La Mano: una lascivia di Michelangelo e i suoi effetti

Abstract

Abstract This essay presents the hitherto unknown copy of a drawing by Michelangelo representing a hand performing a lascivious act, and assesses the consequences of this invention in the artist's circle. It is an image that fits well into the burlesque tendencies of the Renaissance, and perhaps pertains to the ideology of the procreative artist; its scheme was even adapted to devotional and narrative contexts by some painters who observed the drawing among the papers of the “divine” – such as the Master of the Manchester Madonna, Battista Franco, and Girolamo Muziano. Michelangelo's Hand involved layered motivations and gives insight into some aspects of the master's imagination during his early maturity.