Rare drawing by Michelangelo at Christie's auction

After Leonardo da Vinci's "Bear's Head", launched a few months ago in London, Christie's returns to the fore in the coming days with the offer of an "exceptionally rare" drawing by Michelangelo, one of the few, according to the auction house , still in private hands.

"Young nude (after Masaccio)" would have been performed by the Sistine master at the beginning of his career.

It will be auctioned on May 18 in Paris during the "Maîtres anciens et du XIXe siècle" sale, with an estimate of around 30 million euros after traveling in the coming weeks to Hong Kong and New York.

The design comes from a French private collection: it was originally classified as a national treasure of France and its export was blocked for a period of about thirty months.

"

The drawing is probably the artist's first nude study that has survived to this day.

The central figure recalls the trembling man of the Baptism of the Neophytes, part of Masaccio's cycle of frescoes in the Chiesa del Carmine in Florence: using two shades of brown ink, Michelangelo enhanced his muscles, foreshadowing his most famous representations of the human body .

The drawing was authenticated in 2019 by Furio Rinaldi, then a specialist in Christie's Old Master Drawings department (now at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco), whose opinion was supported by Paul Joannides, emeritus of art history at the University of Cambridge and author of the complete catalogs of drawings by Michelangelo and his school at the Ashmolean in Oxford and the Louvre.

Sold in 1907 to

Hotel Drouot as a work of Michelangelo's school, the drawing had escaped the attention of specialists until its recent rediscovery.

Other Michelangelo studies are inspired by Masaccio, including a drawing at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich and another at the Albertina in Vienna.

The sale follows that of other important works on paper of the Italian Renaissance at Christie's: in 2021 Leonardo's "Bear Head" sold for nearly nine million pounds, while in 2000 a rare male nude study by Michelangelo himself it was sold for eight million pounds, the auction world record for a work by the artist.

Other Michelangelo studies are inspired by Masaccio, including a drawing at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich and another at the Albertina in Vienna.

The sale follows that of other important works on paper of the Italian Renaissance at Christie's: in 2021 Leonardo's "Bear Head" sold for nearly nine million pounds, while in 2000 a rare male nude study by Michelangelo himself it was sold for eight million pounds, the auction world record for a work by the artist.

Other Michelangelo studies are inspired by Masaccio, including a drawing at the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich and another at the Albertina in Vienna.

The sale follows that of other important works on paper of the Italian Renaissance at Christie's: in 2021 Leonardo's "Bear Head" sold for nearly nine million pounds, while in 2000 a rare male nude study by Michelangelo himself it was sold for eight million pounds, the auction world record for a work by the artist.