Till the end of July with the inspiring exhibition at the British Museum London is the place to think of Michelangelo as creator of altarpieces with the, so called Epifania cartoon displayed beside its the painted realisation by his biographer Ascanio Condivi on loan from Florence. It’s revealing to compare to the Entombment in the National Gallery painted some fifty years before. The compositions have quite a lot in common turning almost swirling around the Virgin and Child and Jesus’ body respectively articulated by turned shoulders and meaningful glances. Both I think gospel narratives or ‘historie’, the Epifania exploring the broader family of connected to the Virgin and St Elizabeth and the Entombment the three Marys. My take away from the British Museum exhibition is that the painting by Condivi is much more considerable work than it is generally held to be and is an authentic and sensitive rendering of Michelangelo’s conception despite being a bit cackhanded. I suspect assuming that the assistants were also involved with painting the Entombment the process of making would have had analogies. Michelangelo was constantly thinking about big altarpieces, as a pupil with Ghirlandaio and later providing Sebastiano del Piombo with designs. Finally the key ellement of his architectural design at St Peter’s and San Giovanni de Fiorentini both turn on constellations of chapels each of which would have required an altar piece.
#britishmuseum #michelangelothelastdecades #casabuonarroti #ascaniocondivi no
