MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
(b. 1475, Caprese, d. 1564, Roma)

Two Male Figures after Giotto (recto)

1490-92
Pen and gray and brown ink over traces of drawing in stylus, 317 x 204 mm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

This drawing is Michelangelo's partial copy after Giotto's fresco of the Ascension of St John the Evangelist in the Peruzzi Chapel of Santa Croce in Florence. It is part of a series of early drawings in which he copied with minor alterations figures from the works of the older Florentine masters, Giotto and Masaccio.

This sheet, containing anatomical studies on the verso, is regarded as the earliest extant work by Michelangelo.