By the Hand of a Very Young Master? (Michelangelo in the U.S.)

New York Times ^ | May 13, 2009 | CAROL VOGEL

[nickcarraway]

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth has acquired what some scholars now say is the first known painting made by Michelangelo. And if he created it, he did so when he was only 12 or 13.

This latest research holds that Michelangelo painted “The Torment of St. Anthony” between 1487 and 1488. That would make it one of only four known easel paintings by Michelangelo — another is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and two unfinished ones are in the National Gallery of Art in London — and the first to enter an American museum.

The painting’s attribution has been the subject of ferocious debate among scholars for four and a half centuries. While experts, citing historical records, agreed that Michelangelo had made a painting of the saint, the question was, Is it this work?

But “The Torment of St. Anthony” — an oil and tempera on a wood panel, depicting the saint poised in midair and beaten by demons — has recently undergone conservation and technical research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Keith Christiansen, a curator of European painting there, said he firmly believed that it was by the hand of the master.

But he acknowledges that others will disagree. “A lot of people still won’t accept it as Michelangelo,” Mr. Christiansen said.

Eric McCauley Lee, director of the Kimbell, said in a telephone interview: “It sounded ridiculous at first. But when I went to the Met and saw the painting, I was struck by its power as a work of art. It had been obscured by dirt and overpainting. And when you hear Keith Christiansen’s argument, you realize it’s enormously important."

[JoeProBono]

A detail of “The Torment of St. Anthony,” which many scholars now think was painted by Michelangelo at 12 or 13.

[ml/nj]

Thanks for posting this. I never look at the Times anymore.

ML/NJ

[Trajan88]

This was on the front page of today’s Dallas Morning News... me thinks Trajan88 will be trekking west to Fort Worth later this summer to check out the master’s painting skills ;-)