Michelangelo Paintings
Posted by Susan Benford
An art history blog post from Famous Paintings Reviewed.
Think "Michelangelo" and "famous artwork", and one likely envisions his Sistine Chapel ceiling and statues, like the Vatican's Pieta or David in Florence.
Comparatively unknown, though, are these four Michelangelo paintings:
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The Torment of Saint Anthony
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The Manchester Madonna
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Holy Family (Doni Tondo)
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Entombment
Michelangelo Buonarotti. The Torment of Saint Anthony, c. 1487–88. Tempera and oil on panel, 18 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
The Torment of St. Anthony
Purchased in 2009 by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, The Torment of St. Anthony is the sole Michelangelo painting in any American collection. Given that it's also one of the few finished Michelangelo paintings, The Torment is one of the most famous paintings in any U.S. art museum.
Ascanio Condivi, Michelangelo's student and subsequent biographer, recounts that Michelangleo was inspired by an etching, Martin Schongauer's The Temptation of Saint Anthony, and wanted to create a painting based on it. Noting that details of fish scales were absent in The Temptation engraving, Michelangelo visited a fish market to study them.
Condivi reports that Domenico Ghirlandaio, an established Italian Renaissance painter and owner of the Schongauer engraving, was stunned at the brilliance of this Michelangelo painting. No surprise here - Michelangelo was 12 or 13 when he painted The Temptation!
The Madonna and Child with St. John and Angels (The Manchester Madonna)
Started roughly a decade later, this Michelangelo painting shows Christ pointing to a passage in a book held by the
Michelangelo Buonarotti. The Virgin and Child with St. John and Angels (Manchester Madonna), 1497. Tempera on wood, approx. 41" by 30". National Gallery, London
Virgin Mary while a pair of angels studies the scroll.
The contents of the book and scroll, an attribute of St. John, likely foretell Christ's future life and sacrifice. On the left are a pair of unfinished angels blocked in with the green paint typically used by Renaissance painters to create flesh tones. Even unfinished, it's a gem.
Holy Family (Doni Tondo)
This circular painting, or tondo, was fashionable in Renaissance paintings of Florence. Doni Tondo was believed to have been painted to celebrate the marriage of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi, and is one of the most famous paintings Michelangelo created.
Michelangelo Buonarotti. Holy Family (Doni Tondo), ca. 1504-05. Oil tempera on wood, approx. 47" diameter. Uffizi, Florence.
The viewer gets to decide whether the Virgin is taking the Infant from St. Joseph, or instead handing Jesus to him. Behind the wall is a young St. John, who will ultimately announce the coming of Christ. While the meaning of Doni Tondo isn't certain, the presence of St. John alludes to Christ's birth and baptism.
Entombment
Michelangelo portrays here a lifeless Christ being carried to his tomb. Art historians disagree over the identities of those carrying the dead Son of God toward his tomb, a situation confounded by the unfinished state of the painting. Saint John the Evangelist is usually shown in red with long hair, and may be the figure on the left carrying Christ. The others may be Nicodemus; Saint Joseph of Arimathaea, who gave up his tomb for Jesus; and Mary Magdalene, the kneeling figure to the left.
It is believed this Michelangelo painting was for the tomb he was designing for his patron, Pope Julius II; neither the painting nor the Pope's tomb was ever completed. Some art historians have questioned if this is indeed a Michelangelo painting. A preparatory sketch in the Louvre shows a figure resembling the kneeling woman on the left, lending credence to a Michelangelo attribution.
Michelangelo, The Entombment. Oil on wood, 1500-01. Approx. 64" by 59". National Gallery, London.
As the National Gallery observes in its art analysis of Entombment, one easily forgets how closely related the visual arts were in the Renaissance -- painting, sculpture, and architecture were intertwined in Renaissance artwork, as seen in the brilliance of these Michelangelo paintings.
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