Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master, British Museum, London
Temporary art exhibitions, particularly those at national museums, get plenty of coverage from newspaper art critics, and Michelangelo Drawings at the British Museum (BM) is no exception.
But it deserves the attention because its conception by curator Hugo Chapman and the design by London-based Metaphor has made this show something out of the ordinary.
This is the first large-scale exhibition of Michelangelo drawings in the UK since 1975 (the last one was also at the BM). Chapman has selected 95 drawings from the collections of three museums: the BM, the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, Holland, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Other institutions, including the National Gallery, loaned paintings, sculptures and letters.
This is a significant exhibition partly because only 600 drawings are now believed to be extant. Michelangelo, for reasons we can only guess at, destroyed the vast majority before he died. (It may be that he was reluctant to leave behind drawings that revealed his working processes or which he may have regarded as having lesser value than his sculptures.)
The exhibition, or a version of it, has already been shown at the Teyler Museum, where it was given a much more routine treatment - the usual lines of drawings on red walls, very low light levels and brief text labels at the side of each work. At the BM the whole concept has been changed to produce a show that is capable of being read at a number of levels.
The title, Closer to the Master, is an indication of this as the show tries to bring visitors closer to Michelangelo's life and the way he might have thought about his drawings (as steps en route to much larger sculptural and architectural realisations).
Visitors are encouraged to look closely at the works themselves and to understand them in the larger scheme of the cultural life of Rome and Florence in the Renaissance, though this being the 'genius' version of art history, Michelangelo is the pivot around which everything else revolves.
One of the designers' first steps was to inject atmosphere into one of the gloomiest exhibition venues in London, the BM's main temporary space near the Egyptian galleries. They have used the space cleverly.
An antechamber introducing Michelangelo the man leads on to the main exhibition space, which has been cleared out apart from six pillars suggesting a cloister. Here, all the drawings have been mounted on double-sided 'lecterns', partially based on Michelangelo's own designs for the Laurentian Library in Florence.
This means more works can be viewed at a time, a good thing as no doubt this show will suffer the over-crowding that is now endemic in London exhibitions. It also means that both sides of some drawings can be shown: Michelangelo was parsimonious with paper and regularly used both sides.
The best aspect of this design is its overall effect, which is part library, part religious space - entirely appropriate for an artist who took Roman Catholicism deeply to heart - and part nod to a much older type of museum design admired by our Victorian forebears. It is a grown-up style of display (and patently not aimed at children, but then how many young children are honestly going to enjoy 95 sketches from the 16th century?).
Most importantly it is not dark; the lecterns are all cream and the drawings they hold are on the palest of mounts, barely distinguishable from the paper itself. Although the drawings are at the requisite 40-50 lux, the floor has been lit, bouncing light around the rest of the space to create something almost airy.
It is quite a contrast to most drawings shows, including the BM's own dark red Dürer show of 2003. Even so, the mood darkens throughout as the grey-beige walls gradually deepen in shade. The last room, which presents three large studies of the Crucifixion made shortly before Michelangelo's own death, is a moving experience.
The other artful feature is the way that interpretation is cleverly entwined with the design. While ledges on the lecterns provide space for relatively detailed information about each drawing, the walls are used to dramatic effect. Each section has a large heading, big enough to been seen easily above the lecterns of drawings: the Florentine Republic; Working for the Medici; the Private Michelangelo; and so on.
Floor-to-ceiling black-and-white photographs of key works that relate to the drawings - the Laurentian Library, the massive marble tomb of Giuliano de' Medici - cover parts of each wall. Each section includes quotes from Michelangelo (a poet and inveterate letter-writer), real letters (and translations) and contextual information and objects.
The design has, as far as possible, moved potentially intrusive labels away from the drawings for those who like to look at the works interrupted, while providing a more educational experience for those of us who are not always convinced that works truly 'speak' to us after half a millennium.
In general, the complexities of Michelangelo attribution are left alone, though this is discussed in the catalogue. However, two 'ideal head' drawings are contrasted - one by Michelangelo and one of doubtful provenance.
On first glance it is almost impossible to see the difference, but as you are forced to look closely, the quality and subtlety of the modelling of one is gradually revealed. I don't remember having to look so long and so carefully at a drawing for quite some time.
Only one interpretive gimmick is used and fortunately it works well. At the centre of the exhibition, as it was in Michelangelo's life, is an area entirely devoted to the Sistine Chapel. Above our head is, as it must have been for Michelangelo as he painted, a life-size virtual recreation of some of the most famous figures.
At the sides, simple interactives allow visitors to select particular drawings, see how they were turned into the Sistine paintings and then locate them on the Sistine ceiling. Like the rest of this exhibition, even this interactive is deceptively simple, unfussy and allows the work to breathe in light and space.
Jane Morris writes about museums and galleries and is a judge of the European Museum of the Year
Project data
Cost: £250,000
Main sponsor: BP
Curator: Hugo Chapman
Exhibition design: British Museum, Metaphor
Catalogue: British Museum Press
Main build: Mark 2 Construction
Graphics: BAF
Lighting: DHA
Exhibition ends: 25 June
Temporary art exhibitions, particularly those at national museums, get plenty of coverage from newspaper art critics, and Michelangelo Drawings at the British Museum (BM) is no exception.
