At my post «Rodin at the MET», I advised that there was also a current temporary exhibition, an amazing one, about Michelangelo. Well, I obviously did what I had to do to see it before it ended a couple of weeks ago and it was simply amazing.
They obviously could not bring to the MET the sculpture of «David» from Rome, or the «Cappella Sistina«, but the exhibition was extraordinary both because how it was curated with such an amazing amount of rare and almost never seen pieces of his art, and how was he described and presented, as well as shown, throughout the space (not simply an artist but a «designer» who possessed a unique talent and art for painting, sculpture and architecture).
In the interior we could see an endless collection gathered from all around the world and specially for this mono-author exhibition that is probably not going to happen again.
Same way is true that «David» was not there, we could see all the studies that Michelangelo did before he made the masterpiece; all the drawings, from the first sketches and thoughts to the last and almost three dimensional drawings he finally did. Something similar happened with many of his other worldwide famous works; paintings, sculptures and buildings.
They reproduced as well in a room an illuminated ceiling of the «Capella Sistina» and exhibited all the sketches he did for each one of the drawings and scenes before he finally painted them in the Vatican. Again, extremely carefully curated and shown to the visitor.
This exhibition was, to me, even more special than going to Italy and seeing the ended masterpieces, because it was a unique occasion to see through his sketches the real method that the «Designer» Michelangelo used to do in order to produce his final product. This is actually the most interesting and important part… What does the method of «designing» means to a community like ours (architects), and he was a genius!
