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| Michelangleo "Pieta" drawing ca. 1538-44 Gardner Museum & Kober family"Pieta" (NYPost) |
In early October of this year, a lost painting by Michelangelo may have been found. The painting belongs to the Kober family of Buffalo, NY and is estimated as being worth up to $300 million. An exciting historical find. But is it really a Michelangelo?
A Michelangelo "Pieta" painting is documented in Vatican letters to have been painted for Vittoria Colonna around 1545. Michelangleo, born in 1475, would have been 70 years old when he painted it; nearly 45 years after his famous "Pieta" sculpture in St.Peter's Basilica, Rome.
Interestingly, there is a drawing at the Gardner Museum in Boston of the same subject, which the museum dates to 1538-44. A side by side comparison, as shown above, reveals that the drawing was done by an artist extremely sensitive to human form. Michelangelo was a master of human structure and could depict not only the effects of physical forces on the body but he knew how to do so for the utmost poetic effect. Sadly, the painting lacks any sensitivity or vitality.
Moreover, Michelangelo being a sculptor knew how to keep his forms organized in a hierarchical arrangement: the largest underlying form was clearly revealed and never overtaken by the smallest forms. The painting shows, especially in the costal arch of the rib cage, an extreme flattening with a poorly understood arrangement of shapes that break up into an inorganic pattern.
Continuing, the forms of Christ's face and forehead are primitive as are the forms of the cherub's left scapula. Many of the forms are inexpertly delineated and harshly cut-off from the neighboring forms. This is a common mistake of the novice who has understood how to see separate forms but not how to interweave the forms into a supple, cohesive whole. The virgin's face is a distorted mask that lacks any emotion.
It is an interesting find but I doubt this is by the great Michelangelo.
Photo from NYPost. com and you may read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mike_found_in_buffalo_Or3Ok3NfUR21qEqBxK3u2H#ixzz14rA1UbTj