Michelangelo. Materialità della carta, medialità dei disegni, archeologia dei fogli

The seminar offers a preview of the online project Michelangelo. Materiality of Paper, Mediality of Drawings, Archaeology of Sheets. Through twentyone entries divided into three chapters, the research examines over thirty autograph sheets by Michelangelo—including drawings, letters, poems, and ricordi—with the aim of exploring the artist’s relationship with paper. Furthermore, by integrating the study of the materiality of paper supports with the mediality of drawings, it proposes an innovative perspective applicable to other graphic corpora as well.

Developed in collaboration with Leonardo Pili, who curated the graphic design, and Rafael Brundo Uriarte, responsible for digital development, the seminar addresses key issues related to the online publication of these type of materials, such as thematic content selection, dynamic image visualization, and the layered reading of sheets as palimpsests. The meeting is also an opportunity to discuss these graphic, technological, and scientific challenges and to gather valuable feedback for improving and refining the project.

Mauro Mussolin is a historian of architecture and art, and is currently associate professor at the Dipartimento di Architettura of the Università degli Studi Roma Tre. He has published on architecture and local identity, on sacred space and collective rituals, on religious orders and urban transformations, on architectural models and drawings, and more extensively on Michelangelo Buonarroti. He has been researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and has taught at New York University Florence and Syracuse University Florence. He was also fellow at Villa I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, CASVA – National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Italian Academy at Columbia University. From 2018 to 2024, during his tenure as a visiting scholar at the KHI, he collaborated with Leonardo Pili and Rafael Brundo Uriarte on the online project Michelangelo. Materialità della carta, medialità dei disegni, archeologia dei fogli.