Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Drawings Make First U.S. Visit

During the four years he spent painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo executed hundreds of preparatory drawings, only 50 of which survive today. In March, a rare roundup of these sketches is making their debut appearance in the United States. Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine opens at the Muscarelle Museum of Art on March 6—the 550th birthday of the iconic Italian Renaissance master.

In a statement, exhibition curator and Michelangelo expert Adriano Marinazzo said, “Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind of one of the most famous artists in the world, revealing the unfiltered thoughts, ideas, struggles, and breakthroughs that shaped one of history’s greatest masterpieces—the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.” The exhibition opens on March 6 at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Sistine Chapel drawings will be on view through May 28.

The exhibition will echo Michelangelo’s famed Sistine Chapel frescoes, with gallery walls painted a heavenly shade of blue and gold accents positioned throughout. Lighting will be subdued to preserve the drawings and “to enhance the sense of stepping into Michelangelo’s private artistic space,” said Marinazzo. The Genesis of Sistine will feature 25 of Michelangelo’s original sketches for the Sistine Chapel, including one believed to be the artist’s first iteration of the ceiling.

What Are the Sistine Chapel Drawings?

At the turn of the 16th century, Pope Julius II commissioned a reluctant Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Michelangelo considered himself more of a sculptor than a painter, but he ultimately accepted the Pope’s prestigious request, painting the famed frescoes over a period of four years. Michelangelo likely created hundreds—or even thousands—of preparatory drawings for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, including life-sized structural drawings called “cartoons.”

Muscarelle Museum of Art director David Brashear explained to Artnet, “What [Michelangelo] likely did, and this is a typical fresco sort of process, is make large drawings, putting them up on the ceiling and likely poking holes at various inflection points in the drawing.” Michelangelo never intended to publicly display any of his preparatory drawings. In fact, shortly before his death in 1564, he destroyed most of them. As such, fewer than 50 Sistine Chapel drawings survive today.

The surviving Sistine Chapel drawings spend most of their time locked in dark boxes. Some are only sanctioned to leave Italy every few years for a 12-week period. Curating The Genesis of the Sistine required complex coordination between Marinazzo, the Muscarelle Museum of Art, the Italian government, and several Italian museums, including the Gallerie degli Uffizi, the Musei Reali, and Casa Buonarroti. Of the 25 Sistine Chapel sketches in the exhibition, seven have never traveled to the United States. Remarkably, most of them have not been exhibited together until now.