'Michelangelo & Men' at Teylers Museum
A new perspective on the male body in the work and life of Michelangelo
Thursday 7 November 2024
Five hundred and fifty years after his birth, Teylers Museum is paying homage to one of the most celebrated artists in history. On display from 15 October 2025 up to and including 25 January 2026, the exhibition Michelangelo & Men zooms in on the glorious leading role the male body played in both the life and art of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). An international first: never before has an exhibition been entirely dedicated to this theme. Michelangelo & Men sheds new light on Michelangelo’s thoughts and actions, while also drawing parallels to the present day.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Study for an ignudo in the Sistine Chapel, c. 1511
Naked and muscular
Michelangelo was fascinated by the male body. Featuring in nearly all his artworks, he often portrayed it naked, muscular, and in provocative and expressive poses.The most important piazza in Florence formed the backdrop for Michelangelo’s five-metre-tall marble statue of a nude man: David.And in the Sistine Chapel in Rome — right in the heart of the Vatican, the centre of the Roman-Catholic church — he painted a ceiling teeming with male nudes.Both David and The Creation of Adam are artworks that are so deeply embedded in our collective memory that we often take them for granted. In Michelangelo's own time, however, these works were revolutionary, and over the course of history they were frequently considered controversial.
Multiple perspectives
Michelangelo & Men examines the male body in Michelangelo’s work and life from all angles: from the outside influences of his predecessors and classical antiquity, to his own extensive anatomic knowledge and use of male models.Also highlighted is the theoretical and religious significance of the male body to Michelangelo, as well as his presumed personal predilection for men.In the exhibition a number of contemporary voices furthermore reflect on how Michelangelo represented the male figure: from queer to Roman Catholic, and from feminist to fitfluencer.In this way the exhibition also addresses timeless themes like gender, sexuality, and beauty ideals.
Drawings, sculptures, and letters
In 1790, the then recently opened Teylers Museum acquired a large collection of Italian drawings in Rome, including 22 drawings by Michelangelo.Counted among the most beautiful drawings he ever made, these works form the backbone of the exhibition. This world-class collection belonging to the oldest museum in the Netherlands is supplemented with over twenty international loans.As well as drawings, these also include sculptures, a letter, and a fragment from a poem written by Michelangelo.Also shown are a book and a number of drawings and prints by friends, students, and followers of the artist.The works were loaned from organizations like The Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, The British Museum in London, the Uffizi in Florence, and the Louvre in Paris.Art-historical highlights that have never been shown in the Netherlands before will be brought to Haarlem, including The Dream from The Courtauld Gallery in London, and Study for the Libyan Sibyl from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.As drawings are vulnerable to light they are rarely exhibited.Seeing all these phenomenal artworks by Michelangelo together —in the Netherlands — is therefore a once in a lifetime opportunity.
