P 1 : KsF
0521551331 c 01 -p 3 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 11 , 2007 10 : 14
CATALOGUE 47 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS 231His sketches at all periods of his life scatter across his pages
in a wholly intuitive manner.Medium
Black chalk.Condition
In addition to the vertical join, there is a pressed-out fold
or crease, a small abrasion with a “pin” prick hole, other
abrasions and minor repairs, and the edges are skinned
and creased. The sheet has uneven discolouration with a
local tidemark, some local staining, and general ingrained
dirt.Inscriptions
Recto:Mic: Angelo: Buonarotiat lower right (cf. Cats. 45
[further discussion], 48 , 50 ).
Ve r so: With the lower edge as base on the larger fragment:
Bona Roti.With the left edge as base on the smaller
fragment:no. 2.Description
A.A sleeping figure, his left arm bent across his chest,
his right arm by his side, supported by another?, seen
frontally.
B.A sleeping figure, lying down, supported by another,
seen in foreshortening.
C.A sleeping figure seen from the front, his right arm
bent across his chest and supported by, perhaps, a book,
his left arm hanging down by his side, his head tilted
forward, his body sprawled sideways to the viewer’s right.
D. Ve ryfaint: a kneeling figure? seen from half left, his
left arm raised, turningaway from afigure seated in left
profile in front of him with his right arm outstretched?.
E.Two short zig-zag lines, presumably made to test the
chalk.
F. A sleeping figure in a compact pose, seen frontally.
G.Amoving figure seen from the back who rises to his
feet, looks up to his left, and raises his arms.
H.Arising figure seen frontally, his knees bent to his left,
his arms gesturing to his right, as though fleeing. This
figure, which is traversed by the division, is essentially a
variant of G.
I. Awaking figure?, seen frontally, from the thighs
upwards, turning to his left, his left arm bent upwards
as though shielding his face, his right arm bent across
his chest and upwards as though duplicating the shielding
gesture.
J. Three sleeping figures.Discussion
It has generally been accepted since Woodburn that this
page of studies was made in preparation for the three
sleeping disciples in Marcello Venusti’s painting of the
Agony in the Gardenfor which Michelangelo provided
thecartonetto(Florence, Uffizi, 230 F/ B 198 /Corpus 409 ;
black chalk,36 0× 600 mm). B on the present sheet is sim-
ilar in pose to that of the disciple on the far right of the
final composition, and the curved lines found mainly in
the centre and at the right of the drawing no doubt indi-
cate the landscape setting. Other studies, which were first
connected with this composition by Wilde, are a fragment
in the British Museum (W 79 recto/Corpus 405 ;black
chalk, 66 × 101 mm) and two other sketches on pages
in Michelangelo’s Vatican Codex (Cod. Lat. Vat. 3211 ,
fols. 81 verso and 82 verso/Corpus 407 and 406 ; both
black chalk, respectively 205 × 143 mm, and 206 × 141
mm). However, the present drawing must represent an
early stage in Michelangelo’s development of the design
for Venusti’s painting, and the rising figure with lifted
arms gazing upwards in surprise [G] drawn in the cen-
tre of the sheet, does not obviously fit anAgony in the
Garden, unless this were one conceived in upright format
with Christ descending from above to rebuke his disciples,
rather than entering from the left, as in the painted ver-
sion. It would also be unusually dramatic. If they could be
separated from the other studies, it might be that the two
moving figures on the present sheet [G and H] were made
for a different composition. Given Michelangelo’s often
surprising juxtapositions, this is by no means impossible,
but the compiler has been unable to find a plausible loca-
tion for these figures in other compositions planned by
Michelangelo in the155 0s, which involved movement,
such as theCleansing of the TempleorAeneas Commanded
byMercury to Relinquish Dido, and it is probably best to
accept that all the studies on this page refer to theAgony
in the Garden,but in a phase distant from the final version.
The extreme horizontality of the format of the present
drawing need bear no relation to the proposed pictorial
field, because the same figure is tried thrice at the top
left of the sheet and, probably, a fourth time in the lower
left-hand corner. It is only the three sleeping figures at
the right that would seem to indicate the type of group-
ing Michelangelo had in mind, and it is not fully clear
whether this was intended to include the loosely exe-
cuted moving figure immediately to the left, who may
or may not be a variant of the two moving figures in the
centre of the sheet.
The moving figure seen from the back [G] is a modified
reprise, in reverse, of a figure designed by Michelangelo
for theLast Judgement, the damned soul seen from the