Michelangelo’s Women: Images of Female Power and Divinity from the Casa Buonarroti

Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and renowned poet Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) loved women, not as objects of physical desire but as fully realized, powerful, heroic figures, equal to and sometimes superior to men. Women appear everywhere in his work, from the Sistine Chapel to his famous Pietà. Curiously, no book or exhibition has ever been devoted exclusively to Michelangelo’s women. Casual observers usually dismiss them as overly muscular and long-limbed. This exhibition argues, however, that there were many reasons that Michelangelo imagined these women as superheroes.

Drawn from the historic collections of the artist’s own family, Michelangelo’s Women will use his drawings, poetry, and letters, some never before seen in the United States, to encourage visitors to think about the ways that Michelangelo looked at women and what women saw in his works. It will also introduce visitors to patron and muse Vittoria Colonna (1492–1547) and preservationist Rosina Vendramin (1814–1856), women who supported Michelangelo and maintained his legacy. Reproductions of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Last Judgment will allow visitors to have new, close studies of the women the artist included in his most famous works.

Exhibition support provided by:

Mr. & Mrs. Angus C. Littlejohn, Jr., Mrs. Thomas R. McWhorter, the Keith/Klement Family Foundation, the Sheriff Family Foundation, Mrs. Inge A. Brasseler, Mr. & Mrs. Robert S. Jepson, Jr., Mr. & Mrs. B. H. Levy, Jr., Mrs. Deanie Strength & Mr. Joey Strength, Pamela & Marek Lewanda, Dr. Kristina & Mr. Jason Riopelle, & Mr. J. Wilson Morris.