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Subject
Michelangelo’s highly complex allegory shows an idealised nude youth surrounded by worldly vices. A winged being approaches with a trumpet as if to awaken him to a new life. This exceptionally refined work epitomises the notion of a master drawing: executed with great skill by an artist whom contemporaries dubbed ‘The Divine’. it was produced as an independent work. Michelangelo may have presented it to his beloved friend. the beautiful young Roman nobleman Tommaso de’ Cavalieri. It immediately became famous among collectors and artists. Numerous copies were made and. unusually for a drawing. it acquired a title when the Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari named it il Sogno in 1568.

Repository Institution
www.glencairnmuseum.org

To purchase an image
www.glencairnmuseum.org


In permanent location

D.1978.PG.424

Ivory;wood (core);iron (lock and keyhole)

See the Sogno figure by Leonardo da Pistoia in the Presentation Altarpiece, Naples, and also Giovanni Baglione's 'Thalia' in the Musée des Beaux-Arts at Arras (on deposit from the Louvre), which is illustrated in R. Morselli (ed) : La Celeste Galleria: Le raccolte, exh. cat., Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, 2002, p. 162, no. 68h. for comparison.

Randall 1993: North Italian (Savoy?), 1390-1410. The shape and painted ornament indicate that a Sicilian model was being imitated.


Reverse
NB if lent, loan cannot be covered under GIS - only repairable damage up to maximum of the tax settlement value. Inform Arts Council if work is lent.

Comments
NB if lent, loan cannot be covered under GIS - only repairable damage up to maximum of the tax settlement value. Inform Arts Council if work is lent.

Provenance
Acquired by Raymond Pitcairn in 1927.

Bibliography
R. H. Randall, The Golden Age of Ivory: Gothic Ivory Carvings in North American Collections (New York, 1993), no. 214.


Image

© The Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn (Pennsylvania).

All images on this website are made available exclusively for scholarly and educational purposes and may not be used commercially.

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