Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Michelangelo: The Last Decades

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Study for the ‘Last Judgment,’ c. 1534–36.

May 2 – July 28, 2024
Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK

Michelangelo moved to Rome in 1534, at the age of 59. He was already the most celebrated artist in Europe, renowned for his sculpture David and the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but he was old. And yet the move marked the beginning of a new chapter. Michelangelo had been summoned by Pope Clement VII to add a fresco of the Last Judgment to the Sistine Chapel. This exhibition looks at his last period and its work, and explores themes of religion, death, and salvation. The show “also introduces visitors to Michelangelo as a man, bound in a rich network of friendships,” says the curator Sarah Vowles, “and brings his own voice to the fore—articulate, impassioned, often prickly, but never anything less than compelling.” —Jeanne Malle

Photo: © the Trustees of the British Museum