Get closer to the master

Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, is buried in Florence in the church of Santa Croce. On his tomb, allegories of painting, sculpture and architecture mourn his death.

A fourth mourner drawing might also have a place here, given that the art form underpins all of Michelangelo's achievements. Drawing was where he began when he was thinking about his work, whether in paint, marble or architecture.

He made hundreds of preparatory studies, following an exhaustive process of refinement on paper for each work, and here in the British Museum's new exhibition, Michelangelo Drawings, we can see 90 of the 600 sheets remaining of the many thousands he must have produced.

This is a unique opportunity: assembling works that have not been seen together since the dispersal of Michelangelo's studio in 16th-century Florence. This exhibition gives glimpses into the creative thinking behind the masterpieces and into Michelangelo's private thoughts, faith and sexuality.

The works, which come from three large Michelangelo collections held by the British Museum, the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, Holland, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, rarely go on show due to their light sensitivity but here, many are displayed double-sided as though straight from his sketchbooks, allowing us, as the exhibition's sub-title suggests, a chance to get Closer to the Master.

Michelangelo (1475-1564) was one of the few artists acknowledged as a master in his lifetime three biographies and many portraits of him were produced and by the 1530s he had gained the soubriquet Il divino, a play on his name and a measure of the respect in which he was held.

Projected in the central space of the exhibition are scenes from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The idea is to give a perspective on what it was like for Michelangelo, lying on his back on a scaffold, working single-handedly by candlelight for the four years it took (1508-12) to complete the work.

Interactive screens provide another perspective. Touch the image of The Creation of Adam, God the Father or one of the ignudi the seated male nudes that adorn the column bases and parts from his sketches float into position on to a Sistine Chapel ceiling, transforming from red chalk sketches to coloured frescoes as they go.

d=3,2,1Life studies, including three for the chapel's most famous scene, The Creation of Adam, allow us to follow the evolution of this masterpiece. It is an intimate and intense experience to look at these works close up: Adam with his languid, unrealistic but nonetheless convincing pose in the Study for Adam, the Hand of God that reaches out to animate Adam, God the Father and attendant angels, the figure of Haman. Again and again we see Michelangelo's mastery of the human form, especially the male torso.

He made almost obsessively detailed examinations of the human body, mapping its form from all sides, using subtle changes in the density and tone of chalk to depict structure and surface. We know he was already seeing his sketches as sculptures from the delicate chalk touches used to highlight how polished marble surfaces would shine in the light.

Working for the Medici family in Florence (1516- 1534), he made architectural studies for the faade of the Medici church of San Lorenzo, the Laurentian library and the Medici chapel tombs. All seven surviving drawings for the sculpture of Day on Giuliano de' Medici's tomb are included in the exhibition. Using black chalk this time, he focuses on the musculature of the back, legs and arms, notably on the complex left arm twisting back behind Day: one especially lovely study of the shoulders shows the veins bulging on the forearm. Letters also feature. Having finished the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo writes to his father in October 1512: "The Pope is very well satisfied . . ." He continues with reference to the upheavals going on in Florence at the time, ". . . other things have not turned out for me as I'd hoped. For this I blame the times, which are unfavourable to our art".

The Private Michelangelo is a fascinating part of the exhibition. Here is his effort to teach drawing by making his students copy eyes, profiles and locks of hair, and an instruction exhorting a student to "Draw Antonio, draw Antonio, draw and don't waste time . . ." Also, a rare portrait: of one of his pupils, the young Florentine, Andrea Quaratesi.

We also see an expression of love. Inscribed at the bottom of The Fall of Phaeton is a message to Tommaso de' Cavalieri, a young aristocrat with whom he had fallen in love on a visit to Rome in 1532. Michelangelo, then aged 57, identified with the falling Phaeton who tumbles with his horses and chariot from the sky.

d=3,2,1Two red chalk idealised heads from the Ashmolean Museum come next. The first, drawn around 1516, is the beautiful dreamy Head of a Young Man (or woman? it is debated). Next to it is the far less pleasing Head of a Man in Profile, possibly a caricature, of a tip-nosed pugnacious man wearing an odd hat. Their juxtaposition indicates that extremes of ugliness and beauty fascinated Michelangelo as it had Leonardo.

In his final years, he deepened his faith as a result of a friendship with the poet and religious reformer Vittoria Colonna, and made some devotional images. The three scenes of The Crucifixion (1555-64) in the exhibition are quite different from his earlier work: there is less definition; they are more tentative, spiritual.

Both subjects and reworking suggest an intense emotional charge, almost a sense of desolation as he contemplated the suffering of Christ and his own approaching death.

True to its content, the exhibition space is sensitively designed. The subtle lighting and colour of the walls, grey echoing the cold marble of sculptures and umber, the colour of Tuscany, elegantly setting off drawings, portrait busts, poetry and letters. This augurs well for us in Oxford, for the same designers are to do the new galleries in the Ashmolean Museum's redevelopment, due to be completed in 2009.

This exhibition is not to be missed. It runs until June 25, but don't delay, it's bound to be a sell-out.

Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master, The British Museum. Admission: £10, concessions. Booking recommended. Website: www.thebritishmueum.ac.uk/michelangelo