Nobody does it better

Sixteenth century Florentine bliss, as personified by several score of drawings. Under the patronage of the Medici, Michelangelo and cohorts (and followers and acolytes) executed sketches for the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio. (Modern-day plutocrats please take note.) There's Pontormo's study of two men: one figure is in motion as if caught by a strobe, position after position loosly rendered over the previous. The effect is strikingly modern, the line quick and free-flowing. Sig. Buonarroti has only two drawings here--one of a man's leg (but what a leg! the depiction of the thigh muscles is extraordinary--aah, but you knew that) and the other, the bust of a woman. The lady is classical, with a fantastic hairdo, and her demeanor is calm. Forgive the way-off left nipple and focus on her face. What was he thinking??? Bronzino was thinking of a magnificent nude man seen from the back. Supple, natural, fluid, graceful. Tactile, like a Bruce Weber model. This figure was meant to be life-size, as part of the private chapel of Cosimo's wife. Just the form to stare at while she's on her knees, praying. (Consider it a marital aid: she gave him ten children.) And women? Pivot for his lady that owns the show. This "Gentlewoman" (I cannot glibly call her a dame) whispers serenity and aloofness. A beguiling beauty, too, in that clear Mannerist way. I found this portrait mesmerizing; one could build an entire novel around it.
And so it goes. Andrea del Sarto, Baccio Bandinelli, and that diligent biographer/artist Vasari.

This exhibit isn't travelling, so you will.

I'm kind-of stingy with the appellation "masterpiece", but here you've got enough of them to last the evening. The pleasure is sensual.


"Michelangelo, Vasari, and Their Contemporaries: Drawings from the Uffizi", at the Morgan Library
225 Madison Ave at 36 st.
212-685-0800
through April 20
www.morganlibrary.org

p.s. In exchange for waiving admission on Friday evenings, the Morgan subjects its visitors to the sawing of a live string quartet. You are warned.

images, from top:
Pontormo (1494-1556)
Two Studies of Male Figures, 1521
Black chalk and red chalk, red wash, heightened with white chalk (v.)-Red chalk (r.)
11 1/4 x 16 1/16 in. (285 x 408 mm)
Gabinetto Designi e Stampe degli Uffizi; 6740 F

Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo) (1503-1572)
Male Nude Seen from Behind, 1540-46
Black chalk, grey wash on paper tinted with yellow ochre
16 5/8 x 6 1/2 in. (422 x 165 mm)
Gabinetto Designi e Stampe degli Uffizi; 6704 F