Lost and Found

In a way that neatly illustrates that we are not as clever by half as we think we are .. a couple of statues have now been re-attributed as being the only surviving bronzes by Michelangelo.

Michelangelo's Statues or Dutch Nobodies?

 

I say re-attributed, because art experts in the in the 19th century has been happily convinced that that was exactly what they were, but 20th century art scholars, with that intellectual arrogance and historical revisionism that they have so often portrayed, dismissed this idea, and instead attributed them to an almost unknown Dutch sculptor Willem Danielsz Van Tetrode .... on what grounds its hard to say.

One glance suggests that these are not run of the mill statues by a lesser sculptor, but hey that's what the expert scholars thought, so who was to argue.

 

Then someone noticed that in a 16th century drawing held in the Musee Fabre in Montpellier, France, one of Michelangelo's apprentices had copied various now lost sketches by his master, and in the corner of one was a drawing of a muscular youth riding a panther.
 

The Sorcerers Apprentices Work Proved Decisive

The similarity is striking, especially the panther and its tail ...... from then on it took a team of 21st century experts to eventually conclude that the teams of 20th century experts were wrong, and that the 19th century experts were right and had known what they were doing all along.

Roll on the 22nd century, when no doubt another bunch of historical revisionism experts will cast their gimlet eyes over everything held to be true this century and attribute these statues to some obscure Italian artisan. Such is the crazy world of the art experts ..... what ever happened to appreciating 'Art For Arts Sake' ... now its 'Money for Gods Sake'.

These statues are apparently now masterpieces, whereas just a few weeks ago they were the work of the obscure Dutch sculptor, Willem Danielsz Van Tetrode, and not masterpieces .... the difference, just a name.