Museums have discovered the power of fakes and forgeries to fascinate the public. The Met is joining the club with the display of this statue that may be a Michelangelo–or not. New York Magazine put together a quick analysis of the pros and cons. Here are two of the points to entice you:
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
1. The Hair Pro: “I saw passages in the carving of the hair that only Michelangelo does,” Brandt says. “He would begin by carving out … an undifferentiated cap of marble, and out of that he distinguishes the curls.” Con: “This is kind of an impressionistic way of making hair,” wrote the late Columbia historian James Beck. “Even the hair of the David, which is very intellectualized, grows out of the head. It’s not applied to the head.”
6. The Back Pro: Though the curve of the back is not the work of a master—mostly, it’s too long—Brandt calls it “exquisite.” She calls this, like the pose, the work of a young artist “who doesn’t know the tricks.” Con: Steinberg finds this especially damning, saying “a stretched-out sacrum denies normal length to the spine.”
