Posted by Susan Benford
Could a famous painting by Michelangelo hang unattributed at the Metropolitan? With Renaissance art over four centuries old, one might think all the famous paintings by Michelangelo would be known and attributed. Wrong!
Everett Fahy, the recently retired Chair of the European Paintings department of the Metropolitan, 
St. John the Baptist Bearing Witness, ca. 1506-07. Oil and gold on wood, 29 3/4" x 82 1/2". Metropolitan Museum of Art. asserts that a painting presently attributed to the workshop of Francesco Granacci (1469/70 - 1543) is actually a Michelangelo painting. As Fahy notes, "Michelangelo, like van Gogh, attracts a lot of crazy ideas, and people are going to say this is another absurd idea. I'm expecting that they're going to throw brickbats."
Fahy, a pre-eminent, internationally-known scholar of Renaissance art, introduces his thesis in the June issue of ARTnews. This previews his forthcoming, 65-page article, "An Overlooked Michelangelo?". Fahy investigates a series of panels detailing the life of Saint John. The first of these, Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist, is held by the Met, and shows an angel informing Zacharias about the birth of his son, John the Baptist. This is a "typical work by Francesco Granacci", according to the Met, which states that the second panel (possibly a pendant, or paired painting) is by "another, superior artist."
Enter Fahy, who persuasively argues that this "superior artist" is none other than the Renaissance genius, Michelangelo. Fahy documents numerous similarities between Michelangelo's style and that in this second panel. For instance, on the right of St. John, who wears a rose-colored robe on top of his hair shirt, are two pharisees; one of them is pointing up toward 
Michelangelo. Philosopher, ca. 1495-1500. Pen and Brown Ink, British Museum.
Christ who enters the scene with five disciples. This pair of pharisees, Fahy observes, resembles the Michelangelo drawing, Philosopher, at the British Museum. Further, the panel's St. John is evocative of Michelangelo drawings at the Louvre, Nude Man and Study for the colossal statue of David victorious. The Met observes that figures in the panel are similar to those in the background of Dona Tondo,
Michelangelo. Holy Family (Doni Tondo),ca. 1504-05. Oil tempera on wood, approximately 47" diameter. Galleria degli Uffizi.
another masterpiece of Renaissance art. Further evidence comes from the Met's conservation department, which examined each underdrawing in the five panels. Four revealed detailed, careful preparatory drawings, while the second panel showed a more fluid and bold style like that of Michelangelo. It should be noted that in Renaissance art, especially in Florence, a commissioned artist would retain other painters to assist him; it was generally assumed that the assistants would follow designs from the lead painter, which was clearly not the case here, Michelangelo painting or not!
The evidence is leaning toward another Michelangelo attribution (although the Met still claims that this Renaissance artwork is from Granacci's circle). For more details of Fahy's persuasive argument, read the ARTnews article, Why It's a Michelangelo.
With apologies for the small size of the contested Granacci or Michelangelo painting -- that's the best I could track down!
Posted by Susan Benford
One of the most famous paintings in Renaissance art is Paolo Uccello's triptych, The Battle of San Romano. Born Paolo di Dono, he was nicknamed Uccello (Italian for "bird") because he frequently sketched them. His Battle of San Romano was painted on three panels now located in the National Gallery, Uffizi, and Louvre. Together, they depict the legendary (but bloodless) battle of 1432 between Florence and Siena. The
Tempera on wood panel, approx. 6' x 10'7". National Gallery, London.
onset of the skirmish is depicted on the London panel (above). Here, the Sienese have ambushed the Florentine commander, Niccolo da Tolentino, and his force of twenty horsemen. Greatly outnumbered, the Florentines held their enemy at bay for eight hours until reinforcements arrived and vanquished the Sienese.
This panel is renowned as a tour de force of 
pageantry, of battle imagery, and of Uccello's introduction of one point (linear) perspective into Renaissance art. The broken lances on the ground form receding lines, or orthogonals, which converge on a fixed vanishing point. Note that the prone soldier is conveniently aligned on an orthogonal (and that no blood sullies the scene, in spite of the gaping hole piercing his armor!) The vanishing point, located by the horse's head, creates an illusion of depth; along with Niccolo's red and gold headdress and rearing white horse, they compel the viewer to focus on the pivotal and heroic figure.
Niccolo was a condottiere, or professional mercenary, and a confidant of the Medici. One can identify him immediately by his personal insignia, the knot of Solomon; this "knot of eternity" is shown on the banner held aloft by the bare-headed standard bearer. The battle is waged in the foreground space, with the middle ground blanketed by hedges of roses, oranges and pomegranates, all fertility symbols. In the distant cultivated fields, other warriors prepare crossbows.
In the center panel housed in the Uffizi (below), Bernadino della 
Tempera on wood panel, approx. 6' x 10'9"
Ciarda, the leader of the Sienese mercenaries, is struck by a lance and knocked from his horse. The crux of the battle shows Bernadino sprawled on the ground to the right of the painting's central axis. The final panel at the Louvre - and the last temporally - depicts Niccolo aiding the Florentine mercenary, Michelotto da Cotignola, as they counterattack the Sienese across the Arno river.
Tempera on wood panel, approx. 6' x 10' 7". Musee National du Louvre. Art historians have long contended that this masterpiece of Renaissance art was commissioned by Piero de Medici for the newly constructed Medici Palace. However, Marilyn Stokstad, author of Art History, suggests these famous paintings were commissioned instead by Lionardo Bartolini Salimbeni (1404-1479). Although his heir and son, Damiano, filed a complaint stating that Lorenzo de' Medici "forcibly removed" these masterpieces, none was returned to Damiano - an "in palace" inventory of 1492 records that all three works hung on the walls of Lorenzo's private quarters in the Medici Palace.
Most famous paintings are best appreciated in person (the Google Earth foray into the Prado is close to an exception) but this is especially true for London
's panel of
The Battle. The raised gold decorations on the harnesses are actually embossed in gold; their sculptural effect reminds you that Paolo Uccello apprenticed with
Lorenzo Ghiberti. More significantly, Uccello designed these works to be hung above eye level, or approximately 7 feet from the ground. In person, it is apparent that Niccolo's arm and horse were intended to be viewed from below rather than at eye level. Regardless of how they are hung, though,
The Battle of San Romano deserves its status as one of the most famous paintings of the world.
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Posted by Susan Benford
With the art history world abuzz with "La Bella Principessa", a drawing newly attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), I'm reminded again of the accomplishments of this singular Renaissance genius. Not only did he create famous paintings, but also he is credited with seminal discoveries in engineering, sculpture, theater design, architecture, aeronautics, music and anatomy. In just 67 years!
Born in the town of Vinci, outside Florence, Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a notary, a scarring social stigma which some art historians believe contributed to his lifelong solitude. After training with the famous painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrochio (c. 1435-1488), Leonardo became master of Florence's Guild of St. Luke, an association named in honor of the patron saint of painters. Unlike his contemporaries in Renaissance art, Leonardo was inspired by the primacy of the eye in direct observation, and of the intellect in comprehending what was observed.
Leonardo spent much of his life outside Florence, employed by foreign princes and kings often at war with his native land. Among these were Prince Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who retained Leonardo from 1508 to 1513 as a painter and builder of catapults, bridges and cannons. It was during this Milan tenure that Leonardo purportedly drew "La Bella Principessa", believed to be the prince's daughter, Bianca Sforza.
One of Leonardo's most famous artworks, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, is an unfinished commission with
Oil on wood, c. 1503 - 1506. 5'6 1/8" x 3'8". Louvre.visible traces of underpainting. Even in its unfinished state, though, this famous painting illustrates three pictorial techniques either created or perfected by Leonardo: chiaroscuro (the use of light and dark to create effects of relief and modelling); sfumato (literally, "vanished in smoke", a technique of defining form and shape by gradations of light and dark); and aerial perspective (a method of indicating distance by tone and color contrast).
Here, he has arranged the figures as a pyramid set in a landscape. While the theme of the Virgin Mary, her mother (Anne), and Jesus was common, it is unusual for Mary to be portrayed in her mother's lap. The background landscape, whose crags are seemingly replicated in Anne's veil, virtually melts in its sfumato haze. The baby lamb is both a symbol of innocence and of Jesus' sacrifice for humanity, memorialized in John the Baptist's reference to Jesus as the "Lamb of God".
There are similarities between the Mona Lisa, dated 1503 to 1505, and The Virgin and Child, painted in the same timeframe: Mona
Lisa's famously enigmatic smile (above) is similar to Saint Anne's. Additionally, the hazy, misty backgrounds are evocative of each other, although in Mona Lisa, the left and right parts are mismatched and have different horizons. As if Leonardo could foretell that Mona Lisa would become the world's most famous painting, he had this - as well as The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne - in his possession when he died in 1519.