Michelangelo Imperfect @ National Gallery of Denmark, SMK, Copenhagen

Michelangelo Imperfect

National Gallery of Denmark, SMK, Copenhagen

Through 31 August, 2025

Facsimile after Michelangelo Buonarroti

Active Life (Leah). Original 1542–44,

facsimile 2024–25

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark. Photo: SMK

Facsimile after Michelangelo Buonarroti 

Genius of Victory Original c. 1519-26, 

facsimile 2024-25

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK –

National Gallery of Denmark. Photo: SMK

Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti

Bacchus. Original c. 1496-97, cast c. 1874-79

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark. Photo: SMK

He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, designed the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and his sculptures are known worldwide. SMK presents the most comprehensive display of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s sculptural work seen in 150 years.

If one were to point to a single artist who has contributed fundamentally to the modern perception of art as self-expression in Western culture, it would be the Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564). His iconic statue David shows us why.

Viewed from the left, the almost five-metre-tall figure is a classically idealised, alert young man ready for battle – but when seen from the other side he changes expression, revealing doubt and hesitation. Michelangelo insisted on reflecting the often conflicted and contradictory inner lives of his figures. He was not the first to do so, but he did it with such consistency that it changed the course of art.

A bronze David and thirty-nine other sculptures reproduced after Michelangelo can be seen at the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) in Copenhagen in the exhibition Michelangelo Imperfect. Not since the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth in Florence in 1875 has so comprehensive a selection of the artist’s sculptural production been gathered in one place.

Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti 

Brutus. Original 1540 or 1548, cast 1897 

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark. Photo: SMK

Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti

Day (Giorno). Original c. 1525-26, cast 1897

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark Photo: SMK

Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti 

Head of David. Original 1501-1504, cast 1890

The Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark. Photo: SMK

Michelangelo’s focus was almost exclusively on the human body, especially the male form, in which he found endless scope for expressing thoughts, emotions and tensions. He invariably strove for greatness, reaching for the impossible. Already in his lifetime, he was described as ‘il divino’ – the divine. But his art also revolves around the imperfect, the unfinished and the fragile; around being in a state of becoming, anxious, wavering and hesitating. This is apparent in his biblical, mythological and allegorical subjects alike.

‘This is the impossible exhibition: You would never be able to gather Michelangelo’s original sculptures in one place. But with SMK’s collection of historical reproductions in plaster and newly produced facsimiles of the highest quality, we are able to present a perhaps imperfect, yet strikingly complete, overall account of a body of work that changed art forever and remains remarkably poignant today,’ says the exhibition’s curator, Matthias Wivel.

The basis for SMK’s exhibition is its exquisite collection of historical casts after Michelangelo sculptures in the Royal Cast Collection. Most of these were commissioned and cast in 1895–98 for the then-new National Gallery of Denmark (today SMK). Some were added in the twentieth- and early twenty-first century. The collection encompasses the majority of Michelangelo’s most famous sculptures.

Cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti

Head of David. Original c. 1501-04, cast 1890

Photo from the Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark

Cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Dying Prisoner. Original c. 1513-14, cast c. 1852–70

Photo from the Royal Cast Collection, SMK – 

National Gallery of Denmark

In order to get as close as possible to a complete presentation of the Renaissance master’s sculptures, SMK complements these historical plaster casts with newly commissioned and -produced 3D-modelled and cast sculptures – so-called facsimiles – produced in Madrid by Factum Foundation, world leaders in the production of facsimiles, reconstructions and rematerialisations of artworks.

This enables SMK to bring together under one roof reproductions of masterpieces that in the original are located in many different places and with only a few exceptions are never moved, either because they are too fragile to travel, too difficult to move, or, quite simply, too culturally significant. The exhibition also includes original sculptural models (maquettes), drawings, and letters from Michelangelo’s own hand.

‘This [is] a unique opportunity to experience Michelangelo’s sculptural art as a whole. At the same time, it offers a chance to reflect on the role played by reproduction and copying in art and in our understanding of art. Reproductions have always been part of the way we create and perceive art, but have been somewhat neglected in a museum context in recent times. We see great potential here,’ says the exhibition’s curator, Matthias Wivel.

