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Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Sketches Are Coming to America

A new exhibition opening next month at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, explores the Italian Renaissance master’s preparations for his famous ceiling frescoes

Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam, 1511. (Photo: Muscarelle Museum of Art)

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By Sarah Kuta

March 3, 2025
4:52 pm
Los Angeles, CA

While preparing to fresco the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, Italian artist Michelangelo created hundreds—possibly thousands—of small sketches to work out the design. He destroyed many of those preliminary drawings—which were never intended for public view—before his death in 1564. Less than 50 remain in existence today. Now, 25 of the rare sketches are coming to the United States for the 550th anniversary of the artist’s birthday. They’ll be featured in an upcoming show, titled “Michelangelo: The genesis of the Sistine,” which will open this March at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Authorities only allow the sketches to leave Italy for 12 weeks every few years—so securing them for the exhibition required careful planning and coordination, per Artnet. Several will be making their American

Now, 25 of the rare sketches are coming to the United States for the 550th anniversary of the artist’s birthday. They’ll be featured in an upcoming show, titled “Michelangelo: The genesis of the Sistine,” which will open this March at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Authorities only allow the sketches to leave Italy for 12 weeks every few years—so securing them for the exhibition required careful planning and coordination, per Artnet.

Michelangelo, Study for the Cumaean Sibyl, 1510. (Photo: Muscarelle Museum of Art)

Several will be making their American debut, having never been exhibited in the country before. Others show figures that Michelangelo initially sketched, but ultimately did not fresco onto the ceiling. One may be Michelangelo’s first sketch for the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Some of the drawings also detail Michelangelo’s plans for The Last Judgment, a fresco he created on the wall behind the Sistine Chapel’s altar.

In addition to the sketches, the exhibition will include other artifacts, including letters, two self-portraits and a portrait of Michelangelo created by Italian artist Giuliano Bugiardini.

Visitors will also be able to see large recreations of scenes from the Sistine Chapel, created using detailed image files provided by the Vatican Museums. The three galleries dedicated to the recreations feature deep blue walls, gold accents and soft lighting, design choices that aim to create an atmosphere of reverence and reflection.

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso). Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, Caprese 1475–1564 Rome). ca. 1510–11. Red chalk, with small accents of white chalk on the left shoulder of the figure in the main study (recto); soft black chalk, or less probably charcoal (verso) (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

“That’s where it’s really going to become powerful for viewers,” David Brashear, the museum’s director, tells Artnet’s Adam Schrader. “Like, ‘this is the head of one of the figures in the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes’ and ‘this is what it looks like in the final form, as Michelangelo put it up on the ceiling.’”

Adriano Marinazzo, the show’s curator, also created a 3D video installation called This Is Not My Art to help further immerse visitors in Michelangelo’s work at the Sistine Chapel. Before coming to Williamsburg, Marinazzo studied Michelangelo in the archives at Casa Buonarroti, a museum located inside the artist’s former home.

“By combining this unparalleled access with modern technology, I’ve been able to bring fresh insights to Michelangelo’s work,” Marinazzo says in a statement. “Digital tools have allowed me to compare artworks in new ways, trace connections between seemingly unrelated pieces and reconstruct lost or unseen details.”

The Muscarelle Museum of Art is fresh off a $43 million renovation and expansion project that adds an additional 42,000 square feet to the venue, per the Virginia Gazette. Four of the museum’s 14 galleries will be used for the Michelangelo exhibition, which opens on the Renaissance master’s birthday.

“This will be our first blockbuster show,” Brashear tells the Virginia Gazette’s Brandy Centolanza.

“Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine” will be on view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art from March 6 through May 28.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine