ROME – A small painting, depicting Christ the Judge and other figures in the Sistine Chapel fresco have been attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti. The work, created in oil painting on canvas, if truly created by Michelangelo, it would represent a unicum in the pictorial corpus of the Renaissance master who usually used the oil technique only on panel.
The discovery, which occurred after a research lasting over eight years, was presented to Rome at Palazzo Grazioli. The painting, known as Last Judgment of Genevafrom the place where it was preserved for over a century, had disappeared for about 100 years.
The reasons for the attribution
The attribution to Michelangelo is due to Dr. Amel Olivares, specialist in Renaissance art, who conducted the research in collaboration with monsignor José Manuel of Rio Carrasco.
the painting has been subjected to meticulous research, stylistic and historical studies, as well as scientific analyzes such as spectrophotometry, stratigraphy and reflectography. Facial reconstruction, physiognomic and anthroposomatic comparison studies were carried out on Michelangelo’s face.
The painting on small linen canvas (96.52 x 81.28 cm) it would have been made by Michelangelo and donated by him to the painter Alessandro Allori. Allori would have used the work as a model for an altarpiece in the Santissima Annunziata basilica in Florence.
The attribution to Michelangelo is based on various pieces of evidence: the pictorial style, the composition of the work and the presence of some characteristics, such as the figure of Christ the Judge without beardjust like in the original Sistine Chapel fresco.
Professor Gianluigi Colalucci, last restorer of the Last Judgment of the Sistine Chapel, confirmed that Michelangelo had originally conceived the beardless Christ, a detail that only a careful examination of the fresco made it possible to discover, as the dark part of the face is the result of a subsequent restoration.
In the version created by Alessandro Allori for the Florentine altarpiece, however, Christ the Judge is painted with a thick dark beard.
The study of the work allowed us to discover the method of preparation of the canvas, in which lead carbonate, known as white lead, plays a fundamental role. It is assumed that Michelangelo learned this technique from Sebastiano del Piombo with whom he was in close contact in Rome.
The painting also features a self-portrait of the master with a younger face than the known one, in which it is possible to recognize a visual defect, a form of strabismus, just like in Moses It is in the David.
Research on Last Judgment of Geneva it also highlighted other peculiarities of Michelangelo, like the creation of incomplete or sketchy charactersthe technique of movement in the figures represented and the insertion of apteral angelsor without wings.
A description of the painting, dating back to 1792, was found in the State Archives of Florence. The work then had a long history with several changes of ownership.
The study of the work undoubtedly opens new interpretative perspectives in the analysis and authentication of Renaissance paintings. All that remains now is to wait for further confirmation regarding the attribution to Michelangelo.
