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PAPER THRESHOLD: THE DRAWNGS OF MICHELANGELO A mEsis SUW~TO THE F~cu~rvOF GRADUATE STUDcES AND RESEARCH IN PAITnAL NLFiLLMENT Of THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OC MASCEROF ARCHITEC~URE National Library BiMiothègue nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellingtori OttawaON KlAW OtÉawaON KlAW canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aliowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêt&, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. 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Paper Threshold: The Drawings of Michelangelo Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Reading Between the Lines Threshold of Three Hyper-dialectic Michelangelo Resolution of Love Threshold I VISION Drawing Fire The Drawing of Disegno Drawing Sketches Drawing lnner and Outer Visions Lineamenta of Alberti Vasari's Speculation Michelangelo's Concetto Riddles On 'The Road to Prato' Phantasia Th reshold Beauty and Bees Liver Divination Bittersweet Visions Michelangelo and Dioncrates: Colossal Artifice Table of Contents - Threshold II ACTION The Artist as Entrepreneur The Drawing of the Soul Drawing Bodies, Building Temples Contrapposto Positioning The Drawing of the Asterisk The Drawing of the Triangle Michelangelo and Albrecht Durer The Face of San Lorenzo Flesh Facade Animated Constructions The Drawing of the Interface The Drawing of the Mode//o The Inter-Connection of Diverse Parts The Drawing of Profil10 The Drawing of the Flesh The Drawing of Modani The Drawing of the List The Drawing of the Signature Orawing on the Wall Drawing as De-Signing - Phantasia Destructuring The Drawing of the Musde The Drawing of the Stair Table of Contents Threshold III LOVE Between the Christian and Pagan - Drawings for Tommaso The Orientation of Desire Hemaphrodism of the Soul Diotima's Difficult Love Tommaso de' Cavalieri -The Love of Which I Speak The Rape of Ganyrnede The Confrcrpposto of Ganymede Tender Buttocks: The Ganymede of Poliphili Ganymede in the VauR Ganymede Paired with Tiiyus Tityus Paired with Prometheus The Curse of Prometheus The RectoNerso of Tityus and the Risen Christ A Conceptual Space: Ganymede - Tityus - The Risen Christ The Mam'age of Poetry and hiesis Threshold Dovetail Library Choreography The Poem at the Threshold Pain Threshold Poetry and Poiesis CONCLUSION Threshold Crossing Bibliography Chronology Table of Contents Acknowledgements For both the construction of the threshold and guidance in my passage I thank Dr. At berto Parez-Gomez for his support of my efforts, considered criticism and teaching a philosophy centred on love. For the opportunity to study original drawings and documents of Michelangelo, I wish to recognize the cooperation of the British Museum's Room for Drawings and Prints in London, the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, Casa Buonarroti and the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence. I wish to acknowledge Tracey Eve Winton for being my humourous muse and careful transiator, Terrance Galvin for his intelledual astuteness, Dr. Neil Hartrnan and Ross Boyd for consciousness proof-reading and Marta Franco for insightful comrnentary. Thanks to Sheryl Boyle for her Hemetic sense, and Jessica Hecht for her 'Breathing Apparatus'. I wish to acknowledge the financial support of Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide d la Research (FCAR) and McGill University Fellowship. As a final note, I give thanks to Susie a Spurdens for directions within the labyrinth, especially the map to Alberto's backdoor at the beginning of it ail. i Acknowledgments Abstract The following thesis is a meditation on the drawings of Michelangelo that are connected to his three projects at San Lorenzo and a series of 'gift' drawings for Tomasso de' Cavalieri. The drawings offer a glimpse of his radically inventive imagination that calls for an architecture rooted in the sou1 and based on the appearance of a 'live' and an ernotive body. Engaged within a holistic fabrication of architecture, both the recto and the verso of the sheet are constnicted as palimpsests compfised of design sketches, figurative studies. poetic fragments and pragmatic calculations. As instruments of communication, MichelangeIo's paper templates are intermediaries between the 'Divine One's' mindful hand and the scarpellini's chisel. A line can be traced from the outline of his disegno, the profillo of a face and the cut line of his modani Poetry and profiles cross- pollinate in a poiesis of architecture that culminates at a threshold - the hinge between being and becoming - the place