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

Three Standing Men (recto)

1494-96
Pen and brown ink, 292 x 200 mm
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

This is perhaps the most beautiful of Michelangelo's early drawings in which he copied with minor alterations figures from the works of the older Florentine masters, Giotto and Masaccio. The Three Standing Men were most likely copied from a scene in Masaccio's destroyed fresco in the cloister garth of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. Comparing with other existing copies of this fresco, it can be seen that Michelangelo departed from the original model.

On the verso Michelangelo depicted a kneeling man.