The Torment of Saint Anthony (Michelangelo)

The Torment of Saint Anthony

Artist	Attributed to Michelangelo
Year	c. 1487–1488^[1]
Type	Oil and tempera on panel
Dimensions	47 cm × 35 cm ( 18 ¹⁄₂ in × 13 ¹⁄₄ in)
Location	Kimbell Art Museum

The Torment of Saint Anthony is the earliest known painting by Michelangelo, painted after an engraving by Martin Schongauer when he was only 12 or 13 years old.^[1] It is currently in the permanent collection of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.^[1]^[2] It shows the common medieval subject, included in the Golden Legend and other sources, of Saint Anthony being assailed in the desert by demons, whose temptations he resisted; the Temptation of St Anthony (or "Trial") is the more common name of the subject. But this composition shows a later episode where St Anthony, normally flown about the desert supported by angels, was ambushed in mid-air by devils.^[3]

The painting was previously attributed to the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, under whom Michelangelo had served his apprenticeship.^[4] Under that attribution it was bought at a Sotheby's auction in July 2008 by an American art dealer for US$2 million.^[5] When the export license was obtained that September, it was brought to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it was cleaned of discoloured varnish and later overpainting and closely examined for the first time.^[4] On the basis of stylistic hallmarks such as "emphatic cross hatching", it was decided that the painting was indeed by Michelangelo.^[4] It was soon bought by the Kimbell Art Museum for an undisclosed amount, believed to be in excess of $6 million.^[4]

Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists noted that Michelangelo had painted St. Anthony after a print by Schongauer, and Ascanio Condivi recorded that Michelangelo had gone to a market to draw fish scales, a feature not present in the original engraving.^[4] Besides this enhancement, Michelangelo also added a landscape below the figures, and altered the expression of the saint.^[4]

It is one of only four surviving panel paintings by Michelangelo, whom Vasari records as speaking disparagingly of oil painting in later life, and the only one, if the new attribution holds, from his adolescence. Schongauer's late-Gothic style is also in strong contrast with the rest of Michelangelo's oeuvre, even in his youth. The prints of Schongauer, just reaching the end of his long life when Michelangelo copied him, were widely distributed in Europe, including Italy.^[6]

Martin Schongauer, The Temptation of St Anthony, c. 1470-75

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Torment of Saint Anthony (Michelangelo).

1 2 3 Earliest Known Painting by Michelangelo Acquired By the Kimbell Art Museum, Kimbell Art Museum, 2009-05-13, retrieved 2009-05-13
↑ Brown, Angela K., Texas museum acquires Michelangelo's 1st painting, Associated Press 2009-05-13, retrieved 2009-05-13
↑ Alan Shestack; Fifteenth century Engravings of Northern Europe; no.37, 1967, National Gallery of Art, Washington(Catalogue), LOC 67-29080
1 2 3 4 5 6 Vogel, Carol.By the Hand of a Very Young Master? The New York Times, 12 May 2009. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
↑ Old Master Paintings Evening Sale, 9 July 2008, lot 69, "The Temptation of Saint Anthony", workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Florence 1448/49-1494
↑ Shestack, no. 34

Michelangelo

List of works
Key: *Attributed, †Lost

Sculptures

Florence, c. 1488–1492	†Head of a Faun Madonna of the Stairs Battle of the Centaurs Crucifix

Bologna, 1494–1495	Additions to the Arca di San Domenico (St Petronius, St Proclus, Angel)

Rome, 1496–1500	†Sleeping Cupid Bacchus †Standing Cupid Pietà

Florence, 1501–1505	David Madonna of Bruges Additions to the Piccolomini Altarpiece (Saints Peter, Paul, Pius and Gregory) Pitti Tondo Taddei Tondo St. Matthew

Tomb of Pope Julius II, 1505–1545	Moses Rebellious Slave Dying Slave Young Slave Bearded Slave Atlas Slave Awakening Slave The Genius of Victory Rachel Leah

Florence, 1516–1534	Christ Carrying the Cross Medici Chapel Giuliano de' Medici Night Day Dusk Dawn Medici Madonna Apollo Crouching Boy

Rome, 1534–1564	Brutus Florentine Pietà *Palestrina Pietà Rondanini Pietà

Paintings

Panel paintings	The Torment of Saint Anthony Manchester Madonna The Entombment Doni Tondo †Leda and the Swan

Salone dei Cinquecento	†Battle of Cascina

Sistine Chapel	Ceiling The Last Judgment

Cappella Paolina	The Martyrdom of St Peter

Architecture

Florence	New Sacristy and Laurentian Library in the Basilica of San Lorenzo

Rome	Piazza del Campidoglio Palazzo Farnese St. Peter's Basilica San Giovanni dei Fiorentini Porta Pia Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Works on paper	Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment Epifania

Milieu	Cecchino dei Bracci Tommaso dei Cavalieri Vittoria Colonna Ascanio Condivi Gherardo Perini Sebastiano del Piombo Febo di Poggio Luigi del Riccio

Related	Art patronage of Julius II Casa Buonarroti Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects Replicas of David Replicas of the Pietà Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes

Wikimedia	Michelangelo at Wikimedia Commons Michelangelo at Wikiquote

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