In connection with the exhibition, SMK is publishing a comprehensive and richly illustrated catalogue that presents new research and unfolds themes from the exhibition – including an exploration of the relationship between original and copy, as well as a challenge to the distinction between the finished and the unfinished, the perfect and the imperfect.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF DENMARK

SMK - STATENS MUSEUM FOR KUNST

Sølvgade 48-50, 1307 Copenhagen

www.smk.dk

Related Posts:

Michelangelo & Men

Teylers Museum, Haarlem

15 October 2025 - 25 January 2026

Michelangelo and Beyond

ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

15 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Michelangelo & Men - Exhibition @ Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Michelangelo & Men

Teylers Museum, Haarlem

15 October 2025 - 25 January 2026

Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564) 

Study for an ignudo in the Sistine Chapel, c. 1511

Collection Teylers Museum

Image courtesy Teylers Museum

Five hundred and fifty years after his birth, Teylers Museum is paying homage to one of the most celebrated artists in history. The exhibition Michelangelo & Men zooms in on the glorious leading role the male body played in both the life and art of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). An international first: never before has an exhibition been entirely dedicated to this theme. Michelangelo & Men sheds new light on Michelangelo’s thoughts and actions, while also drawing parallels to the present day.

Michelangelo: Naked and muscular

Michelangelo was fascinated by the male body. Featuring in nearly all his artworks, he often portrayed it naked, muscular, and in provocative and expressive poses. The most important piazza in Florence formed the backdrop for Michelangelo’s five-metre-tall marble statue of a nude man: David. And in the Sistine Chapel in Rome — right in the heart of the Vatican, the centre of the Roman-Catholic church — he painted a ceiling teeming with male nudes. Both David and The Creation of Adam are artworks that are so deeply embedded in our collective memory that we often take them for granted. In Michelangelo's own time, however, these works were revolutionary, and over the course of history they were frequently considered controversial.

Michelangelo: Multiple perspectives

Michelangelo & Men examines the male body in Michelangelo’s work and life from all angles: from the outside influences of his predecessors and classical antiquity, to his own extensive anatomic knowledge and use of male models. Also highlighted is the theoretical and religious significance of the male body to Michelangelo, as well as his presumed personal predilection for me. In the exhibition a number of contemporary voices furthermore reflect on how Michelangelo represented the male figure: from queer to Roman Catholic, and from feminist to fitfluencer. In this way the exhibition also addresses timeless themes like gender, sexuality, and beauty ideals.

Michelangelo: Drawings, sculptures, and letters

In 1790, the then recently opened Teylers Museum acquired a large collection of Italian drawings in Rome, including 22 drawings by Michelangelo. Counted among the most beautiful drawings he ever made, these works form the backbone of the exhibition. This world-class collection belonging to the oldest museum in the Netherlands is supplemented with over twenty international loans.As well as drawings, these also include sculptures, a letter, and a fragment from a poem written by Michelangelo. Also shown are a book and a number of drawings and prints by friends, students, and followers of the artist. The works were loaned from organizations like The Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, The British Museum in London, the Uffizi in Florence, and the Louvre in Paris. Art-historical highlights that have never been shown in the Netherlands before will be brought to Haarlem, including The Dream from The Courtauld Gallery in London, and Study for the Libyan Sibyl from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. As drawings are vulnerable to light they are rarely exhibited. Seeing all these phenomenal artworks by Michelangelo together —in the Netherlands — is therefore a once in a lifetime opportunity.

TEYLERS MUSEUM

Spaarne 16, 2011 CH Haarlem

teylersmuseum.nl

Michelangelo and Beyond @ ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna - Exhibition + Catalogue

Michelangelo and Beyond

ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

15 September 2023 - 14 January 2024

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Male Nude Seen from Rear, c. 1504

Black chalk, heightened with white, 20 x 27 cm

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Seated Nude Youth and Two Arm Studies, 1510/11 

Red chalk, heightened with white, 28 x 19 cm

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

The master of the Renaissance: Michelangelo is one of a handful of artists whose fame has been unwavering for centuries. Although his art and his ideals are deeply rooted in the attitudes of the time – the heyday of the Renaissance and the progressive 16th century – the impact of his work extends into the present day.

Every century experiences its own Michelangelo Renaissance, and in doing so revives the historic ideal of the perfect male nude developed by the prominent Florence native on an unrivalled scale through his drawings for the incomplete fresco the Battle of Cascina, the Ignudi in the Sistine Chapel and the Dying Slave for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

Michelangelo and Beyond deals with the emergence and the power, the decrease in significance and the decline of a canon – a canon on which Michelangelo and his works made a lasting impression 500 years ago – and how the generations that followed have approached this template since.

