The Last Judgment
1570–90
Medium
Black chalk on brownish paper
Dimensions
10-11/16 x 17-1/16 in. (27.2 x 43.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gift, 1967
Accession Number
67.152
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold Michelangelo Buonarroti's captivating drawing *The Last Judgment* (1570–90), a black chalk study on brownish, measuring just 10-11/16 x 17-1/16 inches. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints, this intimate sheet—acquired through the Arthur A. Houghton. Gift in 1967—offers a rare glimpse into the Renaissance genius's late-period imagination. Black chalk, favored by Michelangelo for its rich tonal range, allowed him to model forms with dramatic depth and subtle gradations, evoking the emotional intensity of his monumental frescoes. This work centers on the apocalypti...
About the Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti · 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...