01/10/2026
Retirement? What retirement? Prof. Emeritus Gary Radke has curated the exhibition "Michelangelo's Women," for the Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia, which will open next week.
“Michelangelo’s Women” explores the rich and varied ways in which Michelangelo portrayed and ennobled women in his works; how he interacted with actual women in his life (especially Vittoria Colonna); and how Rosina Vendramin, wife of Michelangelo’s last surviving heir, Cosimo Buonarroti, worked with her husband to bring order to the family’s collections and transform the Casa Buonarroti into a public museum. The exhibition features five original drawings by the master, two autograph sheets of his poetry, two autograph letters from Vittoria Colonna to Michelangelo, and eighteen historic items recording Michelangelo’s compositions, as well as other works with female subjects from the Buonarroti collections. Large photographic projections highlight images of women in the Sistine Chapel, accompanied by historic prints of several Sybils and of the Last Judgment before loincloths were added. Curated by Gary M. Radke, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Syracuse University, the exhibition is on exclusive display in Savannah. Catalog entries by Alessandro Cecchi and other scholars at the Casa Buonarroti are available online at the Telfair Museum’s website.
Congratulations, Prof. Radke!
