Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance

Michelangelo’s sculptures, paintings, and architectural projects have been the subject of artistic admiration for more than 500 years. As a companion to Michelangelo: Mind of the Master, on view in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall from September 22, 2019, to January 5, 2020, Master/Apprentice: Imitation and Inspiration in the Renaissance surveys the impact of Michelangelo—his practice, his projects, and his biography—on artists working in the Renaissance and beyond. The works on view examine how Florentine artists modeled their approach to the human form and their working methods on those of Michelangelo, as well as how artists further afield emulated and reinterpreted his work. The exhibition features prints reproducing and quoting Michelangelo’s major projects alongside works that document his architectural impact on the city of Rome. Drawn entirely from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection, the prints, drawings, and sculpted plaques on view explore a range of responses to Michelangelo and his work.

Organized in collaboration with graduate students in the course After Michelangelo, taught by Dr. Emily Peters and associate professor Erin Benay in the CMA-CWRU Joint Program