In his Vite, Giorgio Vasari mentions rare drawings executed by Michelangelo which he describes as “teste divine” (“divine heads”). In some of these drawings earmarked as gifts for the young men he loved, Michelangelo represented female heads of a disturbing beauty, endowed with hairdos and garments of the most convolute nature. In his talk, Pericolo will analyze the “lyrical” character of Michelangelo’s divine heads by clarifying their function and meaning in light of Michelangelo’s poetic production: his Rime.
Lorenzo Pericolo is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Warwick. He has published extensively on Renaissance and Baroque Art. In 2011, he published Caravaggio and Pictorial Narrative: Dislocating the Istoria in Early Modern Painting. He is working on the critical edition of Carlo Cesare Malvasia’s Life of Guido Reni.