Il Divino
Homage to Michelangelo
Raphael · Caravaggio · Rubens · Rodin · Cézanne · Struth
6 February to 25 May 2015
Often referred to as Il Divino by his contemporaries, Michelangelo was a legend in his own lifetime. To this day, his work is admired, imitated and reinterpreted by artists all over the world. The enduring influence of his oeuvre over the past 500 years is primarily due to his masterful depiction of the human body. Michelangelo created a repertoire of expressive poses that remains a benchmark of art history.
The exhibition explores the enormous influence Michelangelo had and continues to have on European artists from the Renaissance to the present. At the heart of the presentation are not the works by Michelangelo himself but paintings and sculptures by important artists, among them Rubens,Caravaggio, Raphael, Delacroix, Rodin, Cézanne, Giambologna, Mapplethorpe, Lüpertz and Struth, who entered in a creative dialogue with the great Florentine artist’s work. Ranging from emulation and homage to conceptual engagement and critical refutation, many of the interpretations of Michelangelo’s art respond to his celebrated masterpieces – the sculpture of David in Florence or the ceiling frescoes in the Vatican – which are presented in the exhibition in the form of plaster casts, copies and photographs.
Sculptures, paintings, prints and drawings by some of the leading artists of the past 500 years, right up to the present day, bear witness to Michelangelo’s undiminished relevance.