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Apollo. Cupid. Hercules. A young archer. Over the last five centuries, all of these names have been applied to the enigmatic sculpture that stands at the center of The Met’s gallery 503, a long hall filled with 16th-century Italian sculpture and decorative arts. Before being put on display at the world-famous art museum, the sculpture stood in the rotunda of the Payne-Whitney Mansion on Fifth Avenue, and for more than 90 years, it was simply a decorative piece in the background of life. That is, until a name was given to its creator: Michelangelo.
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The information card at The Met dates the sculpture to circa 1490, when Michelangelo, born in 1475, would have been a teenager, making it one of his earliest works. The piece first appears on record in 1556 at the home of Jacopi Galli in Rome. It pops up next in 1650 in a garden niche at Villa Borghese in Rome. For the next three centuries, there is little documentation on the work, though art scholars have found several sketches and references to it throughout time.
In 1902, art dealer Stefano Bardini put the sculpture up for auction at Christie’s. A French version of the auction catalog attributed the work to Michelangelo and called it Statue of a Child, while the English version titled the work The Infant Hercules and attributed it only to the School of Michelangelo. It didn’t sell.
A buyer finally came along in 1905. Starchitect Stanford White purchased the work in Rome with plans to install it inside a mansion he had designed at 972 Fifth Avenue for Mr. and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney. The seller made no mention of Michelangelo in correspondence with White. In 1953, the home was purchased by the French government and became the office of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Villa Albertine. No fanfare was made about the French government acquiring a Michelangelo as well.
In the ensuing decades, the sculpture stood quietly in the foyer, attracting little attention. Some art scholars, including Italian art historian Alessandro Parronchi, made claims that Michelangelo was the sculptor, and others conducted individual examinations of the work, but none made a real splash—until 1996.
At a party celebrating the opening of an exhibition of French decorative arts, NYU art professor Dr. Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt saw the marble figure lit up for the first time. After getting a good look, she was convinced the work was a forgotten piece by the young Michelangelo. Her discovery, or rediscovery, was announced in a front-page New York Times article the following year, and she published her argument in a Burlington Magazine article.
The front page Times article caused a stir in the art world. Brandt’s confidence in her deduction inspired several art scholars, including James David Draper, then Curator in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to come out in support. However, several others, including the respected scholar Leo Steinberg, disputed her claims.
In 2009, the sculpture was loaned to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for 10 years. The museum later hosted an international symposium, Michelangelo and Florence in the 1490s, during which scholarly consensus accepted the sculpture as a work designed and carved by Michelangelo. The Met’s loan was renewed for another 10 years in 2019, while a replica now stands in the rotunda of the home on Fifth Ave.
You can see the replica or the real sculpture on Untapped New York Walking tours! Step inside the Payne-Whitney mansion on our Fifth Ave Gilded Age Mansions Tour or see the real Michelangelo amid other treasures of The Met on our Met Museum Insider tour!
Met Museum Insider Tour
Select Mondays & Fridays at 10:30 am ET: Encounter breathtaking masterpieces and overlooked treasures as you uncover The Met’s hidden corners with an expert guide!
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