The rebirth of the dynamic body

The exhibition Michelangelo and Beyond of the ALBERTINA in Vienna spans from the Renaissance to the modern era. Through drawings, prints, and sculptures, visitors learn how Michelangelo took the representation of the human nude to unimagined heights and how subsequent artists engaged with his work. With dynamic representations of the body and foreshortening, Michelangelo fascinated his contemporaries time and time again and is considered the forerunner of Mannerism. Here, for the first time, the idea emerged that an artist should develop his individual style instead of an academic ideal style. The exhibition, which is well worth seeing, will be on display from September 15, 2023 to January 14, 2024.

Contemporaries of the famous artist such as Raphael and Albrecht Dürer are represented here, as are subsequent greats, including Rembrandt van Rijn, Anton Raphael Mengs, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. By juxtaposing their imitation, further development, or rejection of Michelangelo's ideas, the latter's revolutionary spirit is made clear. Finally, modernism saw the decline of the ideal body image, as exemplified by Klimt and Schiele.