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This beautiful black chalk drawing shows the crucified and living
Christ with his head turned upwards to Heaven. In fainter chalk
and set in a dramatic cloudy sky, two mourning angels hover in
the sky below the arms of the cross. At the foot of the cross
lies a skull to indicate the setting as Golgotha ('The place
of the skull' in Hebrew). Michelangelo carefully ruled the lines
of the cross so that they stopped at the edge of Christ's body.
The skull and ground, however, were added afterwards over the
edges of the cross.
This and other drawings by Michelangelo are known as 'presentation
drawings' which are finished drawings that he gave to very close
friends. This and two other religious drawings were given to a woman
called Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547) who was a notable poet and one
of the leaders of a reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church.
In the last years of her life she and Michelangelo became intimate
friends and they dedicated poems to each other. From letters between
them we know that the artist gave her this drawing when it was still
unfinished and that the addition of the skull may have been at her
suggestion. Certainly, she was impressed with the final drawing as
she said she would address her prayers to 'this sweet Christ'.
Further Reading/Sources:
PD 1895-9-15-504 Department of Prints and Drawings, Italian
Roy XVIc
J.A. Gere and N. Turner, Drawings by Michelangelo in the collection
of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, The Ashmolean Museum,
The British Museum and other English collections, exh. cat.
(London, The British Museum Press, 1975), p. 111, no. 129
M. Hirst, Michelangelo and his drawings (New Haven and
London, Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 117-18, plate 236
J. Wilde, Italian
drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British
Museum: Michelangelo and his studio (London, The British Museum
Press, 1953), pp. 106-7, no. 67
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