P 1 : JZP
0521551335 int 2 CUNY 160 /Joannides 052155 133 1 January 10 , 2007 20 : 46
MICHELANGELO’S DRAWINGS 53forms that he was currently creating in the New Sacristy,
aproject that, unlike the Sistine, allowed no room for
ugliness. In any case, whatever their motivation, it seems
that drawings of this type did not stay in Michelangelo’s
possession but were given to others, as may be inferred
from the fact that more early copies survive after them
than any other category of his figure drawings. Indeed,
sheets of this type strongly coloured later appreciations of
Michelangelo’s style.
If, as it seems, they are self-sufficient drawings, then
they may also be seen as the shadow side, technically and
spiritually, of Michelangelo’s contemporary production of
idealised images, in the chalk Presentation Drawings that
he made in the15 2 0s. They may also relate to his practice
as a teacher, for at this time, with his assistant Antonio
Mini, and his young friends Andrea Quaratesi and, per-
haps, Gherardo Perini, Michelangelo seems to have been
more preoccupied with teaching than at any other period
of his life. And his teaching drawings often include ele-
ments of the grotesque (Cats. 28 verso, 30 verso).
With his definitive move to Rome in 1534 , there is a
notable reduction in the survival rates of Michelangelo’s
drawings. As noted previously, compared with the num-
ber of drawings known for the Sistine ceiling, very few
preparatory drawings survive for theLast Judgement, and,
other than the magnificent cartoon fragment (Corpus
38 4), almost nothing is extant for the Pauline Chapel
frescoes. Ironically, even though no cartoons or cartoon
fragments remain from his early period, a second car-
toon, of around155 0, for a panel painting by his pupil
and biographer Ascanio Condivi survives (Corpus38 9).
Some compositional sketches but virtually no developed
drawings are known for sculpture (Cat. 47 ). In compensa-
tion, however, there are a few sketches and compositional
drawings made for other artists (Cats. 45 , 46 recto) and
eventhreecartonetti(Corpus 393 , 399 , and 409 ).
Throughout most of the last thirty years of his
life, Michelangelo’s preferred medium was black chalk.
Increasingly, he avoided the voluptuousness that sanguine
could encourage, as he avoided sensuousness in flesh-
painting. The massiveness of the final group ofprigioni
for the Julius Tomb had become the mode of the paint-
ing that he executed in the second half of the153 0s and
that was composed entirely of figures, theLast Judgement.
Although the overall effect of the fresco is rugged and
rough, with figures and groups at times appearing clumsy,
they were prepared with the most painstaking and elabo-
rate care. Michelangelo may have made even more studies
for theLast Judgementthan for the Sistine ceiling, given
that the relation of figures to one another, quite apart from
their individual poses, was much more complicated. Andeven though so few drawings survive, Michelangelo’s sys-
tem seems clear. As withCascina, the earlier composition
whose structure, and therefore problems, resembled most
closely that of theLast Judgement,hebegan broadly and
gradually refined. The composition was established with-
out pressure for neatness, but rather to achieve an agglom-
eration of expressive figures (Corpus34 6and34 7). Indi-
vidual figures, or groups, were then studied in detail: A
sheet in the Royal Collection (Corpus 351 ), with repeated
studies of a soul being tugged between an angel and a
devil, shows Michelangelo’s determination to obtain the
most compelling possible forms. It is reasonable to sup-
pose that all the groups were studied with comparable
attention.
The next stage seems to have been very softly and
broadly handled figure-studies, to secure the basic masses.
These drawings, although their forms are more innately
defined than the examples of twenty-five years earlier,
do not differ from them greatly in kind (Cat. 41 ). And
Michelangelo laid some ideas very lightly onto the sheets,
creating effects that are inherently pictorial (Corpus 354 ).
The succeeding drawings demonstrate a new, highly
self-conscious, and individual technique (Cat. 42 recto,
Corpus 352 ). Michelangelo seems to have returned in
some respects to an aspect of his pen drawing. The chalk
is employed with a sharp point and the form built up
in bracelet hatching, which simultaneously hardens and
makes volumetric the depicted physique. Over this hard
sub-structure, Michelangelo laid a surface sheen – in part,
apparently, by stumping – which was subordinate to the
underlying form. Michelangelo thus created a new range
of superhuman physical types, akin to those favoured by
body-builders, in which every muscle is given its maxi-
mumdevelopment but in which the form retains organic
coherence. It is as though, thirty years after it was made,
Michelangelo took Leonardo da Vinci’s criticism of the
anatomical style and made it the foundation of a new
figure style.
The purpose of this stylistic choice was twofold. In part
it was to create effects of unparalleled energy, appropri-
ate to the terrifying events of theDies Irae.Aconception
such as this, based rather on the Olympian subject of the
Fall of the Giants, could not adequately be treated using
“normal” figures. And, although criticisms of the figures’
nudity were not in the event averted, another feature of
the method was to de-sensualise the bodies depicted. The
types are so far removed from ordinary human experience,
and so far removed also from any possible concepts of
beauty – Michelangelo, for example, consistently coars-
ened and simplified all the facial types – that the spectator
engages in no erotic relation with the forms.