Friday, May 15, 2009

Michelangelo's Emphatic Cross-Hatching

There was an interesting article in the New York Times this week about the identification of Michelangelo's first known painting.

After a debate lasting four and a half centuries, several scholars have concluded that Michelangelo painted "The Torment of St. Anthony" between 1487 and 1488, when he was 12 or 13 years old.

Here's one researcher describing his reaction to the painting:
I looked at it and said this is self-evidently Michelangelo. There’s a section of the rocks with cross-hatching. Nobody else did this kind of emphatic cross-hatching.

Apparently, this guy has never come across the work of Jim Lee:



Emphatic cross-hatching indeed. The subject matter is not all that different either, actually.

Here's a detail of the painting:



Pretty neat.

2 comments:

  1. What the critic is saying is that within the timeline of the said painting only Michelangelo's signature cross-hatching technique (which is found utilized in the painting) can be proof enough to recognize this long-debated painting as a Michelangelo. I just thought your comment about the critic not hearing about Jim Lee was completely out of context.

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  2. I can't tell if you aren't getting my joke, or if I am not getting your joke.

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