Posted on 02/02/2015 12:55:31 PM PST by Red Badger
Sculptures to be displayed at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, thought to be the only surviving bronzes by the Renaissance artist
Two handsome, virile naked men riding triumphantly on ferocious panthers will on Monday be unveiled as, probably, the only surviving bronze sculptures by the Renaissance giant Michelangelo.
In art history terms, the attribution is sensational. Academics in Cambridge will suggest that a pair of mysterious metre-high sculptures known as the Rothschild Bronzes are by the master himself, made just after he completed David and as he was about to embark on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
If correct, they are the only surviving Michelangelo bronzes in the world.
They will go on public display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge from Tuesday. Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the museum, said the attribution project, involving an international team of experts from different fields, had been like “a Renaissance whodunnit”. She said: “It has been a huge privilege to be involved, very exciting and great fun.”
Crucial to the attribution of the bronzes, which belong to a private British owner, has been a tiny detail from a drawing by an apprentice of Michelangelo, now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. The drawing shows in one corner a muscular youth riding a panther in a similar pose.
Last autumn, Paul Joannides, professor of art history at Cambridge University, connected the sculptures to the drawing.
Further research included a neutron scan at a research institute in Switzerland, which placed the bronzes in the first decade of the 16th century. Investigations by clinical anatomist Professor Peter Abrahams, from the University of Warwick, suggested every detail in the bronzes was textbook perfect Michelangelo – from the six packs to the belly buttons, which are as artist portrayed them on his marble statue of David.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
She comes free with the purchase price of the statutes.
Special offer if you call within the next 20 minutes.
The panthers look terrible. Childish, malnutrition’d (like you said), out-of-proportion in size and “character” ...
If the rest of his bronzes were this bad, they’d be worth more as scrap metal.
Michelangelo was a stickler for realism.
It may be that the ‘model’ he had for the panthers looked exactly this way.
I doubt that he had many chances to study the anatomy of big cats in Renaissance Italy. His ‘model’ may have come from some wealthy person’s menagerie, or it may have been copied from Roman frescoes of gladiatorial fights: Big cats were starved to make them more aggressive.
A man so talented as to make perfection in human form in stone and bronze would not ruin his masterpieces by making childish caricatures of animals along side them.
No matter who the artist actually was, the cats were made as they were seen...........
Thanks Red Badger and NYer.A heart of flaming sulphur, flesh of tow,
Bones of dry wood, a soul without a guide
To curb the fiery will, the ruffling pride
Of fierce desires that from the passions flow;
A sightless mind that weak and lame doth go
Mid snares and pitfalls scattered far and wide;
What wonder if the first chance brand applied
To fuel massed like this should make it glow?
Add beauteous art, which, brought with us from heaven,
Will conquer nature ; so divine a power
as belongs to him who strives with every nerve.
If I was made for art, from childhood given
A prey for burning beauty to devour,
I blame the mistress I was born to serve."
-- Michelangelo, Sonnet XVIII
Those are from the entrance of the Man’s Country bath house in Chicago, no?
Michelangelo was a stickler for realism.
It may be that the ‘model’ he had for the panthers looked exactly this way.
I doubt that he had many chances to study the anatomy of big cats in Renaissance Italy. His ‘model’ may have come from some wealthy person’s menagerie, or it may have been copied from Roman frescoes of gladiatorial fights: Big cats were starved to make them more aggressive.
A man so talented as to make perfection in human form in stone and bronze would not ruin his masterpieces by making childish caricatures of animals along side them.
No matter who the artist actually was, the cats were made as they were seen...........
No matter who the artist actually was, the cats were made as they were seen...........
* * *
Disagree. The bodies are well done, but the faces are caricatures. I think the artist must not have gotten to see a live one.
Disagree. The bodies are well done, but the faces are caricatures. I think the artist must not have gotten to see a live one.
Probably not seen a live one, but the faces are reminiscent of Roman fresco creatures...........
Nope, that looks more like a “diversity candidate” to me.
Putting the T in LGBT.
Here’s pics of a 1st-2nd century Roman/Greek panthers:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124324682@N01/611938433
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17903031@N00/6352393078
Notice the similarities. The artist, Michelangelo, probably just copied their styles having never seen one in real life...............
In looking at the faces and the ridges along the backs of their legs, I don't think they are panthers at all, but rather some sort of demonic cat from hell.........
http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/demon-cats-cat-history I don't know ..............
The arms are raised on both statues as if they were supposed to be holding a spear in victory. The men are different, one bearded, one clean shaven..............
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