Bust portrait of Michelangelo facing right, set within a cartouche
Medium
Engraving
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.97.307
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking 1546 engraving presents a bust-length portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti in profile, elegantly framed within an ornate cartouche. Created by Giulio Bonasone, a skilled Bolognese printmaker active in Rome, the work captures the renowned sculptor and painter late in his career. The profile view, a classical convention revived during the Renaissance, emphasizes Michelangelo’s dignified features and intellectual gravitas, aligning with his status as one of the era’s greatest artistic figures. Engravings like this played a vital role in the 16th century by allowing images of celebra...
About the Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti|Giulio Bonasone · 1475–1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) stands as the quintessential figure of the Italian High Renaissance, a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose mastery across disciplines embodied the era's humanist ideals. Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese within the Republic of Florence to a modest family—his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, served as a minor magistrate—Michelang...