Symposium: "Michelangelo and Men", Monday November 24, 2025,
Teylers Museum, Haarlem, in collaboration with the Dutch Interuniversity Institute for Art History (NIKI) in Florence.

The symposium will dive deeper into the themes of the exhibition Michelangelo and Men, addressing the central place of the male body in the work and life of Michelangelo. International experts will discuss artistic as well as personal aspects of the male bodies in Michelangelo's art: the place of models and anatomy in his oeuvre, the examples he found in the art of his own time and that of Classical Antiquity, and the social environment in which his work originated. They will also explore theoretical and theological aspects, such as Neoplatonic ideas about the male body as the highest ideal of perfection and beauty, as well as Michelangelo’s personal relation to male beauty.

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PROGRAM

8:30 am: Doors open, registration

9:15 am: Welcome – Marc de Beyer (general director Teylers Museum)

9:30 am - 10:30 am: Keynote – Michael Rocke (Berenson Library, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), Moderator: Terry van Druten (Teylers Museum)

10:30 am - 11:00 am: Coffee break

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11:00 am - 12:00 am: SESSION 1 – The Physical Body, (Moderator: Terry van Druten)

Michelangelo and the Classics – Martin Gayford (art critic and guest curator of the exhibition)

Michelangelo and Anatomy – Eric Boot (Teylers Museum)

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12:00 pm - 2:00 pm: Lunch break & visit to the exhibition

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2:00 pm - 5:00 pm: SESSION 2 – The Spiritual Body, (Moderator: Michael Kwakkelstein, NIKI Florence)

Michelangelo’s Dream and Neoplatonism – Marieke van den Doel (University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht)

The Late Michelangelo – Grant Lewis (British Museum)

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3:00 pm - 3:30 pm: SESSION 3 – The Social Body, (Moderator: Michael Kwakkelstein)

Michelangelo and Male Sociability – Klazina Botke (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and guest curator of the exhibition

3:30 - 5:30 pm: Closing drinks & visit to the exhibition

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Lunch, drinks and visit to the exhibition are included in the ticket, which can be purchased here: https://teylersmuseum.nl/nl/zien-en-doen/michelangelo-and-men-symposium