(Im)material Michelangelo. Toward a visual historiography of sculpture between reproduction and art-historical enquiry

Reproducing, representing, copying, or filming an artwork is the inevitable result of an interpretation, which can reveal neglected aspects of the original model, as well as disguise or change others. This is due both to the intentions of those involved in making or in requesting a copy and to the intrinsic difficulties of the translation from one medium to another. Within the frame of these general and methodological premises, the ten essays contained in this book examine reproductions and copies in different media of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s sculptures, exploring and investigating their visual historiography from the 16th century to the present days. Michelangelo’s peculiar way of dealing with materials – his habit of overtly exposing the traces of his working process, his uneven treatment of the surfaces, and his use of fragmented or sketched elements, as described by the well-known poetics of the non finito – raised specific problems and made it necessary to ‘re-mediate’ the originals’ materiality. Because of Buonarroti’s uninterrupted legacy, the volume considers the continuous mutation of his works’ reception over time: from 16th century copies to the miniaturized, decorative, reproductions made in Rodin’s time; from the illustrations of Sigmund Freud’s essay on the Moses to the photographs published by Erwin Panofsky in his studies on Michelangelo; from video footage in films to worldwide exhibitions, where replicas of the Vatican Pietà are often displayed and admired almost like new originals.