He later went on to find fame in toilet seat art
(Sorry I nicked the name from National Lampoon's radio presentation of The Immigrants: The Hillbilly).
Posted on 02/23/2006 10:46:13 AM PST by blam
Villagers claim church fresco is lost Michelangelo
Parishioner's confession leads to discovery of monogram behind altar
John Hooper in Rome
Thursday February 23, 2006
The Guardian (UK)
The fresco, attributed to Michelangelo, was discovered behind an altar in a village church in Chianti, Italy. Photography: Marco Bucco/EPA
No one else knows what the pensioner told the priest about what he got up to when he was a naughty altar boy. But his confession holds out the tantalising possibility that there could be a lost Michelangelo on the wall of a village church in Chianti. For centuries the inhabitants of Marcialla have handed down the legend that a fresco above the altar was painted by the great Florentine artist in his youth. And the claim has sometimes been referred to in scholarly texts.
But it has recently been learned that, at the end of last year, a stone slab forming part of the altar was heaved aside to reveal the first visible evidence for the claim: a monogram with the letters M, B and F intertwined. MBF is thought to stand for Michelangelo Buonarroti (his name) and fecit (did (it) in Latin), a common way of asserting authorship, or fiorentino (the Florentine).
Elsa Masi, a retired chemist and the head of a local cultural association who is leading a campaign to have the fresco examined by experts, told the Guardian yesterday that the M and B were "exactly the same" as in the lettering above a crucifix attributed to Michelangelo in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
FYI.
I suppose they are awaiting confirmation by a local wharf worker and union-steward?
How could it be "Lost" if everybody always knew where it was?........
GLIB art experts......
Better than a NAMBLA babysitter...Oh....I though you said GLTB. My bad [snicker]
Hmm... from what one could see in newspaper photo, the fresco reproduced in the Guardian does not look like his work in the least: compare with his "Madonna Doni", or with his Bolognese sculptures carved around the same 1494 - even in his youth Michelangelo was already doing better faces and better bodies.
He later went on to find fame in toilet seat art
(Sorry I nicked the name from National Lampoon's radio presentation of The Immigrants: The Hillbilly).
I agree.... it doesn't have the "Wow" factor of his known works.
I'm no expert, but the poses and arrangement of the figures just does not look like Michelangelo. Christ in particular looks unnatural. The musculature and drapery looks wrong too.
GBLT? Gravy on Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato?
Catholic ping!
Well the story said that he might have done this as a young man. The works with which we are more familiar were done when he was older, so why couldn't his style have changed somewhat, and matured over the years?
Still, every now and then you get a first-class piece that takes your breath away.
I don't see why Michelangelo should be different.
I don't really have any good reason to doubt it , other than based upon my readings of his life and personal viewings of his works- it just doesn't feel right, to me.
But again- I think it would be an exciting story if I were wrong.
But there are aspects that we see in mature Michelangelo. Excellent sense of composition is one. Interest in athletic, even beefy body. Realistic, rather than symbolic landscape and drapery.
He didn't particularly like working in fresco either, is that right? The Sistine Chapel was not a project he enjoyed.
Or am I imagining that?
If this fresco is really from his youth, maybe it is what lead to his antipathy toward fresco. The figures do seem stylized.
Art ping?
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