FEATURED FELLOW
Carmen C. Bambach, FAAR 1994, AFAAR 2005
Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer, showing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 13 to February 12, 2018, has been called “The must-see show of the season” by the New York Times, “...show of the year” by the New York Observer, and “Monumental” by the Village Voice. The eye behind this miraculous exhibition is Carmen C. Bambach, curator of Italian and Spanish drawings at the Met. She is a 1994 AAR-NEH Post-Doctoral Fellow and the 2005 Metropolitan Museum of Art Visiting Curator Affiliated Fellow.
For this exhibit she assembled 133 drawings from over 50 museums and private collections including the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the British Museum, the collection of Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor, the Uffizi, Casa Buonarroti and Bargello Museum in Florence, the national Museum in Naples, the Louvre, and the Albertina Museum in Vienna. What does it take to curate and install an exhibit of this magnitude? Read this article by Bill Glass.
In this short video Bambach analyzes one of the drawings, Studies for the Libyan Sybil, describing her feelings of “looking over Michelangelo's shoulder as he works,” beginning with a male figure that he converted to a female for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
A fascinating article in the Times by Daniel McDerman explores how Bambach reached the conclusion that a chalk drawing in the collection of the Stadel Museum in Frankfort, thought by some to be by Giorgio Giulio Clovio, is by Michelangelo.
The fragility of the drawings have limited the duration of the exhibition to three months under strict light an climate control. It will not travel, so this is the only chance to see it. If you can't go Bambach leads this 360 degree video tour.
Bambach will talk about the show on Sunday, January 7, 2018 at 2pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at the Met.
The catalogue is available at the Met Store or can be ordered.