Beware of geeks bearing gifts.
Posted on 04/19/2005 12:08:30 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Amen
Wasn't it Vergil, gobucks? I suppose Vergil filched it from somebody.
But I wonder, how far away is this attitude "Who cares?" from the attitude "Who knows?" at the end of this article? I know for a fact that this bit about science at the end of this article is the very conceit that caused Descartes to say he was done with the ancients.
Sculpture forged by Michaelangelo = 30 million dollars
Yea right, it is her 'theory' and it gets her name in the news.
Why do ou think it is a bad piece of sculpture? I think that it is incredibly beautiful -- full of action and strength and detail. The sons are proportionally small, but I suppose that was done to diminish their importance in the story (or because the original block of stone was too small.)
Now, why do you suppose Michaelangelo might have sculpted it and allowed people to think that it was by someone else? This thread offers several good reasons: a possible commission, etc. Or, my thought is that he may have been in the employ of a patron (like the Vatican) at the time and not allowed to work on anything for anybody else. Perhaps he was moonlighting! Or, perhaps his patron would take offense at him working on sculpture depicting mythological characters, rather than on the people populating the Bible; so he hid the origin of the scupture and got paid under the table.
In any case, this looks like an interesting theory, but I would have no way to judge its accuracy.
Really dumb question: How did Michelangelo make money off the alleged forgery? Was he the purported discoverer? Was he commissioned for some sort of restoration, transport, and reassembly? Was he commissioned to authenticate? I fail to see how he could profit from buying the marble, spending time and effort to sculpt the work, hauling it off to a field, burying it, and allowing some farmer to "discover" it.
"While “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is the usual English phrasing, the original quotation from Virgil is quite different: “Whatever it is, I fear Greeks even when they bring gifts.” (Spoken by Laocoon, “Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.”) The popular English “beware” idiom shortens the original and gives the phrase a bit more punch."
So yep, Virgil is evidently the fellow to credit; kind of neat it was a Roman who looked back at a greek story and gave Laocoon that kind of limelight in the poem .... one wonders what Virgil thought about in his day to day dealings in Rome...
You're surmising, not necessarily incorrectly. I was just curious if anyone knew what motive the researcher attributed to Da Vinci. It certainly seemed risky.
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Thank You..
They first drive Mad?
Ah, an important truth of the Art Industry. The dollar value of a work depends more on the artist than the quality of the work.
You must live in a trailer with marble flooring.
The original "who cares" response earned the harsh response I gave it. No apologies.
As a NYer I receive plenty of Freeper insults because of the city and state I live in, and our elected reresentatives. I don't let the small stuff upset me.
He would need an accomplice, perhaps a respected dealer.
I am traveling at the moment, but will put you on the art ping list when I get home in a couple days...meanwhile Republicanprofessor and Liz are doing the art pinging and will be glad to add you to your lists I think.
Sam
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Carving that thing would have been a major effort for Michelangelo, and to what end? How would he have profited?
Anyway, it doesn’t look like his work.
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