Nude Men on Panthers

A team of experts led by the University of Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum has adjudged that these two Bronze Naked Men Riding Panthers are by the Renaissance master Michelangelo. Previously dismissed as by a lesser artist, they are now thought to have been cast after Michelangelo sculpted his David and before he began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Last autumn, Prof. Paul Joannides, Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Cambridge, found a sheet of studies by one of Michelangelo’s apprentices that depicts a muscular youth riding a panther. This made the vital connection. The bronzes are on display in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, from tomorrow until 9 August. Admission to the Fitzwilliam is free (CLICK). BBC News story: CLICK.