Divino Michelangelo, o Apeles moderno.

Writers of the 16th Century lavished praise on Michelangelo Buonarotti, describing him as the modern day Apelles of Kos, possessed by an ingenuity approaching the divine, of a temperament imbued with terribilità that brought forth opere likewise terribile and mirabile equaling those of ancient times and ultimately surpassing all modern ones. Through an examination of 16th Century epideictic discourse, this article demonstrates how the enhancement of these exceptional qualities are intrinsically associated with the increasing importance of drawing in artistic practice and the prescriptions that support it.