See Rare Michelangelo Drawing: On Display At Getty

LOS ANGELES, CA – The J. Paul Getty Museum will put a rare drawing by Michelangelo on display, starting Wednesday and continuing through Oct. 29.

It will be the first time the drawing, "Study of a Mourning Woman," will be exhibited in a museum since it was rediscovered in the collection at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire, England, 1995. It had been hidden among other treasures in the family collection housed in the 18th century residence, unknown to scholars for years.

The drawing, circa 1500-05, represents the best of a group of pen and ink drawings made early in Michelangelo's career, and is part of an acquisition of 16 drawings and one painting by the Getty Museum in July, according to Timothy Potts, the museum's director.

"Michelangelo is rightly regarded as one of the very greatest painters, sculptors, architects and draftsman in history, and it was important to me that the people of Los Angeles and other visitors to the Getty have the opportunity to view this exquisite addition to our collection before it is shown elsewhere," Potts said.

The drawing will be displayed in the Getty Museum's north pavilion on the second floor gallery.

The drawing will then be loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for the exhibition Michelangelo: Divine Draftsmen and Designer opening Nov.13.

"Michelangelo’s powerful pen and ink study of a mourning woman exemplifies his extraordinary talent for monumental figural conceptions," the museum said. "It is characterized by dense hatching and crosshatching in brown ink, with highlights of white lead. The figure is seen in profile and dressed in a full-length robe worn by women of antiquity as depicted in Renaissance painting. Her pose and attitude reflect the mourning figures often found in paintings of Christ’s deposition from the cross or a lamentation."

"The drawing represents the pinnacle of a group of pen and ink drawings made early in Michelangelo’s career, at a pivotal moment when his fame as a sculptor was also spreading to dramatic painted compositions," the museum added. "While there is no known Michelangelo project that includes this figure, the design was nevertheless known to a number of the artist’s contemporaries."

It will go on view again at the Getty in January.

The J. Paul Getty Museum is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049.

• ALSO SEE: Linkin Park: Chester Bennington Tribute Concert Set At Hollywood Bowl

--City News Service contributes to this report/Cropped image via J.Paul Getty Museum of Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564) Study of a Mourning Woman