A discovery, which if confirmed, would have of incredible.A small universal judgment with the Christ judge and other figures of the famous fresco that can be admired in the Sistine chapel in the Vatican would have been painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti in oil on canvas, the only example ofuse of this technique by the Renaissance master.These are some of the results of a research that lasted over 8 years presented Tuesday in Rome, at Palazzo Grazioli at the Sala della Stampa.
The work under investigation was known with the title “ the Universal Judgment of Geneva ”But if the traces had been lost for more than 100 years.According to what was reconstructed by a team of researchers, the painting on the very fine linen canvas (96.52 x 81.28 cm) would have been donated by Michelangelo Buonarroti to the painter Alessandro Allari which he used it as a model to makeA altarpiece in the Basilica Santissima Annunziata in Florence.The research was conducted by Dr. Amel Olivares , specialist of Renaissance art, with the collaboration of Monsignor José Manuel of the Rio Carrasco, scholar of art history and conservation.
According to Olivares, to whom the attribution to Michelangelo owes, the painting made up of 33 figures draws inspiration from the famous fresco of the Sistine Chapel.The painting presents some peculiarities, among which the figure of the Christ judge without beard stands out exactly as in the original fresco of the Sistine Chapel.Professor Gianluigi Colalucci, the last restorer of the Universal Judgment of the Sistine Chapel, revealed that only by observing the fresco close, could it be noted that the dark part in the face of the Christ judge was the result of a restoration aimed at intensifying an ‘Ombrar a, while Michelangelo had originally conceived the Christ judge without the beard.On the contrary, in the version made by Alessandro Laurers for the altarpiece of the Basilica Santissima Annunziata of Florence, the Christ judge is painted with a thick dark beard.