where Love tosses in his sleep. Cette thèse prend comme objet les dessins que Michelange a tait pour ses trois projets à San Lorenzo et ceux offerts en cadeaux a Tomasso delCavalieri. Les dessins nous permettent de discerner l'imagination inventive et radicale de Michelange, et sa vision pour une architecture enracinée dans l'âme et basée sur l'apparition d'un corps 'vivant' et emotif. Lancé dans une reconstruction totale de l'architecture chaque feuille, dont le recto et verso comprennent des esquisses de dessin, des études figuratives, des fragments poétiques et des calculations pragmatiques, est construite comme un palimpseste. Consideré commes des instruments de communicaiton, les patrons en papier de Michelange sont d'intermediaires entre la main pensante de 1' 'Étre divin' et le ciseau du scarpellini On peut tracer une ligne de l'esquisse de son disegno au profillo d'une visage dessiné, ou a la ligne coupée de son modani. La poésie et les profiles s'interpénètrent dans un poiesis d'architecture qui mène à un seuii - le lien entre l'être et le devenir - le lieu où l'amour se tourne et retourne dans son sommeil. Paper Threshold: The Drawings of Michelangelo Reading Between the Lines Michelangelo did not write a treatise,' but he did leave an incredible legacy through his artistic production which crossed the boundaries of poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture. His body of work is so extensive, that its study should warrant a focus on one of its parts, one of his 'phases'. in order to approach an understanding of his 'holistic' vision. His drawings offer a type of visual treatise, a datum and a point of depaiture for an interpretative study. They offer a common 'surface of speculation' where various artistic modes intersect and his process of working can be re-created. His design drawings are not merely re-presentations, but are instants in which the dynamics of his architecture are present ' Atthough Michebngelo expressed a desire to write a treatise, he never wrote one. From Condivi's account of Michehngeb's intentions, the major t heme of Michelangelo's t reatise wouM have been the hurnan body that would have been written expressly for painters and sculptors with particular attention on the skeleton. Ascanio Condivi writes: "...he often had in his mind the wish to write, for the sake of sculptors and painters. a treatise on the movements of the human body, its aspect, and corrceming the bones. with an ingenious theory of his own, devised after long practice. He would have done it had he not mistwted his powers. lest they should not suffice to treat with dignity and grace of such a subject. like one practiced in the sciences and in rhetoric." Ascanio Condivi, Life of MichelangeIo, tram Charles Holroyd (London: Duckworth and Company. 1911). p. 69. Conceming the documentation of Buonarroti's thoughts, a biography was written by Michelangelo's young disciple, Ascanio Condivi, who wrote while Michelangeb spoke. Vita di Michelangelo was published in 1553. Later after Michebngelo died in 1564, Vasari. wrote an account of Michelangelo's life in which he incorporated some of Condivi's material as well as conversations that he had with Michelangeb in the 15501s,that was part of Vasafis first book. Vasari's second expanded book on Michelangelo was published in 1568. As well, there are The Dialogues of Rome by Francisco de Holbnda. De Holbnda vent over a decade in the humanist circles of ltaly and was a Portuguese miniature painter. Also in existence are Mlchelangelo's conversations in the 1540's with his friend the Florentine humanist. Donato Giannotti. The most solid reconstruction of Mlchehngeb's conceptions rest within his letters and poems. Conceming the latter Luigi del Riccio. a friend of Michebngelo, insisteci that a selection of 105 poems shouid O be published. However, this project was abandoned upon the death of del Riccio. 1 Introduction Woodcut, Hypnemtomhia Polyphili (1499) Polyphilo with Logistica and Thdernia confronts aie Ihree doors. This thesis reads between the lines of the early drawings of Michelangelo and 0 focuses on a dissertation that reflects on his thinking and making. Most of the drawings are connected with his projects for San Lorenzo's church and library, between 1527 and 1~34.~These years marked Michelangelo's return to Florence, his initial development as an 'architect', the beginning of his relationship with a young Roman nobleman, Tomasso de' Cavalieri and his subsequent departure to Rome in 1534. The drawings of this period include: rectoherso architectural design drawings, a series of paper templates for the stonecutters and 'gift' drawings for de' Cavalieri.