A rare collection of sketches by Michelangelo, made in preparation for painting the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, is on display in the United States.
The Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is now hosting the exhibition Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine, which opened on March 6 and will run through May 28, 2025. The show coincides with the 550th anniversary of the Renaissance artist’s birth and offers an unprecedented glimpse into his creative process.
While Michelangelo is said to have created hundreds, if not thousands, of drawings before committing them to plaster on the 12,000-square-foot frescoed ceiling in the Vatican, fewer than 50 exist today. The scenes portrayed in the Sistine Chapel are from the Bible’s Book of Genesis, including iconic artworks such as The Creation of Adam and The Fall of Man. Shortly before he died in 1564, the Italian artist destroyed many of the sketches, as they were never intended to be viewed by the public. This exhibit presents 25 of those surviving works, seven of which have never been seen in the United States.
Curated by Adriano Marinazzo, a leading scholar of Michelangelo and Italian Renaissance art, the exhibition is the result of 15 years of research and collaboration with leading Italian art institutions, including the Gallerie degli Uffizi and Casa Buonarroti, both in Florence, and the Musei Reali in Torino, which are lending some of the pieces to the exhibition. Italian authorities allow the sketches to leave the country for only 12 weeks every few years, making this a rare immersion into Michelangelo’s artistic vision.
“Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine offers visitors an unparalleled opportunity to step into the mind of one of history’s greatest artists and witness the process behind a masterpiece widely considered the pinnacle of artistic achievement,” Marinazzo told Afar.
Among the pieces are two sketches of the 12 apostles (the disciples of Jesus in the New Testament), which Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, wanted Michelangelo to include in the upper corners of the ceiling, but whose likeness was ultimately scrapped by the artist. Also on display is a doodle on the bottom of a poem written by Michelangelo that scholars consider the earliest drawing of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The drawing debuted at this exhibition; it has never before been displayed anywhere else.
Beyond the sketches, the exhibition includes a portrait of Michelangelo by Renaissance artist Giuliano Bugiardini, also being shown in the U.S. for the first time, and two self-portraits by Michelangelo of himself painting the famed ceiling. Visitors will also find engravings, lithographs, and other materials meant to provide a better understanding of how Michelangelo created what is arguably his most famous piece of art. There are also life-size reproductions of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, including The Creation of Adam and the premiere of Marinazzo’s This Is Not My Art, an immersive 3D video art installation that represents the Sistine Chapel ceiling’s architectural structure.
“I hope visitors leave with a deeper appreciation for Michelangelo’s journey—not only the monumental effort required to conceive and execute the Sistine ceiling but also the deeply human struggles, ambitions, and shifting ideas that defined his work,” Marinazzo said. “The exhibition presents many drawings by Michelangelo never exhibited before in the United States, offering a rare glimpse into the artist’s visionary mind.”
The exhibition is among the first major showcases in the newly renovated Muscarelle Museum, which reopened on February 8, 2025, following a two-year, $43 million expansion.
How to visit
Those interested in witnessing the artwork can visit muscarelle.wm.edu to get tickets and check out information and additional programming. The museum is about a mile from Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that depicts life as it was in 18th-century Virginia.
Visitors to the area can stay in a historic hotel within Williamsburg, such as the Williamsburg Lodge, Autograph Collection, envisioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1939. Nearby is also the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, the country’s oldest American folk art institution.
