Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online discussion from the British Museum looking in detail at Michelangelo’s Epifania cartoon. Sarah Vowels and Grant Lewis, curators of the excellent exhibition “Michelangelo: The Last Decades” at the museum, introduced us to the cartoon dated from around 1550-3 and its possible iconography. They also talked about the painting based on it by Condivi which was also in the show. Art historian Daniel Godfrey then took us through the history of the cartoon after Michelangelo’s death and how it got to be in the museum’s collection. Finally conservator, Emma Turner led us through the six year conservation project with some great pictures of all the processes and explained what had been discovered during the project. All the talks added to a more rounded view of the picture and its history.

Fascinating lecture at the British Museum introducing their Michelangelo exhibition. Co-curator of the show Sarah Vowles led us through Michelangelo’s career from 1534 when he returned to Rome and worked for the next 30 years.   From the drawings for the Last Judgement she took us through the drawings for Tommaso dei Cavalieri and Vittoria Colonna spending some time on the religious nuisances of the latter drawings. She also spent some time discussing the letters to his nephew Leonardo and his work with collaborators then finished by looking at his architectural work and late drawings which may be showing a less controlled hand. It was a great taster for the show and I can’t wait to go when it opens. I particularly want to see the conserved Epifania cartoon and a painting by Ascanio Condivi based on it. Stop press : I have been since so watch out for my review of it! Sorry I’m still very behind with blogging!