A work of art believed to be Michelangelo’s first painting — completed when he was 12 or 13 years old — has been acquired by a museum in Texas in a move that leaves other big galleries standing.
The Kimbell Art Museum, based in Fort Worth, paid an undisclosed figure for The Torment of Saint Anthony. Though the provenance of the painting has long been disputed, expert opinion has shifted in recent months to the view that it is indeed the earliest known painting by the master. —
The work, oil and tempera on a poplar panel measuring 47cm x 34cm, is dated to 1487 or 1488. At that time, Michelangelo had befriended an assistant in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence and is known to have copied an engraving of St Anthony by German master Martin Schongauer.
PHOTO: AP
The disagreement has focused on whether this painting was created by Michelangelo’s own hand or whether it was produced by other artists in the workshop. If confirmed as the missing Michelangelo, its acquisition by the Kimbell would be an astonishing coup for the museum.
It would make The Torment of St Anthony one of only four known easel paintings to have been created by Michelangelo. Two others are in the National Gallery in London and the fourth is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
It potentially provides clues as to how Michelangelo came to settle on the color palette he used in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
“This is a painting that will be studied for years and years to come,” Kimbell director Eric Lee said.
The painting depicts a sour-faced, white-haired Saint Anthony being teased and tugged by monsters. It is based on the Schongauer engraving, but differs in ways that many experts now believe prove its provenance.
For instance, among the monsters are fish-like images. A contemporaneous early biographer of the master notes that Michelangelo visited a fishmarket while painting the Torment in order accurately to portray fish scales.
Further evidence that leans toward the Michelangelo interpretation was uncovered in the past year while the painting was restored at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Layers of dirt and grime were removed to reveal the original oils, while modern technologies, including infrared scans and X-rays, revealed the underlying pentimenti — the artist’s changes that were made as the work progressed.
The pentimenti convinced Lee and the Kimbell board that the painting could not have been a copy produced by the workshop but had to be the original article.
It was owned from 1905 until last summer by a British private collector. It was sold by Sotheby’s for US$2 million — a breathtaking bargain if it is the Michelangelo — to a New York art dealer who was convinced of its authenticity.
The Metropolitan, having completed the restoration, was also convinced but unable to find the funds for the purchase price.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a