Michelangelo's masterpiece The Dream (or Il Sogno) has been described as one of the finest of all Italian Renaissance drawings and is amongst The Courtauld Gallery's greatest treasures. Executed in c. 1533, when Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was at the height of his career, this magnificent work exemplifies Michelangelo's unrivalled skill as draughtsman and his extraordinary powers of invention. Accompanying an exhibition at the Courtauld, this catalogue examines this celebrated work in the context of an exceptional group of closely related drawings by Michelangelo, as well as some of his original letters and poems and works by his contemporaries.
The Dream is one of Michelangelo's 'presentation drawings', a magnificent and famous group of highly refined compositions which the artist gave to his closest friends. These beautiful and complex works transformed drawings into an independent art form and are amongst Michelangelo's very finest creations in any medium. The Dream was probably one of a superb group made for a young Roman nobleman with whom Michelangelo was in love, Tommaso de' Cavalieri, who was celebrated for his outstanding beauty, gracious manners and intellect. This group forms the heart of the exhibition and includes The Punishment of Tityus, The Fall of Phaeton, A Bacchanal of Children and The Rape of Ganymede. In his Life of Michelangelo (1568) the biographer and artist Giorgio Vasari praised these exceptional works as "drawings the like of which have never been seen" - and they are still regarded as amongst the greatest single series of drawings ever made.
Michelangelo's drawings fro Cavalieri have not been seen together for over twenty years and this is the first time ever that The Dream will be shown as part of this group. Exceptionally also, The Fall of Phaeton will be reunited with two earlier verions of this composition, one of which carries an inscriprion in Michelangelo's hand requesting Cavalieri's approval of the preliminary design.
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