London - It is a whodunnit that has enthralled the art world.
But now, it would seem, the mystery surrounding two disputed Michelangelo sculptures has finally been solved.
Experts say they are as convinced as they can be that the bronze pieces – which have been languishing in obscurity for more than a century – are the work of the Renaissance master.
And it is the way the team of art historians from Cambridge University and the Fitzwilliam Museum pieced together the evidence that really makes the story.
At its heart is their analysis of a series of sketches from the 16th century – one in particular by a student of Michelangelo’s.
The sculptures, which are on loan to the Fitzwilliam, depict two triumphant men riding naked on panthers.Dating back to about 1508, the pieces were first recorded in the 19th century, when they appeared in the Paris collection of Baron Adolphe de Rothschild. The collector, a scion of the banking dynasty, attributed them to Michelangelo but other scholars dismissed the claim.
Since then they have changed hands several times, and each time have been attributed to a different artist.
However, the link to the artist resurfaced last year after their anonymous owner approached Paul Joannides, a professor of art history at Cambridge University.
He was instantly reminded of an obscure sketch by one of Michelangelo’s students, which he had come across at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France. In the corner of a sheet of drawings is a tiny scribble of a well-built youth on the back of a panther, in a pose identical to the bronzes.
The 16th-century apprentice is thought to have copied the drawings his teacher had sketched when preparing to make the sculpture. The original Michelangelo drawings are long-since lost or destroyed, but the student’s sketch has survived, a vital clue in the mystery.
Convinced of the link, Professor Joannides set about proving his theory. He tracked down every similar drawing and sculpture Michelangelo had ever produced. The Albertina Museum in Vienna had a set of drawings of lions and panthers associated with Michelangelo; the British museum hold sketches of nude men holding the same pose as the bronzes; and a partially destroyed torso sculpture in Florence bears the same anatomical quirks.
Using X-ray, the bronzes were then dated to the early 16th century and a clinical anatomist from Warwick University, Professor Peter Abrahams, compared the detail with other Michelangelo works.
‘There is no one in the early 1500s who had such detailed anatomical knowledge and modelling skills to make such near perfect muscular men,’ he said. Michelangelo is thought to have cast the works just after he completed his marble statue of David, and months before he embarked on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome. Even when their origins were unknown, the pieces were worth a fortune. They sold for £1.82million at Sotheby’s in 2002.
Today it is impossible to put a value on them, but other Michelangelo works have sold for many millions. In 2001, a pen and brown ink drawing by the artist, discovered in the library of a stately home in North Yorkshire, sold for £5.9million. Dr Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam, said: ‘The bronzes are exceptionally powerful and compelling works of art that deserve close-up study – we hope the public will come and examine them for themselves, and engage with this ongoing debate.’
Daily Mail