Epifania
Artist	Michelangelo
Year	c. 1550–1553
Type	black chalk on paper
Dimensions	232 cm × 165 cm (91 in × 65 in)
Location	British Museum,London

Epifania (English:Epiphany) is acartoon or full-scale drawing in black chalk byMichelangelo, produced in Rome around 1550–1553. It is 2.32 metres (7 ft 7 in) tall by 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) wide, and is made up of 26 sheets of paper. The cartoon forms part of the collection of theBritish Museum in London.

The composition shows theVirgin Mary, with the Christ child sitting between her legs. An adult male figure to the right, probablySaint Joseph, is pushed away by Mary. In front of him is the infantJohn the Baptist. The adult figure standing to Mary's left is unidentified, as are other figures only just visible in the background. Michelangelo repeatedly changed the composition and its forms, as is apparent in the cartoon's alterations. The composition was originally thought to be of theThree Kings, which may be the reason for the title, but is now understood as referring to Christ's siblings mentioned in the Gospels (explained bySaint Epiphanias—another possible source for the title—as Joseph's sons by a previous marriage, and hence Mary's stepsons, leaving their marriage unconsummated—hence her pushing Joseph away—andMary forever a virgin).

Michelangelo's biographerAscanio Condivi used this cartoon for an unfinished painting. A 19th-century Scottish collector, John Malcolm of Poltalloch, bought the cartoon for only £11 0s 6d. and, on John's death in 1893, his sonJohn Wingfield Malcolm gave it to theBritish Museum.^[1] Parliament voted £25,000 to purchase the rest of his collection for the museum two years later (equivalent to £3,647,523 in 2023). The cartoon is on display in Gallery 90 of the Museum.

• List of works by Michelangelo
• Michelangelo

• P. Barenboim (with Arthur Heath),Michelangelo’s Moment: The British Museum Madonna (LOOM, Moscow, 2018)
• J.A. Gere and N. Turner,Drawings by Michelangelo in the British Museum, exhibition catalogue (London, The British Museum Press, 1975)
• M. Hirst,Michelangelo and His Drawings (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988)
• M. Royalton-Kisch, H. Chapman and S. Coppel,Old Master Drawings from the Museum, exhibition catalogue (London, The British Museum Press, 1996)
• J. Wilde,Italian drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings, 2 (London, The British Museum Press, 1953)

• The British Museum's online description of Michelangelo's cartoon
• Video of the British Museum's conservation of Epifania

• Prints and drawings in the British Museum
• Drawings by Michelangelo
• 1550s drawings

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