'In the year 1475 in the Casenino, under a fateful and lucky star, the virtuous and noble wife of Ludowico di Leonardo Buonarroti gave birth to a baby son... The boy was born on Sunday, March 6th, about the eighth hour of the night; and without further ado his father decided to call him Michelangelo, being inspired by heaven and convinced that he saw in him something supernatural and beyond human experience.'
Thus wrote the entertaining author Giogio Vasari, whose recollections enliven the current Michelangelo exhibition at the Czartoyski Museum. As Vasari wrote, the young Michelangelo was 'destined to fashion sublime and magnificent works of art', and you can catch a glimpse of a handful of these at the museum's show.
However, before you get too excited, we have to confess that this is a very modest show, with just half a dozen sketches by the master. What's equally interesting however, are the accompanying exhibits, which demonstrate how the Italian influenced later generations of Polish artists, not least Stanislaw Wyspianski (, himself a trailblazer and a multi-talented artist.
Besides a slide-show documenting Michelangelo's immovable works back in Italy, there are some reproductions of the great man's frescoes. The sketches themselves may appear something of a let down at first sight, but they hint at the sheer breadth of Michelangelo's pre-occupations, from city fortification to church planning. The sketch for a portrait of Leda leaves no doubt as to the artist's exceptional powers at rendering the human form. But before we get sucked into art historian talk, let's cut our losses and just say go and have a look for yourself - the beauty of the portrait speaks for itself!
|