Racimo con Brio: Michelangelo Only at the Muscarelle

By Victoria Racimo Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Muscarelle Museum of Art is the only United States venue for a special, once in a lifetime, exhibition currently on view until April 11, titled Michelangelo: Anatomy as Architecture, Drawings by the Master.

The show consists of drawings, archival pages and engravings on loan from his ancestral home, the Casa Buonarroti, Florence, Italy, repository for one of the finest collections of works by Michelangelo in the world.

This extraordinary exhibit includes twelve extremely rare drawings by the great Renaissance artist. These infrequently displayed works are among the most treasured in existence and have never before been seen in public together as a unit in America. In fact, Dr. Aaron H. De Groft, Director of the Muscarelle told me, “You cannot see a Michelangelo drawing anywhere in the United States this whole year. But here, at the Muscarelle, you can see twelve.” The drawings in this exhibition date mainly from his work in Florence, 1517-1529.

This beautifully mounted exhibit delves into the Michelangelo most of us do not know. It presents aspects of his genius far beyond the iconic works for which he is most popularly known, such as the Sistine Chapel, David and the Pieta. The show explores Michelangelo’s concept and philosophy that architecture was anatomical in a way that had never been done before, that the structure of buildings can and should be relatable to the structure of the body. He had a vision of architecture that was rooted in the understanding of the human body, and his theory of anatomy was articulated in the study and design of architecture.

While most Renaissance architects treated the human body as analogy, Michelangelo, a supreme master of the human form, took the comparison further. He viewed anatomy — muscles, nerves, and human proportions — as metaphors for the active elements of architecture. Michelangelo’s emphasis on the body in his vision and theory of architecture was unprecedented. He saw it all intertwined as life. This remarkable exhibit presents new research in Michelangelo’s architectural studies, including digital reconstructions of buildings never before believed to have been influenced by Michelangelo.

I sat down with Dr. De Groft in his office and learned, among much other news and information, that scholars have always questioned whether or not Michelangelo studied anatomy. There is now irrefutable evidence that he did in several ways.

He conducted studies of classical antiquities and the many human forms available to him in ancient sculptures. As importantly, at sixteen years and a guest at the convent church of Santo Spirito in Florence, he dissected corpses from the convent hospital. And of course, besides making these meticulous drawings, Michelangelo studied and drew from the human model. From this very young age, Michelangelo developed his concept of architecture as anatomy.

“It is certain that the elements that make up the framework of a building are akin to the limbs of the body. Only a man who can reproduce the human figure and is well-versed in anatomy knows anything about architecture.”

--Michelangelo, December 1560

This exhibition also offers a most handsome catalogue. Illuminating and inspiring, it’s by my bed-side, a treat before sleep. I had not known Michelangelo was also a poet. The catalogue includes several excerpts from his letters and fragments of his poems. While working on the Sistine Chapel, his love of a particular element inspired him to write these four lines, a quatrain from an unfinished sonnet:

He who made everything, first made each part
And then from all chose the most beautiful
To demonstrate here his sublime creations
As he has now done with his divine art.

Here is a deeply personal sonnet reflecting on the death of an intimate friend:

When the governor of my abundant sighs
was taken from the world from my eyes, from himself,
nature, who willingly bestowed him on us,
was left in shame, and all who’d seen him in tears.
But let not death now boast, as it does of others
of using up and taking from us the sun of suns,
for love has triumphed, taking him to make him live
on earth and in heaven among the other saints.
Thus did unjust and evil death think it would
put an end to the widespread report of his virtues,
and that it could make his soul less beautiful.
But the opposite effect brightens his pages
with more life than he was used to in his life,
and, dead, he has heaven, which he had no share in then.

Michelangelo purposely destroyed countless drawings because he believed they were not up to his standard of perfection that he had set for himself in his work. There are just less than 600 drawings extant and the Casa Buonarroti has 250. If we assume that he was at least as prolific a draftsman as Leonardo, then he must have destroyed thousands of drawings.

The Buonarroti generously loaned these twelve only to the Muscarelle – a show which will not travel. Nowhere else in the U.S. will this exhibit be shown. When it closes on April 11, it goes back to Florence.

This is a deeply profound undertaking Dr. De Groft, the teams at the Muscarelle, The College of William and Mary and the Casa Buonarroti are presenting. The show’s importance extends far beyond the domains of our community. It is only at the Muscarelle in Williamsburg that one can see it.

This exhibition is a continuing example of what the Muscarelle and William and Mary can do. The work of Dr. De Groft, his staff, his team and fellow scholars from William and Mary deserve great credit and recognition for their perseverance in assuring that a new, vibrant arts campus complex becomes a reality.

Groundbreaking exhibitions like the Michelangelo bode well for a continued and exciting future at the Muscarelle. This show makes you proud - once more you can say “only in Williamsburg.” For more information about this exhibit or the Museum in general, please call 757-221-2700 or visit the Muscarelle online.

So finish up your taxes. It’s not of April 15th that I warn you - it’s April 11th, when this remarkable, once-only exhibition leaves the country! I urge you to visit the Muscarelle. Don’t forget the companion catalogue. I know you will treasure both as much as I.

Have news about the local arts? Share it with Victoria by emailing her at victorial@wydaily.com.