Michelangelo

Every post here is by Michelangelo.

Erisava Staff Jul 24

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl by Michelangelo, 1511

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Nudity

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

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This is one of several studies Michelangelo made while working out the Libyan Sibyl for the Sistine Chapel ceiling — the same sheet has more sketches on the back, including a small seated figure that never made it into the fresco. Apparently he drew from a male studio model even though the finished sibyl reads as a woman, which is why the anatomy here looks so unmistakably male.