Matthias Wivel is an art historian specializing in the Italian renaissance. He is the Head of Research at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and the curator of the exhibition Michelangelo Imperfect, presently at the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK). Wivel worked for over a decade as Curator of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at the National Gallery in London, where he curated or co-curated exhibitions such as Michelangelo & Sebastiano (2017), Titian: Love, Desire, Death (2020–21), and Raphael (2022). He holds a PhD in art history from the University of Cambridge and has published widely on Italian renaissance art as well as on modern comics and cartoon art.
In this lecture, Wivel will present some of the creative and scholarly choices behind the Michelangelo Imperfect exhibition. Integrating historical plaster casts and newly created facsimiles of Michelangelo’s sculptures with original drawings, sculptural models, and documents, it is the most comprehensive exhibition of Michelangelo’s sculpture and sculptural practice in one place since the 1875 anniversary celebration in Florence. At a time when art museums and galleries increasingly make use of reproductions, reconstructions, and immersive environments in their displays, Michelangelo Imperfect makes a case for curatorial, material, and art historical rigour in the application of such approaches, raising a number of difficult questions while also suggesting potential benefits. Wivel will describe aspects of the creative collaboration on the new facsimiles between SMK and the Madrid-based workshop the Factum Foundation, examine the critical reception of Michelangelo Imperfect and suggest possible paths forward.
