The National Art Museum of Denmark (SMK) presents a vast collection of Michelangelo sculptures, including originals and 3D-cast reproductions. This is the largest exhibition of the work of this humanist and universal genius ever organized in the country.
The Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) in Copenhagen gives pride of place to Michelangelo, born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564). The Danish institution has found a way to present one of the most complete collections of sculptures by this Renaissance master.
The exhibition "Michelangelo Imperfect" offers the opportunity to discover the majority of his works in one place. This also includes previously unseen reproductions, original drawings, sculptural models, and a significant amount of correspondence. "It could not have been done with the originals, which are never moved ," the museum emphasizes. A unique encounter, therefore, with this major figure in art who constantly explored universality.
Original vs. reproduction
The SMK thus boasts of offering the most comprehensive exhibition of its work over the past 150 years. Moreover, this selection had never been assembled since the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Michelangelo's birth in Florence in 1475.
In its curatorial spaces, a collection of historical casts of its sculptures is juxtaposed with very high-quality 3D replicas. The work was conceived in Madrid by the Factum Foundation, a leader in the production of facsimiles, recreation, and rematerialization of artworks. Through in-depth research, the National Museum of Art Denmark closely examines this complex relationship between the original and the reproduction in the digital age.
Sculptor, painter, architect, and draftsman, Michelangelo achieved fame very quickly, very early on. From the age of 13, he knew he wanted to be an artist, and he skillfully pursued his vocation, which led him to lasting renown. "His creative abilities in a number of artistic disciplines define him as an archetype of the Renaissance man, alongside his rival Leonardo da Vinci ," the museum notes. This era also saw the rise of two other great Italian Renaissance figures, Donatello and Raphael.
The works of the man who sculpted the Pietà and David , before the age of 30, but also Moses , Brutus , Bacchus and the Madonna of Bruges , are thus sublimated and analyzed in depth.
Imperfect perfection
Throughout his life, Michelangelo focused on anatomy and the creation of the human body, meticulously playing with proportions and movements. For him, art was "a divine expression of the human soul."
An obsessive perfectionist, but also capricious and solitary, this genius probed "the thoughts, emotions and tensions" that define the being of flesh and blood, highlighting with brilliant calculated excess the imperfections, whether they stem from progress, anxiety or hesitation.
His masterpieces thus continue to traverse the centuries in the history of Western art. Among others, he is responsible for the design of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, including the iconic scene of the creation of Adam, and the fresco of the Last Judgment on the wall of its altar.
The Carrara marble statue of David in Florence, standing 4,35 meters tall, remains a symbol of beauty and wisdom, of willpower and courage in his defiance of the giant Goliath. It is an exemplary allegorical representation of his ability to overcome obstacles and reveal the power of art.
"Michelangelo Imperfect"
Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK)
Sølvgade 48-50, Indre By (Denmark)
From 29 March to 31 August 2025
Photo credits © Please reproduce the credits and captions in the Word document and in this link : https://www.smk.dk/en/list/michelangelo-press-photos/
