According to the artist, this work, Cleopatra, is based on Michelangelo's drawing of Cleopatra and was created at the same size as the original. To respond to the density of the small original drawing, Sagaki Keita used an extremely fine 0.13 mm pen, while coffee was used to recreate the tone and stains of aged paper.
The artist first encountered the original at the Michelangelo exhibition held at the National Museum of Western Art in 2013 and had long hoped to create a work based on it. This piece was later presented in MASTERS, Sagaki's 2015 solo exhibition themed around the three great masters of the Renaissance.
Sagaki Keita is a contemporary Japanese artist celebrated for his astonishingly detailed pen drawings composed of thousands of tiny humorous characters. He reimagines iconic Western masterworks — from Botticelli to Klimt — as intricate assemblages of playful figures, creating works that reward both close inspection and distant viewing. Each piece tells countless micro-stories while simultaneously presenting a perfect whole. Featured on BSFuji "Break Zenya — Next Generation Artists."