|
|
Credit Line:
|
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1924
|
|
Rights:
|
|
|
Context:
|
This is the most magnificent drawing by Michelangelo in the United States. A male studio assistant posed for the anatomical study, which was preparatory for the Libyan Sibyl, one of the female seers frescoed on the Sistine Ceiling (Vatican Palace) in 1508-12. In the fresco, the figure is clothed, except for her powerful shoulders and arms, and has an elaborately braided coiffure. Michelangelo used the present sheet to explore the elements that were crucial in the elegant resolution of the figure's pose, especially the counterpoint twist of shoulders and hips and the manner of weight-bearing on her toe. Recent research shows that this sheet of studies was owned by the Buonarroti family soon after Michelangelo's death. The 'no. 21' inscribed on the verso of the sheet (at lower center) fits precisely into a numerical sequence found on many other drawings by the artist that have this early Buonarroti family provenance. |
|
Related Image Identifier Link:
|
MMA_.dp24.197.2.v.R.tif
|