•  
  •  
 

Abstract

This paper investigates Michelangelo Buonarroti’s unique approach to architecture through the lens of his drawing practice, arguing that his architectural methodology evolved as an extension—and at times a deliberate rejection—of Renaissance architectural conventions. Beginning from his assertion that “architecture is not my profession,” the study situates Michelangelo’s creative identity within his grounding in disegno, the Renaissance concept that framed drawing as an intellectual act of conception rather than mere representation. Through comparative analysis with Leonardo da Vinci, the research traces how Michelangelo adapted the iterative, investigative qualities of draw-ing into a sculptural and spatial process that defied the rational, arithmetic-based methods of his contemporaries. The methodology combines visual analysis of key drawings and built works—in-cluding the New Sacristy (1519–34) and the Laurentian Library (1524–59)—with his-torical and theoretical contextualization drawn from primary Renaissance sources and contemporary scholarship. The study examines Michelangelo’s iterative sketches, his anti-math-ematical design tendencies, and his treatment of architectural elements as sculptural forms, revealing an intuitive process grounded in experimentation rather than formal proportion. Findings indicate that Michelangelo’s architectural compositions were conceived as dynamic figures—spaces animated by tension, distortion, and expressive deformation. In the New Sacristy, architecture and sculpture merge into a unified spatial body, while in the Lauren-tian Library, modular repetition and exaggerated forms materialize a sculptural logic of space making. These practices represent Michelangelo’s redefinition of architecture as a perfor-mative and emotional art, aligning his buildings more closely with his painting and sculpture. Ultimately, Michelangelo’s “anti-architectural” stance anticipated the Mannerist de-parture from High Renaissance harmony, inaugurating a new understanding of architecture as an expressive extension of artistic invention. His methodology demonstrates how the act of drawing became not a preparation for architecture, but architecture itself in conceptual form.

Download

Share

COinS