Posted on 05/20/2019 7:01:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
THE earliest-known work of art created by Michelangelo when the Italian artist was just 12 years old has been discovered.
The sketch, which depicts a robed man in a chair, was identified by leading Italian Renaissance scholar Sir Timothy Clifford.
Sir Clifford believes the legendary artist, who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and carved the statue of David in marble, created the work when he was just a young child.
Describing it as “the earliest drawing efforts of a youth who would one day emerge as one of the most remarkable artists that has ever lived,” Sir Clifford thinks it dates from around 1487.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “It's the earliest-known Michelangelo drawing by a year, maybe two, than anything else we know. So it is particularly fascinating.
“He uses two different varieties of brown ink.
“He has an idiosyncratic way of drawing, with rounded chins and a very hard line under the nose, which also appears in a slightly later drawing.
“No other (Domenico) Ghirlandaio pupil draws like that. It's an extraordinarily interesting object because Michelangelo's very young indeed.”
It is considered to be all the more remarkable because the Italian artist was known to destroy drawings after finishing them.
This includes a huge number that he burned shortly before his death.
Michelangelo’s 16th-century biographer, Vasari, once wrote: “Just before his death, [Michelangelo] burned a large number of his own drawings, sketches and cartoons to prevent anyone from seeing the labours he endured or the ways he tested his genius, for fear that he might seem less than perfect.
“The way Michelangelo's talents and character developed astonished Domenico [his teacher], who saw him doing things quite out of the ordinary for boys of his age and not only surpassing his many other pupils, but also very often rivalling the achievements of the master himself.”
The Seated Man sketch was bought by an anonymous British collected in 1989 at a French auction.
At the time, its artist was unidentified.
LMAO!
Can you get fingerprints off of something that old?
PING
Looking at his drawing, I now realize what great potential I had.....
Yes, fingerprints have been found on Roman antiquities.............
PinGGG......................
When he was 11.
What makes an artist great, is having the judgement to know what works are not up to the standard he wants to present, and not inflicting them on the public.
That’s one nice thing about Free Republic, and most other conservative sites. There’s lots of gentle humor.
But had this story been posted on a liberal website, half of the responses would be complaints: Michelangelo didn’t draw enough women!
They other responses would be ramblings about how Climate Change is destroying all the planet’s artwork.
Michelangelo would have a PC get out of jail free card when it comes to not drawing women.
What creative gifts the Creator gives to creatures...!
Would you have included Morton’s foot?
...And he didn’t paint any African Americans................
A beardless Abraham Lincoln?
I was ready to dismiss this as another art hoax......they're always finding long lost art works.
But studyng this, it does have the delicate, definitive strokes of Michaelangelo....a genius at drawing and sculpting the human body.
It's been written....he would visit morgues to study physique and musculature that he transferred to his art.......that authentically defines his works.
What gets me is HOW something drawn a piece of paper by a 12yr. old survived this long!
That is an earlier masterpiece. I like how Michelangelo uses black and white contrast, and the dynamics of his walking shows creativity.
:-)
He was one louder.
L
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