The Manhattan marble statue of Cupid attributed to Michelangelo by an American art historian in 1996 is now being exhibited in the Louvre Museum until April 17th 2000. It was during a reception given in October 1996 in the cultural offices of the French embassy in New York that Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York, suddenly appeared mesmerized by a statue representing Cupid with its mutilated arms and feet. Staring at the curly-haired Cupid work she became certain it had been carved by Michelangelo himself.
The rediscovery of the Manhattan Cupid rocked art circles and inevitably stirred polemics about its authorship.
The statue is now shown in the Louvre museum next to two Roman copies of works by Greek sculptor Lysippe (4th Century B-C) and a torso of Mercury playing the flute by Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560), one of Michelangelo's rivals.
Now the question remains as there are many pros and cons regarding this enigmatic statue. Jean-René Gaborit, head of the Department of Sculptures at the Louvre, remains somewhat dubious.
“I only knew that statue through photographs and I thought it was the work of Francheville, a French sculptor active in Rome at the end of the 16th Century. Now facing it I find it more fascinating. It's an ambitious piece though unaccomplished. Its movements is audacious though it lacks some coordination as I note a discrepancy between the lines of the buttocks and the modelling of the belly which might nevertheless suggest a work created during Michelangelo's youth but its exact history remains to be determined,” he said.
Kathleen Brandt dedicated herself to the utmost to prove that this statue was truly the work of Michelangelo and came forward with the following story: Baldaserre del Milanese, a Milan businessman, reportedly bought a sleeping Cupid from Michelangelo while in Rome and sold it immediately to Cardinal Riario as a genuine antique piece but the latter eventually uncovered the trick and gave it back to Baldassare. The Cardinal was however eager to meet Michelangelo and sent an envoy to Florence to induce him to come to Rome. The artist accepted the invitation and came with another statue of Cupid, the one now in Manhattan.
Michelangelo wrote a lengthy letter about his stay in Rome in 1496 in which he however did not mention the existence of such statue which was placed in the gardens of the Villa Borghese during the mid 18th Century.
Napoleon bought the entire Borghese collection excepted the pieces in the gardens. The statue of Cupid was finally offered for sale in London in 1902 by Stefano Bardini, an Italian dealer and the sale catalogue mentioned that it came from the Villa Borghese with an attribution to an artist from the school of Michelangelo. However nobody took note of such mention while the statue remained unsold. It returned to Italy where it was acquired by an American before landing at the French embassy in 1906.
Alessandro Parronchi, an Italian writer, already attributed the statue to Michelangelo in a book published in 1968 but no one paid attention to such assertion while James Draper, a U.S art historian, believed in 1992 that it was the work of Bertoldo di Giovanni (1420-1491) or one of his followers. Di Giovanni had been an assistant of Donatello and one of Michelangelo's mentors and certain of his statues do show some similarities with the Cupid of Manhattan.
Kathleen Brandt's claim stirred passions and art historian James beck went as far as saying that the statue had been mutilated on purpose so as to make disappear all details that did not suggest Michelangelo's authorship.
Jean-René Gaborit admits that certain points raised by Kathleen Brandt seem solidly backed up though there are no decisive elements to prove that the statue was carved by Michelangelo. The main problem lies in the fact that it is quite hard to authenticate for sure works produced during the artist's youth.
Adrian Darmon
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