The work of some artists creates thunderous echoes down the ages. The Michelangelo exhibition explores how the titular great defined the depiction of the human form…and how his successors evolved the canon.
- Features key works by Michelangelo
- Also Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Klimt, Schiele & others
- Drawings, prints & sculptures
- Runs Sept 15, 2023 – Jan 14, 2024
- See also:
- Albertina overview
- Other art exhibitions in Vienna
Talent & its consequences
(Michelangelo Buonarroti; Male Nude Seen from Rear, c. 1504; black chalk, heightened with white; press photo © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
Sex was allegedly only invented in 1963, though the nude appeared somewhat earlier. Certainly no later than the early 16th century, thanks in large part to the drawings of one Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564).
Prior to Michelangelo, Christianity-driven approaches to art had largely eliminated the mythological and idealised representations of the human form familiar from Greek and Roman times.
Then along came the Renaissance and the “rebirth of the nude”.
In particular, Michelangelo’s representations of the (largely male) human body in dynamic and “ideal” form (but tempered by observations of nature) had a huge influence on his peers.
That influence then ebbed and flowed through the decades and centuries as artistic depictions of the human body evolved.
(Peter Paul Rubens; Study of a Male Nude Leaning Forward, c. 1613; black and red chalk heightened with white; press photo © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
This evolution, Michelangelo’s place at its genesis, and the diversity of approaches to portraying nudes form the core of the Michelangelo and Beyond exhibition at the Albertina.
The works on display run from key pieces by Michelangelo himself through to the early 1900s, by which time the nude (at least as Michelangelo saw it) had collapsed down the rankings in the canon of art.
We actually see one or two works predating Michelangelo, adding emphasis to the step forward represented by the maestro: how a bit of red chalk, a few curves and some shading create a sense of weight, balance and three-dimensional reality in a piece like The Lamentation of Christ.
The subsequent evolutionary chronology takes us through epochs (like mannerism) and the works of other art icons.
(Raffaello Santi, A Young man Carrying an Old Man, 1514; red chalk; press photo © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
So we see the likes of Raphael (1483-1520), who shared Michelangelo’s perspective. His 1514 Young Man Carrying an Old Man capturing perfectly the movement, exertion and age differences as they escape the fire in the Borgo (perhaps echoing Aeneas carrying his father from a burning Troy).
Or Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and his forlorn attempts to reduce the human form to rules and proportions.
Or Rembrandt’s more realistic approach (“merciless realism” as the Albertina wall text describes it).
After the Renaissance equivalent of photoshopped magazine cover art, Rembrandt’s warts-and-all portrayals come as almost welcome relief.
Rembrandt (1606-1669) makes it easy to be a fan. He evened up the gender bias with more female nudes, pictured with decided authenticity. And his Standing Male Nude from around 1648 left me aghast with envy: just a few strokes and BOOM.
(Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Naked Woman on a Mound, c. 1631; etching and engraving; press photo © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna)
At the end of the chronology, we discover projections of beauty by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). And the work of Egon Schiele (1890-1918), whose startling, angular self-portraits truly feel many centuries away from the Herculean anatomy of the Renaissance.
Schiele almost seems to ring the death knell for Michelangelo’s approach. To his credit, he also brings women out of the demure, seductive or downright paganist images of many predecessors and allows them to claim their strength and equality.
The exhibition features drawings, prints but also sculptures…all taken from both the prestigious in-house collection and international loans from such locations as the Louvre or the Liechtenstein Princely Collections.
And…quite apart from the artistic skill on display, the structure of the exhibition and accompanying texts explain the evolution of the drawn human form in art with clarity, rarely falling into the technobabble of art history.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy the timeless quality of works by Michelangelo and other masters of the human body from September 15th, 2023 to January 14th, 2024. A valid entrance ticket for or from the Albertina includes the special exhibitions, too.
Works by many of the artists featured appear elsewhere in Vienna:
- The Kunsthistorisches Museum has paintings by numerous Old Masters like Rubens & Rembrandt in its picture galleries. And a special year-end exhibition dedicated to Renaissance tapestries includes drawings by Raphael.
- Upper Belvedere and the Leopold Museum both feature a number of Klimt and Schiele works in their permanent displays.
How to get to Michelangelo
Just follow the travel tips at the end of the main Albertina article.
Address: Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna