Event

In conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum's exhibit on Michelangelo, we are excited to welcome Dr. Marcella Marongiu, curator at Fondazione Casa Buonarroti in Florence (and one of the contributors to the Met exhibit's catalogue http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/01/18/michelangelo-divine-lust/), who will speak about "New Light on Michelangelo: the Discovery of Tommaso de' Cavalieri in the 19th Century." The talk will take place in Van Pelt 625 (Kislak) at 5:30pm.

For 240 years, people read Michelangelo's poems through the censored edition by his his grand-nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. The first critical edition, by Cesare Guasti, revealed in 1863 the real inspirer and addresse of most of his love poems: the young, beautiful nobleman Tommaso de'Cavalieri. Twelve years later, the 1875 edition of the letters by Michelangelo by Gaetano Milanesi, offered new evidence of this friendship and enlightened the group of extraordinary drawings Michelangelo presented to his friend. This presentation will examine the reaction of art historians and literary critics to this new image of the great artist, but also investigate the life and career of Tommaso de'Cavalieri, who is still awaiting an exhaustive biography.  

Marcella Marongiu (PhD Siena) is the author of Il mito di Ganimede prima e dopo Michelangelo (2002), and CVRRVS AVRIGA PATERNI. Fetonte nel Rinascimento (2008), both related to her interest in the circulation of classical subjects in the Renaissance. She has also extensively published on Michelangelo, his circle and his reception. Curator at Casa Buonarroti, she has been Fellow at Villa I Tatti and professor in the Master of Arts in Museum Studies (Marist College – Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici) in Florence. She is currently preparing a biography of Tommaso de' Cavalieri.

[Image in Upcoming Events feed: Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475–1564). Cleopatra, ca. 1534, Casa Buonarroti, Florence (inv. 2F)]