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| Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, drapery study for the Erythraean Sibyl ca. 1508-12 drawing British Museum |
Michelangelo, in the approved manner of Florentine artists, made drapery studies like that above by soaking a length of fabric in liquid clay and then arranging it on a form in the studio. The amazing collection of Michelangelo drawings at the British Museum includes many works of preparation for the Sistine Chapel frescoes. These mostly entered the Museum about two hundred years ago, when such wondrous objects were still to be found floating about on the open market.
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| Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, head for Ignudo ca. 1505 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, heads for the Last Judgment 1534 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, figures for the Last Judgment 1534 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Sistine Chapel, figure for the Last Judgment 1540 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Virgin Annunciate 1530 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Annunciation ca. 1542-46 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Resurrection 1532-33 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Resurrection 1532-33 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Dragon 16th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Michelangelo Capitals ca. 1518-20 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Young man beckoning 1503-04 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Design details for the Biblioteca Laurenziana 1525 drawing British Museum |
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| Michelangelo Portrait of Andrea Quaratesi 1530 drawing British Musesum |
The portrait drawing above depicts Andrea Quaratesi, a Roman aristocrat known to have paid for drawing lessons from Michelangelo. Such portrait drawings are rare, according to curators at the British Museum, because Michelangelo disliked and avoided making likenesses of actual people. It is strange now to reflect that a sitter of such bland and seemingly negligible impact was yet powerful enough in one way or another to command Michelangelo's pen, against his stated inclination.