Michelangelo exhibition in Genoa: a review dedicated to the encounters of his career

Sculptor, painter, architect, and poet: the different souls of Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese, 1475 - Rome, 1564) are the protagonists of the exhibition dedicated to him by the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, which opens from October 21, 2020 to February 14, 2021: titled Michelangelo. Divine Artist, it will tell the story of the great genius (Michelangelo was defined as a “universal artist” beginning with Giorgio Vasari, who summarized a shared judgment with this formula and placed him at the pinnacle of modern art) through an exhibition itinerary that focuses on the exceptional nature of the encounters that punctuated Michelangelo’s biography.

In his life, which was exceptionally long for a man of his time (in fact, Michelangelo lived to be 89 years old) and always industrious, the artist from his early teens was in contact, thanks to his talent and, later, his fame, with the most important personalities of the Renaissance, in key positions in politics, religion, and culture. No other artist has ever been able to boast, nor can he boast today, of having frequented two future pontiffs under their own roof as teenagers, or of having served as many as six popes, or of having had direct relations with patrons of the magnitude of Lorenzo the Magnificent and the French royals, Francis I of Valois and his daughter-in-law Catherine de’ Medici.

To recount all this, the Genoese exhibition has brought to the shores of the Ligurian Sea some of Michelangelo’s few unmovable works. Thus, the Madonna of the Staircase, an early masterpiece of the artist preserved in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, is scheduled to be on display, and there will be a large selected nucleus of autograph drawings, mostly preserved in the Casa Buonarroti, along with sheets of Michelangelo’s correspondence, rhymes and other of his original writings.

The exhibition itinerary (as well as the accompanying catalog and multimedia apparatus) will consist of sections devoted to the different periods of Michelangelo’s long life, which will include original works by the artist, sculptures and drawings in particular; original works by direct collaborators, inspired and guided by him; painted and sculpted portraits, of Michelangelo and historical figures connected to him; medals; rhymes, letters and, in general, appropriate documentary evidence and works of art by various authors.

The exhibition Michelangelo. Divine Artist is curated by Cristina Acidini, with Alessandro Cecchi and Elena Capretti and produced in collaboration with MetaMorfosi Associazione Culturale.

For all information you can visit the official website of Palazzo Ducale in Genoa.

Pictured: Michelangelo Buonarroti, Cleopatra (c. 1535; black pencil, 232 x 182 mm)

Michelangelo exhibition in Genoa: a review dedicated to the encounters of his career

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