But it deserves the attention because its conception by curator Hugo Chapman and the design by London-based Metaphor has made this show something out of the ordinary.
This is the first large-scale exhibition of Michelangelo drawings in the UK since 1975 (the last one was also at the BM). Chapman has selected 95 drawings from the collections of three museums: the BM, the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, Holland, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Other institutions, including the National Gallery, loaned paintings, sculptures and letters.
This is a significant exhibition partly because only 600 drawings are now believed to be extant. Michelangelo, for reasons we can only guess at, destroyed the vast majority before he died. (It may be that he was reluctant to leave behind drawings that revealed his working processes or which he may have regarded as having lesser value than his sculptures.)
The exhibition, or a version of it, has already been shown at the Teyler Museum, where it was given a much more routine treatment - the usual lines of drawings on red walls, very low light levels and brief text labels at the side of each work. At the BM the whole concept has been changed to produce a show that is capable of being read at a number of levels.
The title, Closer to the Master, is an indication of this as the show tries to bring visitors closer to Michelangelo's life and the way he might have thought about his drawings (as steps en route to much larger sculptural and architectural realisations).
Visitors are encouraged to look closely at the works themselves and to understand them in the larger scheme of the cultural life of Rome and Florence in the Renaissance, though this being the 'genius' version of art history, Michelangelo is the pivot around which everything else revolves.
One of the designers' first steps was to inject atmosphere into one of the gloomiest exhibition venues in London, the BM's main temporary space near the Egyptian galleries. They have used the space cleverly.
An antechamber introducing Michelangelo the man leads on to the main exhibition space, which has been cleared out apart from six pillars suggesting a cloister. Here, all the drawings have been mounted on double-sided 'lecterns', partially based on Michelangelo's own designs for the Laurentian Library in Florence.
This means more works can be viewed at a time, a good thing as no doubt this show will suffer the over-crowding that is now endemic in London exhibitions. It also means that both sides of some drawings can be shown: Michelangelo was parsimonious with paper and regularly used both sides.
The best aspect of this design is its overall effect, which is part library, part religious space - entirely appropriate for an artist who took Roman Catholicism deeply to heart - and part nod to a much older type of museum design admired by our Victorian forebears. It is a grown-up style of display (and patently not aimed at children, but then how many young children are honestly going to enjoy 95 sketches from the 16th century?).
Most importantly it is not dark; the lecterns are all cream and the drawings they hold are on the palest of mounts, barely distinguishable from the paper itself. Although the drawings are at the requisite 40-50 lux, the floor has been lit, bouncing light around the rest of the space to create something almost airy.
It is quite a contrast to most drawings shows, including the BM's own dark red Dürer show of 2003. Even so, the mood darkens throughout as the grey-beige walls gradually deepen in shade. The last room, which presents three large studies of the Crucifixion made shortly before Michelangelo's own death, is a moving experience.
The other artful feature is the way that interpretation is cleverly entwined with the design. While ledges on the lecterns provide space for relatively detailed information about each drawing, the walls are used to dramatic effect. Each section has a large heading, big enough to been seen easily above the lecterns of drawings: the Florentine Republic; Working for the Medici; the Private Michelangelo; and so on.
Floor-to-ceiling black-and-white photographs of key works that relate to the drawings - the Laurentian Library, the massive marble tomb of Giuliano de' Medici - cover parts of each wall. Each section includes quotes from Michelangelo (a poet and inveterate letter-writer), real letters (and translations) and contextual information and objects.
The design has, as far as possible, moved potentially intrusive labels away from the drawings for those who like to look at the works interrupted, while providing a more educational experience for those of us who are not always convinced that works truly 'speak' to us after half a millennium.
In general, the complexities of Michelangelo attribution are left alone, though this is discussed in the catalogue. However, two 'ideal head' drawings are contrasted - one by Michelangelo and one of doubtful provenance.
On first glance it is almost impossible to see the difference, but as you are forced to look closely, the quality and subtlety of the modelling of one is gradually revealed. I don't remember having to look so long and so carefully at a drawing for quite some time.
Only one interpretive gimmick is used and fortunately it works well. At the centre of the exhibition, as it was in Michelangelo's life, is an area entirely devoted to the Sistine Chapel. Above our head is, as it must have been for Michelangelo as he painted, a life-size virtual recreation of some of the most famous figures.
At the sides, simple interactives allow visitors to select particular drawings, see how they were turned into the Sistine paintings and then locate them on the Sistine ceiling. Like the rest of this exhibition, even this interactive is deceptively simple, unfussy and allows the work to breathe in light and space.
Jane Morris writes about museums and galleries and is a judge of the European Museum of the Year
Project data
Cost: £250,000
Main sponsor: BP
Curator: Hugo Chapman
Exhibition design: British Museum, Metaphor
Catalogue: British Museum Press
Main build: Mark 2 Construction
Graphics: BAF
Lighting: DHA
Exhibition ends: 25 June
