Michelangelo, Studies for the 'Last Judgement'

This drawing is a dense layering of numerous ideas for Michelangelo’s depiction of the ‘Last Judgment’ on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. It offers an insight into his teeming imagination, and shows his ability to move from consideration of the general scheme to zooming in on a particular figure, and back again. The larger-scale seated nudes, the central mass of bodies and the isolated single-figure studies are all ideas for different elements of the same composition, and the way they are arranged on the page allows us to follow Michelangelo’s train of thought as he confronts various challenges. At this stage the design was still remarkably flexible, but Michelangelo had a high retention rate and most of the figure poses and combinations made it into the fresco with only minor alterations. The group of two or three crouching figures in the upper left are possibly alternative ideas for the group directly below them. Only one idea was removed altogether: the angel strangling a damned soul at centre left, perhaps deemed too violent or unorthodox for the papal chapel.