Michelangelo & Sebastiano

Fantastic exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the friendship and working relationship between Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo.

This was a well presented and thought through show which set out the narrative clearly with good commentaries. Huge thanks to the Gallery for bringing back the booklets with the picture descriptions which really help the flow through the rooms. There was good use of letters to tell the story as well as drawings to highlight the collaboration.

I was surprised at how much of Michelangelo’s work was in the show and had assumed it would just be the National Gallery’s own pictures and a few drawings. The use of the good copy of the Vatican’s Pieta was clever and it was so nice to be able to view it from all sides and see how the sides were worked. You usually view it from the front in a horrible crush of people.

There was also a good collection of Sebastiano’s work including the Gallery’s own huge Razing of Lazarus with the Michelangelo drawings which Sebastiano used in the composition. Another good reproduction for the show was the facsimile of the Borgherini Chapel which was a good way of giving a good impression of this major work by the artist again influenced by his friend.

My favourite room was the fourth one showing two versions of Michelangelo’s Risen Christ from the Santa Maria sopra Minerva. There was a 19th copy of the version which is still in the church but it also included the earlier version which was abandoned due to the vein of black marble which appeared on Christ’s face. These were shown with drawings for them and the letters from Sebastiano to Michelangelo about the installation of the later version in the church. They were displayed against wonderful dark burgundy walls which showed the marble off beautifully.

Closes on 25 June 2017

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