Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, said the project to attribute the bronzes, involving a team of experts from different fields, had been like a Renaissance whodunnit. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA
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 ...
Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, said the project to attribute the bronzes, involving a team of experts from different fields, had been like a Renaissance whodunnit. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA
Ping!
Nice panthers. I hope that’s not a cougar in the middle.
Wonderful statues, but the reference to “...handsome, virile men....”..
Hmmmm, do dat writer go to Bawny’s house when they’re in Taxachusetts?
Michelangelo was very interested in male bodies.................
The male bodies may be perfect, but the panthers look malnourished...............
Yes. One of the reasosns they think these were actually made by Michelangelo is because the maker had a really, really good knowledge of men’s anatomies. *cough* * cough*
So, why did so many of Cellini’s works survive but Michelangelo’s get melted down?
As a sensitive dude, I really do feel the curator's pain. However, All Yard Sale Item Transactions are final.
Reminiscent of Katy Perry riding a gold tiger at last night’s halftime show.
Or Putin’s nature porn
Because, going by these examples, Cellini was much better at making bronzes.
These two are not impressive. They seem clumsy and unnatural.
Where’s the Panther-Whizz take on this?
The thing about “David” - he’s a Jewish king, right? So why doesn’t it show him circumcised? Tradition is on the eight day .... secondly he looks more like an Italian kid ....
The Grand Inquisition?.................
I think it was a lion...............
That is correct.
And ‘David’ is ‘Politically Correct’...................for the times...........
Also, David was left handed. The statue ‘David’ shows the right hand being slightly larger and more muscular than the left hand, when it should have been the opposite.............
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