Bust portrait of Michelangelo facing right, set within a cartouche

Art Historical Context

This striking 1546 engraving presents a bust-length portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti in profile, elegantly framed within an ornate cartouche. Created by Giulio Bonasone, a skilled Bolognese printmaker active in Rome, the work captures the renowned sculptor and painter late in his career. The profile view, a classical convention revived during the Renaissance, emphasizes Michelangelo’s dignified features and intellectual gravitas, aligning with his status as one of the era’s greatest artistic figures. Engravings like this played a vital role in the 16th century by allowing images of celebrated individuals to circulate widely across Europe. Bonasone’s precise line work and subtle modeling demonstrate the technical sophistication of the medium, which could convey both sculptural volume and personal character on paper. Produced just a decade before Michelangelo’s death, the print reflects the growing interest in documenting the likenesses of living masters, transforming them into icons for collectors and admirers. Housed today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this work offers a rare contemporary glimpse of Michelangelo through the eyes of a fellow artist. Its careful composition and refined execution underscore the Renaissance celebration of individual genius while highlighting engraving’s power to preserve and disseminate cultural legacy.

About the Artist

Michelangelo Buonarroti|Giulio Bonasone · 1475–1564

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) stands as the quintessential figure of the Italian High Renaissance, a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose mastery across disciplines embodied the era's humanist ideals. Born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese within the Republic of Florence to a modest family—his father, Lodovico di Buonarroti Simoni, served as a minor magistrate—Michelang...