3D Printing Resolves Sculpture Mystery

Today, Monday, July 6th, an international panel of researchers will present papers and findings detailing a "Renaissance whodunnit" of the art history world, as two bronze statues dating to the early 16th century may finally be attributed to Michelangelo. The sculptures, each of a man riding a panther in the nude, were studied by a broad team of researchers and artists from the University of Warwick (including an anatomist and the Warwick Manufacturing Group--WMG), the University of Cambridge, Birmingham University, Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, and the UK's Fitzwilliam Museum. The WMG used a portable scanner to get a 360 degree 3D scan of the originals, and then UK-based Propshop created 3D printed models of the statues, from which an artist is creating bronze recreations to study the originals. Read more about the art history mystery in the full story: http://3dprint.com/79054/michelangelo-bronze-sculpts/
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It's totally ridiculous to attribute these things to Michealangelo. To point out only one of the most obvious facts, Michaelangelo was a consummate anatomist. He never would have made a figure in an anatomically impossible pose like that. Just try rotating your head to face directly over your shoulder like that. (Unless you're related to Linda Blair, it's not going to happen...) The only "mystery" here is why people who should know better are still going on with this.

Two questions

Who is Linda Blair?

Why would you do a sculpture of someone sniffing their armpit?

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Originally Posted by awerby

It's totally ridiculous to attribute these things to Michealangelo. To point out only one of the most obvious facts, Michaelangelo was a consummate anatomist. He never would have made a figure in an anatomically impossible pose like that. Just try rotating your head to face directly over your shoulder like that. (Unless you're related to Linda Blair, it's not going to happen...) The only "mystery" here is why people who should know better are still going on with this.

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Well, I can turn my head just like that with my arm extended just like that and I didn't have to try very hard either. In fact, when I raise my arm and look in the same direction as the statue, my head naturally positions just like in the statue. The position is anatomically possible, natural and rather easy. So your dismissal is obtuse.

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Originally Posted by Mjolinor

Two questions

Who is Linda Blair?

Why would you do a sculpture of someone sniffing their armpit?

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Seriously, Linda Blair? Go rent "The Exorcist" movie. Until you watch the movie, you won't get awerby's comment.

If you look at the sculpture as a whole, it doesn't look that way. But in the poor crop above, I suppose it sorta does.

Saw the exorcist when it came out. Presumably it's the girl with the rotating head. :)

Yes, correct.

well it's a naked man about to shag a cat - sounds like michealangelo to me.

Now if you want to talk ridiculous. Have a look at his david statue. Slinger ? I don't think so :-)
That said, I know a helluva lot more about slinging than michaelangelo did.

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A key to the understanding of Renaissance art lies in who could do what–at that time, among artists, only Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci had the anatomical know-how to create fully correct human figures.

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Up to a point. You have to remember that both had large groups of apprentices working for them. So while thing might have come from michaelangelos workshop - there's no guarentee he actually made it.

I presume if they decide it is his work the value gets a few noughts added to the end :-)

Wolfie, you must be a lot more flexible than me - can you post a picture of yourself doing that? I didn't think it was possible, but I can be convinced.

Another issue with this attribution is the stylization of the cats. Michaelangelo didn't believe in that; he was always naturalistic. I don't think this came from his studio either; any apprentice who came up with something so awkward-looking would have been thrown out by the master.

Yes. And no. I am work. Would look weird ya think ;)

I believe these were prototypes and not completed works but thats my gut telling me that. Missing icons in the hands and differences in the cat style infer that these were not completed works, at least to me. Does not mean they weren't from the Michelangelo studio.

Will we ever know for sure? No. Unless someone can turn up a sketchbook from his own hand showing the statues and have his signature on them. Like most archaeology, all we can do is make a best guess given available data at the time.

People used to think T-rex's walked upright which now scientists seem to have disproven. People believed the world was flat...until someone disproved it. At one point the earth was the center of the universe...until someone disproved it. Right now, they think Michelangelo made these. Many facts do tend to support that conclusion. But who knows, eventually someone may find a sketch from a 10yr old son of one of his apprentices who made these statues for a 5th grade art project and we will be discussing this all over again to no end. Frankly, I would be more interested in finding out who really built Stonehenge than finding out who make these two statues.