Thursday, March 6, the Muscarelle Museum of Art unveiled its new exhibition, “Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine,” to the public. The exhibition celebrates Michelangelo’s famous paintings on the walls and ceilings of the Vatican City’s Sistine Chapel, displaying the artist’s preparatory drawings for these final frescoes.
“The Genesis of the Sistine” showcases 25 sketches, including seven never before displayed in the United States. These sheets are accompanied by life-sized digital print reproductions of the final Sistine Chapel frescoes on the museum walls.
“What we thought was important was to mix drawings with the real, at least, the reproductions of the paintings,” exhibition curator Adriano Marinazzo said. “I think this was pivotal for the visitors to enjoy, to understand the importance of the drawings.”
The exhibition also features Marinazzo’s original video installation “This is Not My Art,” a 3D model reconstruction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling architecture.
“The title is ‘This is Not My Art’ because, when the Pope asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling, Michelangelo said ‘Wait, wait, wait, Pope, I’m a sculptor, I’m not a painter, this is not my art,’” Marinazzo said. “It refers, also, to the video. It’s not the art of me doing the video, but it’s Michelangelo’s art.”
Marinazzo came upon many of the sketches in the collection while studying at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, the former home of Michelangelo which now serves as a museum and archive of the artist’s work. The drawings now displayed at the Muscarelle make up about half of the less than 50 surviving sketches for the Sistine Chapel.
“Michelangelo used to destroy his drawings. For him they were just working tools, and so there are few drawings in the world. What is important is that these drawings represent the first ideas of Michelangelo, the raw creativity,” Marinazzo said.
The exhibition consists of five galleries on the second floor of the newly renovated and reopened Muscarelle Museum of Art. The walls of the first three exhibition rooms are painted the same blue as the background of the Genesis scenes in the chapel.
The first gallery includes a sonnet written by Michelangelo which features a sketch resembling the Sistine Chapel ceiling’s architecture. Marinazzo believes this to be the earliest surviving drawing for the chapel ceiling.
“I thought, this is the genesis of the work, the beginning,” Marinazzo said.
This first room also contains two sketches of apostles from the original design of 12 apostles commissioned by Pope Julius II. The two drawings had previously been displayed separately until Marinazzo’s research concluded they were part of the same sheet with one on top of the other.
The second gallery reflects Michelangelo’s expanded design for the ceiling, featuring preparatory drawings for scenes from the Book of Genesis that ended up in the chapel, including The Flood. Another sonnet written by Michelangelo features a self-portrait sketch of the artist painting the ceiling. Marinazzo found the figure in this drawing mirrors one of the Sistine Chapel’s most famous scenes.
“If we rotate the self-portrait, we see Michelangelo is creating the ceiling painting like God is creating Adam,” Marinazzo said. “I did this comparison also because Michelangelo, he really thought, was a messenger of God.”
The third gallery features drawing studies from Michelangelo’s second phase of work on the Sistine. This room includes an arm study resembling God in the Creation of Adam and a sketch of the Prophet Jonah which faces the opposite direction as the final painting.
“These sketches, drawings also make you understand the process, the difference of ideas,” Marinazzo said.
The fourth gallery, before Marinazzo’s video in the fifth room, contains rare sketches for “The Last Judgment” fresco on the altar wall of the chapel.
The exhibition will be on display for 12 weeks. The drawings on display are only permitted to be exposed to light for a short duration every three to five years.
Muscarelle director David Brashear expressed appreciation for how such monumental pieces of Italian art ended up on display in Williamsburg. He explained that research on Italian Renaissance art by College of William and Mary art history faculty and past Muscarelle directors forged international relationships that the museum continues to grow.
“There’s no real logical reason why the Muscarelle Museum should be doing these exhibitions in collaboration with these Europeans, Italian museums,” Brashear said. “I would argue that we probably have as good relationships as any American art museum with the leading Italian cultural institutions.”
Students who attended the opening expressed their connection to the historic work by witnessing Michelangelo’s artistic process.
“I was surprised how connected I felt to something that was drawn 500 years ago,” Daniel Kalish ’25 said. “I’ve seen Michelangelo works online and I’ve been lucky enough to see some of them in person, but to see the actual thought process and the sketches adds a human layer to a work.”
Members of Museum University Student Engagement emphasized the rare chance for students to view these art pieces.
“I think it’s a really incredible opportunity for not only the Muscarelle, but for William and Mary, and as an intern here, as well as just a student who loves art, I think it’s a really cool piece of history that I think a lot of students would really enjoy,” MUSE co-chair Max Belmar ’25 said.
Brashear hopes all students of the College, even those not involved with the visual arts, will visit the exhibit and the entire Muscarelle. He mentioned how the museum’s lead donor, Martha Wren Briggs ’55, prioritized engagement with the visual arts to broaden students’ horizons.
“I understand if you’re not interested in art, but open your mind to being exposed to it,” Brashear said. “Come do your homework, maybe Thursday afternoons, that’s your favorite homework spot in our study center. One of those days, you’re going to get bored and you’re going to walk upstairs, and that’s going to fulfill Martha Wren Briggs’s vision.”
