This March marks the 550th anniversary of the birth of Renaissance sculptor, painter, poet and architect Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564). Renowned for his artistic genius in his lifetime and today, over his 77-year career, Michelangelo produced some of the Renaissance’s most iconic works – from the statue of David to the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling frescoes to the design for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. 

Throughout his storied career, Michelangelo drew constantly. He worked tirelessly on paper to perfect his skills and give free reign to his ideas and emotions. For an artist devoted to representing the human body, drawing from live models (and even cadavers) was a vital exercise. It was a way to understand and memorize forms, to experiment and to brainstorm.  

Offering vivid insight into his working methods, this sheet, which is thought to be from around 1550, includes three rapidly drawn anatomical studies. To the left, there is a left knee and thigh, in the centre, a right knee seen from behind; and, in the upper right corner, a right foot. The second sketch is more tentative, with bones faintly visible below the skin. These sketches show an artist trying to visualize how muscle, sinew, and skin stretch over bone, and how knee and ankle joints articulate. He has used black chalk of different widths and intensities to describe volume and shade in addition to anatomical detail. 

A highlight of the 2014 exhibition Michelangelo: Quest for Genius, organized by the AGO in collaboration with the Casa Buonarroti, Florence, this sketch was one of 30 works on paper brought together to consider the notion of genius, challenging the myth that geniuses produce works of art without effort or disappointment.  

Michelangelo was a prolific draftsman, and today around 600 of his drawings are known. He guarded them as trade secrets in his studio and only gave them away as gifts – some to powerful people and others to artist friends. Despite the availability of relatively inexpensive paper in mid-16th century Italy (as revolutionary a medium in his time as the internet in ours), Michelangelo was frugal, and a recycler, not hesitating to fill both sides, even sketching over older drawings. 

Gifted by the Thomson Family to the AGO in 2003, this was the first drawing by Michelangelo to enter a Canadian museum collection and is a treasured part of the AGO’s collection of Prints and Drawings. Acquired at auction in 2003, this drawing comes from one of the greatest of all artists' collections, that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, first president of the British Royal Academy. 

On the first Wednesday of every month (except July and August) the AGO’s Marvin Gelber Print & Drawing Study Centre hosts an open-door evening from 1 pm to 8 pm, welcoming visitors to explore works from the Prints & Drawings and Photography collections. While you are there, do not hesitate to wish Michelangelo a happy birthday. For more information, visit ago.ca/events/open-door-wednesdays.