- Museum number
- 1887,0502.119
- Description
-
The Resurrection of Christ; Christ emerging from the tomb, with his foot on the lid and arms raised to left. c.1532
Black chalk
- Production date
- 1532
- Dimensions
-
Height: 405 millimetres
-
Width: 269 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Together with W52 and 54, W53 forms part of a series of fourteen contemporaneous drawings representing variations on the Resurrection (see W52 for the list). Christ is framed within the mandola-shaped mouth of a cave, adumbrated in brisk parallel lines. The outer contours of Christ's body have been considerably thickened, the black chalk employed by Michelangelo being especially hard, used, Wilde observes, almost like a metal point. The figure of Christ is depicted parallel to the viewing plane whereas the mouth of the sarcophagus is seen from a relatively high viewing point thus drawing the viewer's attention to the void from which Christ has just risen - and into which he gazes. This format of Christ stepping from the tomb with banner in hand (at first drawn in the right hand) is the most traditional of Michelangelo's responses to the subject. Three soldiers, all within the mouth of the cave, are clearly visible, that in the foreground still sleeping, his shield resting against his folded knee. Immediately above the soldier to Christ's r (who raises his shield in an act of protection) is another, barely discernable figure. Wilde observes that W53 was `almost certainly' begun with a high finish of a presentation drawing in mind (cf W55, the 'Fall of Phaeton' for Tommaso de' Cavalieri).
Although the setting is summarily depicted as in W52 and the related sheets de Tolnay 253 and 255, this sheet seems to share more in common to the other single figure studies of this series: Wilde judges W53 to be a variant of de Tolnay 260 at Oxford and de Tolnay 345 at Windsor, the latter representing in a highly finished form Tityus on its recto which is close in form to W53. The Tityus has been traced on the verso, forming the inception of W54 - as Joannides points out, this is a remarkable adaptation by Michelangelo. Despite considering W52 the least dynamic of this series and the contours `etwas matte' (`somewhat dull'), Dussler (1959) regards this sheet as autograph.
Since there is no firm documentary evidence as to the purpose of this series of drawings theories abound (see W52). Hirst points out (1961) that the format of W53 is reminiscent of a design for an altarpiece, which he hypothesizes Michelangelo may have drawn to help Sebastiano del Piombo in the documented - but never executed - commission for an altarpiece in the Chigi Chapel in S. Maria della Pace. De Tolnay considers the destination to be the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.
Lit.: J. Wilde, `Italian Drawings in the BM, Michelangelo and his Studio', London, 1959, no. 53, pp. 88-91 (with previous literature); L. Dussler, `Die Zeichnungen des Michelangelo', Berlin, 1959, no. 326, pp. 178-179 (ascribed to Michelangelo); M. Hirst, `The Chigi Chapel in S. Maria della Pace', "The Journal of the Courtauld and Warburg Institutes", 24, 1961, pp. 178-83, fig. 33d; P. Barrochi, `Michelangelo e la sua scuola: i disegni di Casa Buonarroti e degli Uffizi', under no. 200 (= CB 51 F), pp. 250-2; F. Hartt, `The Drawings of Michelangelo', 1971, no. 132; J.A. Gere and N. Turner, in exhib. cat., London, BM, 'Drawings by Michelangelo', 1975, no. 45, p. 47; C. de Tolnay, `Corpus dei disegni di Michelangelo', Novara, 1976, II, no. 264; P. Joannides, in exhib. cat., Washington, National Gallery of Art and London, Queen's Gallery, 'Michelangelo and his Influence, Drawings from Windsor Castle', 1996, under no. 12 (= de Tolnay 345), pp. 64-5; H. Chapman, in exhib. cat., BM, 'Michelangelo Drawings: closer to the master', 2005, no. 77, p. 219
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1964 BM, Michelangelo, no. 33
1975 Feb-Apr, BM, Drawings by Michelangelo, no. 45
2005/6 Oct-Jan, Haarlem, Teylers Museum, 'Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master'
2006 Mar-June, BM, 'Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master'
2010 Feb-May, London, Courtauld Galleries, Michelangelo's Dream
2017 15 Mar-25 Jun, London, The National Gallery, Sebastiano-Michelangelo
- Acquisition date
- 1887
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1887,0502.119
