
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000302Study for the Nude Youth over the Prophet Daniel (recto); Figure Studies for the Sistine Ceiling (verso)
Also known as: Studies for the Sistine Ceiling: Ignudo; Studies for the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: The Nude Figure next to the Prophet Daniel
About the Artwork
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, suggests the heroic athleticism of Michelangelo’s sculpture.
Inscriptions
recto: lower right, in brown ink: 55 [crossed out] verso: upper center, in brown ink: [Jr?]; upper right, in brown ink: V./.
Provenance
1741: Pierre Crozat, Paris (L. 3612), his sale 1741 1775-76: Pierre Jean Mariette (L. 1852), Paris, his sale 1775-76, lot 236 Bürckel family, Vienna 1933: Dr. Alexander de Frey, Temesvar, Romania, his sale, 1933, lot 7 (as school of Michelangelo) 1934-37: with Wildenstein & Co., New York 1937: purchased by Henry G. Dalton (1862-1939), Cleveland 1939: by descent to his nephews George S. and Harry D. Kendrick, Cleveland 1940-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Exhibition of the Month: Ways of Drawing Nudes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-June 6, 1945). Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964). Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967). Seven Centuries of Italian Art. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI (organizer) (April 12-May 21, 1967). Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 13-September 19, 1971). Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums. National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (organizer) (September 11-October 17, 1976); Kyoto National Museum (November 2-December 5, 1976). Italian Drawings with von Hirsh Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 15-December 4, 1978). The Draftsman's Eye: Late Italian Renaissance Schools and Styles. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 6-April 22, 1979). Connoisseurship in Italian Figural Compositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 1980-February 15, 1981). The Lessons of the Academy. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 8-May 29, 1983). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Italian Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 1986-March 1, 1987). Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991). Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 8-April 12, 1998). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). From Raphael to the Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,, Canada (organizer) (May 29-September 6, 2009). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (November 6, 2017-February 12, 2018). Michelangelo: Mind of the Master. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 22, 2019-January 5, 2020); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (co-organizer) (February 25-November 1, 2020) https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/michelangelo_drawings/.
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564)
- Date
- 1510–11
- Medium
- red chalk over black chalk or charcoal
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 34.3 x 24.3 cm (13 1/2 x 9 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 34.4 x 24.4 cm (13 9/16 x 9 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift in memory of Henry G. Dalton by his nephews George S. Kendrick and Harry D. Kendrick
- Accession no.
- 1940.465
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Open-access museum record · AT-00000302
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