While we’re used to seeing Michelangelo’s majestic finished paintings, this shopping list gives us a look at the master’s more hasty and practical drawing. This is an illustrated list that Michelangelo would have given to an illiterate servant.
Steve Duin at The Oregonian explained the purpose of the list while it was on display at the Seattle Art Museum:
Because the servant he was sending to market was illiterate, Michelangelo illustrated the shopping lists — a herring, tortelli, two fennel soups, four anchovies and “a small quarter of a rough wine” — with rushed (and all the more exquisite for it) caricatures in pen and ink.
The list is housed with other Michelangelo works at Casa Buonarroti.
[The Oregonian via Laughing Squid]
