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

Various figure Studies (verso)

1511-12
Red chalk over deawing in stylus, 265 x 195 mm
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

The two male nudes at the right end of this sheet reappear on the Sistine ceiling in the form of the two genii above and beneath the figure of God the Father in the Creation of Adam scene. The large nude study depicted at the centre of the sheet is connected with the genius that support God the Father from below. Beneath it is a study of the famous right hand of God which was cut from the sheet at some unknown point in time and restored to its original place in 1952.

The knee at the bottom left edge of the sheet corresponds to the Ignudo at the left above the Persian Sibyl.