This undeniably
beautiful statue of a slender boy is quite the centre of controversy in
Florence at the moment. It is recorded that Michelangelo (Caprese,
Arezzo 1475-Rome 1564) did sculpt such a marble in Florence in the period
before he left his adopted city for a visit to Rome in 1496.
The same statue
was sketched by French artist Jean-Robert Ange as he saw it in Rome
1756-73.
"Young Archer" first hit our headlines when it was re-discovered standing
innocent and ignored in the foyer of the French Consulate in New York a
few years ago. It has just been restored by the Metropolitan Museum of
New York and is the centrepiece of a current exhibition in Florence
called "Giovinezza di Michelangelo" (the early years of Michelangelo).
It stands on a high
plinth (perhaps too high) between two other early sculptures by Michelangelo,
the angel candle bearer from Bologna and his wooden crucifix
for Santo Spirito. When I was there, two eminent male art historians
in misshapen tweed jackets and bow ties flitted between the angel and the
archer, comparing the two. 
The 'Young Archer' was recorded by Aldovrandi
in 1556 as a 'Cupid' or an Apollo' executed by Michelangelo circa
1497 for the banker Jacopo Galli. Vasari, Condivi and Varchi all
record its existence. It was later in the Borghese collection in Rome from
whom the famous Florentine collector Bardini purchased it.
When the archer was sold in London at Christie's on the
27th May 1902, it was catalogued as "in the manner of Michelangelo".
This catalogue entry was presumed the last known trace of the statue until
it was spotted by an art historian in the foyer of the French Consulate
in New York where it had been standing in obscurity for decades. |
The angel is an accepted
work, the archer is not. In fact, it carries the label at the exhibition
"attributed to Michelangelo". For one hour they scrutinized every
aspect of the archer and verbalized loudly their opinions agitating the
guards no end by tracing every line of the boy's body with their fingers
dangerously close to the surface. "The face is too flat!" said one, "The
proportion of the diaphragm to the abdomen too long!" declared the other
until finally the elder academic threw up his hands in extravagant resignation
and admitted "It is beautiful though. Very beautiful. I just do not know.
"It seems Michelangelo's little boy will rest in authorship limbo for a
while longer.
The exhibition is
important and it does successfully demonstrate the models Michelangelo's
own art took root upon and grew from. Sculptures by Benedetto da Maino,
Donatello and Bertoldo di Giovanni a brilliant interpreter of the antique
are on display and lead up to the group of early works attributed to Michelangelo.
In da Maino's 'Saint Sebastian' we see an obvious prototype for Michelangelo's
much later series of famous "prisoners" or "prigioni" now in the Accademia
and in an early quattrocento bronze putto we see the origins of the pose
for "Young Archer".
However the organizers
were naive to think people would leave the exhibition convinced that Michelangelo
was no boy prodigy but simply well taught and adept at copying his predecessors.
If anything, after gazing upon  'The
Manchester Madonna' and his 'Battle of the Centaurs' visitors
leave thinking that Michelangelo is indeed a rare genius superior to all
that came before him.
Be warned, the exhibition
takes place in two separate venues and your ticket bought at either, only
allows you to see both in one day. Part I in the Casa Buonarroti, via Ghibellina
and Part II in the Palazzo Vecchio.
'Giovinezza di Michelangelo'
on till 9th January 2000
RLG |
