Michelangelo's drawing, The Dream, is one of the greatest drawings ever produced
and it's one of the master drawings of The Courtauld's collection. Unusual for
Renaissance drawing of the time, it got its title already in the Renaissance,
when Giorgio Vasari called it 'Il Sogno', The Dream. Vasari doesn't tell us at all
who is dreaming, what is he dreaming about, so the meaning of the work is
a mystery still. It shows a seated nude youth who is reclining on an orb,
which is set on a box filled with masks. The orb has a line which explains that
it's the equator and it's a terrestrial globe.
The masks refer to falsities of the world and deceit. The youth doesn't seem
to realise that he is surrounded, in the picture, by a group of smaller figures
that appear in a kind of swirling cloud behind and around him.
These can be identified with some of the vices. These are, here, Gluttony, a man
eagerly drinking, a very large group of figures who can be related to Lust, then
we have a hand holding a money bag, so that's Greed, we have a group of angrily
acting figures, that is Wrath, and finally a group of men who are shown sleeping,
and that is the vice of Sloth. A winged spirit, beautiful, seen from behind,
approaches the young man with a trumpet. Interestingly enough, the trumpet is
not directed to his ear but to his forehead.
At the time it was thought that this is the seed of inspiration, so, we think that
the spirit awakens that young man to a new life.
This iconography, which seems quite foreign to us today perhaps, was first
explained by an art historian, Erwin Panofsky. He related this to Neoplatonic
thinking of the time of the Renaissance: a philosophy which thought that man is
physically restricted but should aspire to a new life, to a chaste
love, which is the mirror of the love of God. So, altogether if we had to summarise
what the drawing is about, it is a celebration of beauty essentially, and I
think this gives us a way of better understanding it also today. It is the
beauty of the body that we can just enjoy. It is the beauty of the thought, as
such, and the potential that we have. But it is also the beauty of the making and
the creativity of the artist that is perhaps the closest to us today.
When we have a very close look at the work, we see how Michelangelo made it.
That is, with minute little strokes of black chalk,
he was modelling this universe of figures, but also gave the outlines a very
beautiful, elegant, look. The modelling of the flesh — sculptural in its
quality but also very physical and very sensual — somehow brings life and art,
sculpture and life, together in drawing. That's the celebration of drawing.
The medium becomes independent in this group of
presentation drawings. It is stunning its complexity and
celebrates the creativity of the artist.