Record-Setting Michelangelo Sketch Steps into the Spotlight
A previously unknown study for the Renaissance master’s Sistine Chapel frescoes was rediscovered by Christie’s auction house, where it sold for a new artist record.
Image courtesy of PDArt via Wikimedia Commons
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) may be one of the most famous artists in history, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to discover. A photograph of a sketch submitted to the online “Request an Estimate” portal at Christie’s auction house was determined to be the work of the Renaissance master. The sketch sold at Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings sale in New York on February 6, with the final bid reaching an artist record of $27.2 million.
The 5 1/4 -by-4 5/8-inch sketch was a study for the frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, one of Michelangelo’s most famous projects and, in the opinion of Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s Global Head of Old Masters, “arguably the greatest work of art ever made.” The subject of the sketch is a small detail: the right foot of the Libyan Sibyl, a figure in one of the panels flanking the Biblical scenes at the center of the ceiling.
The foot is drawn in red chalk, and the sketch is inscribed “Michel Angelo Buana Roti” in ink. A sketch of a bent knee is in black chalk on the reverse. Michelangelo used black chalk for his earliest studies for the Sistine Chapel, which was commissioned in 1508 and completed in 1512. The red chalk sketch of the Sibyl’s foot is believed to come from a later batch of studies. It was identified as Michelangelo’s work by Giada Damen, a Specialist in Christie’s Old Master Drawings Department.
Only about 600 drawings by Michelangelo are known to survive. This must be only a tiny fraction of the number he produced during his long, prolific career. The surviving sketches provide valuable insight into his creative process, his technical precision, and the sheer amount of work he put into his art. On the rare occasions his sketches come to auction, they sell for extremely high prices. The previous auction record for a work of art by Michelangelo was a pen-and-ink drawing, believed to be the artist’s earliest known nude study, that sold for €23.16 million (about $24.3 million) in a single-lot auction by Christie’s in Paris in 2022.
“In the 23-plus years I have been in the industry, I have been privileged to see many wonderful Old Masters moments, but today topped them all,” Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s Global Head of Old Masters, said about the sale of the sketch of the Sibyl’s foot. The discovery of a previously unknown work of art is always exciting. The artist's fame, the item's rarity, and its association with one of the world’s most awe-inspiring and historically significant works of art made this a sale to remember.
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