Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo: Renaissance Rivals and Collaborators

The exhibition "Michelangelo e la Cappella Sistina" at Palazzo dei Priori in Viterbo, curated by Cristina Acidini and Alessandro Cecchi and strongly supported by Vittorio Sgarbi, showcases drawings from Casa Buonarroti alongside two works resulting from the collaboration between Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo: the Flagellation and the Pietà. Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo, identified by Esther Dotson as the main curator of the Sistine Chapel's iconographic program, served as the link between Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel, and Viterbo. The exhibition explores Michelangelo's creative process, including a sketch for the Last Judgment that is the first known and already shows the overall composition. It also documents the collaboration between Michelangelo and Sebastiano, which produced works such as the Transfiguration and the Raising of Lazarus, and the eventual end of their friendship over the commission of the Last Judgment, when Michelangelo rejected Sebastiano's suggestion to paint in oil, calling it "art for women and lazy people." The show includes a study for a resurrected Christ, a drawing for the expulsion from Eden showing Michelangelo's departure from Masaccio, and various ignudi sketches that resonate with drawings on the back of the Pietà.