The Drawings of Michelangelo and His Followers in the Ashmolean Museum

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212 WHOLLY OR PARTIALLY AUTOGRAPH SHEETS CATALOGUE 41

the SistineExpulsionis evident, and Michelangelo might

well have intended to recall this gesture in modified form

in one of the Damned in theLast Judgement.

It is worth remarking that CB 14 Averso bears an

inscription by Michelangelo with the date25 luglio, 1528.

This relates to the large drawing on the sheet’s recto,

which was made to prepare a defensive bastion planned

for Florence’s Porta del Prato. The juxtaposition demon-

strates Michelangelo’s casual use of the verso, four or

five years after he drew the recto, for an entirely unre-

lated project. The only connection between the two

might be of interest for the artist’s psyche: The bas-

tion was drawn for Florence’s defence against the forces

working to restore Medici rule; the verso was part of

the planning process of a fresco commissioned by the

man whose rule the siege of Florence was undertaken to

restore.

History

Casa Buonarroti; Jean-Baptiste Wicar?; William Young

Ottley (his sale?, 11 April 1804 ,part of lot 274 ,“One

ditto [i.e., One leaf] containing several studies of attitudes

for the Last Judgment, and a study for the Annunciation,

all in black chalk, from ditto [i.e., Casa Buonarroti]”; Sir

Thomas Lawrence (no stamp); Samuel Woodburn.