Biography

Elena Alberio received her PhD in “History  and  Literature  of  modern  and  contemporary  age” from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milano in  2016.  Her dissertation  “Michelangelo’s Last Judgment between iconography and papal patronage: the martyrs’ group” explores Michelangelo’s fresco in relation to the historical context of the  mid-sixteenth  century and the Roman Church new challenges. She held an  internship  at  the  Vatican  Museums (2016) and collaborated with two exhibitions at Castello Sforzesco in Milan: L'Ultimo Michelangelo. Disegni e rime attorno alla Pietà Rondanini (2011) and D’après Michelangelo: la fortuna dei disegni per gli amici nelle arti del Cinquecento (2016). 

Project Summary

This project focuses on Michelangelo’s drawings for the Resurrection, a various group of sketches where Buonarroti studies both the single figure of the Resurrected Christ and the group of Risen Christ and soldiers next to come the sepulchre.

The thirteen drawings all share the same subject but they are different in composition, style and technique and still present some critical aspects concerning chronology, patronage and purpose. The Resurrection scene drawings seem to be projects for a fresco, possibly for the Sistine Chapel but the studies for Risen Christ are less easily attributable to a specific and common project and appear similar in technique and degree of finish to the so-called presentation drawings.

The research clarifies the period and the circumstances of execution of these drawings, examining similarities and differences in order to define the context in which this iconography is explored by Michelangelo and its relevance in Buonarroti's imaginary and coeval compositions as the Last Judgment.