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| Johannes Stradanus Engravers at work ca. 1590 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
"Reproductive prints have recently been given renewed attention by art historians. Their neglect was not a matter of the prints being unknown, but rather of the discipline of art history being focused more on the "birth" of objects rather than their continued life. This desire to understand how an object came into being is as old as art history itself, and correlates with the glorification of the artist as genius and the belief that works of art are primarily personal expressions. We are still obsessed with trying to understand what the artist might have meant, how the work progressed, what choices were made by the patrons – in short, what actions and thoughts preceded the product we have in front of our eyes. We value originality, and we value the artist's "touch" – both qualities conspicuously absent in the early printed reproductions, which not only copy someone else's invention, but also use techniques that efface any expressiveness of the original designer or the printmaker. Had it been Michelangelo's intent to produce prints, or, even better, if he himself had actually left a mark on the plates, it would be a much different story. As it is, all prints that reproduce other works were deemed "reproductive" and were omitted from many catalogues and modern museum collections for just that reason. These biases effectively eliminated the study of most sixteenth-century Italian prints, since so many were not original compositions but rather copies or derivations from other works."
– from Michelangelo in Print by Bernadine Barnes (Ashgate, 2010)
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| Giulio Bonasone Portrait of Michelangelo in profile ca. 1546 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Giulio Bonasone after Michelangelo Judith with the Head of Holofernes before 1574 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Giulio Bonasone after Michelangelo Sibyl and Prophet - Sistine Ceiling before 1574 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Nicolas Beatrizet after Michelangelo Prophet Jeremiah - Sistine Ceiling ca. 1535-65 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Nicolas Beatrizet after Michelangelo Annunciation ca. 1535-65 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Cornelis Cort after Michelangelo Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici with figures of Dusk and Dawn 1570 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Cornelis Cort after Michelangelo Sculpture of Madonna and Child flanked by Saints Cosmas and Damian 1570 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Agostino dei Musi after Michelangelo Woman approached by Death ca. 1525-35 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo Ignudo - Sistine Ceiling 1580s engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo Ignudo with Garland - Sistine Ceiling 1580s engraving British Museum |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo Ignudo - Sistine Ceiling 1573 engraving British Museum |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo Demons from the Last Judgment - Sistine Chapel 1590s engraving British Museum |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo Figure from the Last Judgment - Sistine Chapel 1591 engraving British Museum |