Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel (recto)

1510

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel (recto) is a 1510 by Michelangelo, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Michelangelo
When & what style?: 1510 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a young man’s body twisted in mid-air, drawn in quick red chalk lines. This is a practice sketch for the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo used these drawings to figure out how the figures would move before painting them onto wet plaster. The loose, energetic lines show him thinking on paper—no erasing, just ideas flowing. Look up *sfumato* to see how he softened edges in the final fresco.

The story of this work

Overview

Universally considered one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo devoted four years to painting the vast ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel. This preparatory study portrays one of the 20 athletic male nudes, known as ignudi, who serve as supporting figures at each corner of the Old Testament scenes painted down the center of the ceiling. Michelangelo worked out the positioning of the ignudi in red chalk drawings before beginning to paint each section of wet plaster. The energy and monumentality of the figure in red chalk, whose body extends beyond the sheet,…

Read the full account in the museum source.

About the artist

Artist

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance.

See the richer artist page