The depiction of the human body

The richly populated portfolio of graphic pieces at the ALBERTINA allows for examination of the Michelangelo ideal, which is strikingly conveyed in both his drawings and his sculptures as the athletic and powerful male nude, whose inner tension appears to want to burst out of the body.

The new status of the drawing as its own work of art in the 15th century solidified the artistic concept and the temperament of the artist, and was reflected by the high demand of collectors for these valuable items. The provenance of the drawings by the Renaissance master at the ALBERTINA shows Peter Paul Rubens to be the owner in the 17th century, which highlights the importance of the Italian genius for subsequent generations of artists.

Albrecht Dürer

Adam and Eve, 1504

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

Raffaello Santi 

A Young man Carrying an Old Man, 1514

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

Hendrick Goltzius

The Gret Hercule, 1589

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 

Naked Woman Seated on a Mound, c. 1631 

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

Egon Schiele 

Nude Self-Portrait, Grimacing, 1910 

The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

On the one hand, the classical nude as we encounter it in the drawings in the ALBERTINA Museums’ Collections, from Michelangelo to Raffael and Beccafumi to Bandinelli, da Volterra and Salviati, always strives for the harmonious balance between generic formulas like standardised poses, the study of the anatomy according to ancient sculptures or the full-scale outline of body parts according to the formalised proportions of the Vitruvian man, and emulating nature on the other hand.

With their opposing positions, artists Rembrandt and Rubens shape the Baroque period. Rubens deals with the real, living model and brings back ancient nakedness in a new guise.

Rembrandt, on the other hand, doesn’t shy away from portraying the ugliness of the authentic body, of people in their impermanence and weakness. In doing so, he strikes a harsh contrast with the athletic body of Buonarroti.

In Classicism, the image of the beautiful and muscular naked male body continues. Almost 200 years after the death of Florence’s master, the Michelangelesque canon finds its sequel in the prevalent depiction of the ideal nude. The painters of the time, such as Anton Raphael Mengs or Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, create works that return to Michelangelo with their precision in shaping the musculature, the portrayal of complicated poses and perspective foreshortening contingent on complex postures. They are particularly reminiscent of his superlative drawings, associated with works like the Battle of Cascina or the ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

Just as slavishly and anachronistically, artists in the time of Klimt and Schiele imitate the heroic, athletic design, but more outwardly, superficially, without the intellectual depth of Buonarroti. This canon, shaped by Michelangelo, finally reaches its peak, as the depiction of the male nude as a symbol of a heroic individual finds increasingly diminishing resonance in modern society.

The exhibition bears the historic sign that for centuries, only men drew men, and women were also only drawn by men. A man defined the canon of the male nude to the extent of that of the female nude. Michelangelo himself drew very few naked women, instead lending the male body a feminine grace.

A woman in art is like the dark side of the moon: you know it exists, but it’s terra incognita. In a few typical examples from the 17th and 18th centuries, the exhibition displays the unrealistic ideal of the woman. For a long time, the depiction of a naked woman was discriminated against and discredited for identifying with vices, immorality and sexual instincts. The immorality of women leads to death and sin in the form of Eve; the sexual instinct of Luxuria appears vain and naked. The virtuous are largely cloaked in flowing robes. The antithesis of virtuously veiled women describes the naked woman as a female force, as a witch, as a seductive Venus.

The outlook at the end of the exhibition has been chosen as an example. It represents a century in which Michelangelo’s canon has lost its authority and devotes itself to the opposition between Secessionist beauty by means of Gustav Klimt’s curvy ideal of the woman and the ugliness and pathologizing of the first nude not robbed of its sexuality by Egon Schiele.

Curators: 

Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Achim Gnann, Eva Michel, Martina Pippal, Constanze Malissa

Michelangelo and beyond

Editors: Eva Michel and Klaus Albrecht Schröder

Published by Prestel Verlag, 2023

English & German, 264 pages, 28,5 x 24,5 cm, Hardcover

ISBN: 9783791391168

Accompanying the exhibition Michelangelo and Beyond an exhibition catalogue of the same title is published. On 264 pages numerous contributions examine the rediscovery of the ancient Greco-Roman idea of the ideal body by Michelangelo, as well as his influence on artists far beyond his time into the 20th century. Through emulation, evolution or absolute rejection of Michelangelo’s ideal, artists like Raffael, Dürer, Rembrandt, Rubens, Klimt and Schiele developed their own perceptions of the body.

The ALBERTINA Museum

Albertinaplatz 1 - 1010 Vienna

www.albertina.at