Sketch attributed to Michelangelo to be auctioned in New York
A simple square scribbled on a yellowed piece of paper believed to have been drawn by Renaissance genius Michelangelo will go on sale in April in New York, auction house Christie’s announced on Friday.
The company’s experts were examining a drawing by another artist of the same period for a forthcoming sale when they saw, stuck to the back of the frame, ‘this little piece of paper with a drawing and a letter,’ Stijn Alsteens, international head of the Old Master Drawings department at Christie’s, told AFP.
Cosimo Buonarroti, Michelangelo’s last direct descendant, indicates in the Nov 3, 1836 letter that he is offering ‘the enclosed essay’ by his ‘illustrious forefather Michelangelo’ to Sir John Bowring, the future governor of Hong Kong, whose signature appears at the bottom of the sheet.
The piece under inspection was sold to Christie’s in London in 1986, with the catalog indicating the presence of a square ‘probably in Michelangelo’s hand,’ though the reference did not initially generate any special interest.
Christie’s has since estimated the square’s worth at nearly US$10,000. Though it is unsigned by the great artist, Christie’s said it guarantees it is ‘100 per cent Michelangelo.’
While working on his famed Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Italian painter, sculptor and architect created a series of small diagrams indicating the type of marble block he would need, according to Alsteens.
The square on auction, with the label ‘simile’ or similar, is believed to be one such drawing. Before his death in Rome in 1564, Michelangelo burned most of his drawings and sketches.
Those his family managed to preserve were bequeathed to ‘Casa Buonarroti,’ a museum celebrating the artist in a building where he lived in Florence.