P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 10 , 2007 22 : 22
CATALOGUE 8 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 93
the Ancestors in the lunettes were painted concurrently
with the frescoes above them on the curved part of
the vault. The restoration of the 1980 s and consequent
close examination of the vault seems to have substantiated
this second view. However, some flexibility is not to be
excluded. It need not be assumed that the sequence of
execution was an invariable series of north–south “slices”
across the upper part of the chapel, comprising the histo-
ries at the top of the vault, theignudiaround and below
them, the Prophets and Sibyls in the pendentives, the
Ancestor groups in the severies, and the Ancestors in the
lunettes. It may be that more than one lunette on either
side was executed at the same time, after work on the cor-
responding curved parts of the vault above them had been
completed. The present group of sketches could support
such an hypothesis; taken at face value, they would suggest
that the Ancestors in the lunettes at the west end of the
vault were conceived as a group following the preparation
ofGod the Father Separating Light from Darkness, the only
history to be found among them. And if this is so, then
the four lunettes at the end of the chapel – comprising the
two lost lunettes on the altar wall and those at the ends
of the north and south walls – might have been executed
as a group, following the completion of the curved part
of the vault.
It was characteristic of the artist to make the initial
designs for individual figures and compositions both in
painting and sculpture in small scale drawings,concetti.In
the first part of his career, he generally made these in
pen, but examples also survive in chalk, which seems to
have taken over entirely from about153 0. The present
drawings do not differ greatly from the small sketches
made in preparation for theMadonnain Bruges (Uffizi
233 Frecto/B 1 /Corpus 37 ;black chalk and pen and ink,
271 × 261 mm). Although they are much less finished,
they also bear some resemblance to figures found in
the slightly latermodellifor the fac ̧ade of San Lorenzo
(CB 45 A/B 245 /Corpus 497 ; pen and ink, brush and
wash over black chalk, 705 × 870 mm) or for an altar
(Oxford, Christ Church, JBS 64 /Corpus 280 ; pen and
ink and brush and wash,35 0× 291 mm). In the major-
ity of the drawings on the present sheets, Michelangelo
drew angular, even jagged forms, suitable for figures
designed to make an impact from a distance. Indeed,
in their self-conscious roughness – which contrasts with
the more flowingconcettostyle of theCascinaor even
the pen sketches for the SistineFlood– Michelangelo
seems to have intended an effect of harshness: Supremely
capable, when he chose, of designing rhythmical and
close-knit groups, he aimed here at ruggedness. Indeed,
many of these sketches show Michelangelo moving from
more rhythmical to more severe, and from forms seen
at angles to forms seen strictly in profile or strictly
frontally.
Michelangelo seems to have swivelled only two of these
pages, Cats. 12 recto and 13 recto, as he worked on them,
to pen a single figure. In every other instance, he retained
the base of the sheet as determinant. It would seem that
the paper he used was always approximately the present
size and that the sheets were not originally joined.
The sheets show Michelangelo mixing modes among
Ancestors, Prophets,ignudi, and even narratives, transfer-
ring ideas generated in one area to another, and they show
him habitually reversing figures. As was already pointed
out by Ottley, it seems that the larger sketches both in
pen and in black chalk found on some of the pages were
executed from life as were, no doubt, those studies of fig-
ural details, whereas the initialconcettiwould have been
the product of Michelangelo’s imagination.
These eight sheets also contain drawings that do not
seem to have been made expressly for the vault, such
as Cat. 14 recto, as well as others where Michelangelo’s
imagination clearly took wing and he developed ideas
in directions that the project at hand did not require.
In some cases, such sketches anticipate later work by
him.
History
Casa Buonarroti; the sketches on Cats. 9 verso, 13 recto,
and 14 versowere copied by Andrea Commodi when
these sheets were in Casa Buonarroti, and although this
does not prove that all the drawings in this sequence were
then there and remained there, any other reconstruction
of events would entail too many complexities to be plau-
sible. It is therefore probable that the sequence remained
together in Casa Buonarroti until the 1790 s. At this point,
it seems likely that they were split up, and that one group
of four leaves was acquired by Ottley, was discussed in
hisItalian School of Design, and was offered by him in his
sale 6 June 1814 , and following days, lot 264 , “One –
a sheet with two leaves of his sketch book containing
pen studies on both sides, for the vault of the Capella
Sistina – most interesting. From the Buonarroti collec-
tion.” £ 5. 5. 0 , and lot 265 , “One – a sheet with two
ditto, for ditto, ditto.” £ 5. 5. 0 ; pencil annotation Clark,
£ 10. 0. 0 .The other group of four leaves was presumably
acquired by Wicar, was among the drawings bought from
him by Woodburn in 1823 , and rejoined the four that
had been owned by Ottley in Lawrence’s collection. Sir
Thomas Lawrence (L. 2445 on Cats. 11 , 14 , 15 ); Samuel
Woodburn.