Unpublished drawing by pupil of Michelangelo discovered in western France
Artwork valued at €500,000 but sold for €3.1 million at Paris auction
The auctioned artwork (left) was a preparatory drawing for the The Assumption of the Virgin fresco in Rome’s Trinità dei Monti (right)@CourtesyMillon, Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock
An unpublished pencil drawing by Michelangelo's friend and pupil Daniele da Volterra has sold for €3.1 million at a Paris auction, after being discovered in western France.
The young man can be seen in the fresco of The Assumption of the VirginRenata Sedmakova / Shutterstock
The artwork consists of a preparatory drawing of a young man’s head for the fresco of The Assumption of the Virgin, located in the Church of Trinità dei Monti in Rome, thought to be completed in 1553.
It measures 40.5 x 28.2 cm, and was found at an estate sale in the city of Nantes (Pays de la Loire).
The artwork was estimated to be worth between €400,000 and €500,000.
Two French individuals and an American institution placed a series of competing offers, before being outbid by a “foreign art collector,” reported Le Figaro.
Spotted hanging on an office wall
The work had been owned by the same family in Nantes since at least the mid-1900s.
“Several months ago, I met with a man who wanted to have his grandfather's estate appraised,” auctioneer Paul-Marie Musnier told Le Figaro. “While he was hoping to get a good price for some 20th-Century designer lamps, my eye was immediately drawn to this work hanging on the wall of an office, which immediately struck me as a typical Renaissance drawing in all its splendour."
An inscription in French on the back of the drawing attributed the work to the Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto, which Mr Musnier initially valued at €15,000.
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After being sent for authentication, it was established that the drawing was actually the work of Daniele da Volterra, in preparation for his masterpiece at the Trinità dei Monti.
Tiny pin holes trace the pencil lines of the drawing - evidence of a technique used to transfer initial works from paper onto walls.
"The drawing allows us to better interpret the figure, which is badly damaged in the fresco,” art historian Vittoria Romani told auction house Millon. “It is now possible to appreciate the expressiveness of the apostle's gaze as he is lost in thought, and to appreciate the subtlety of the light pouring down from above him."
The identity of the man who posed for the drawing is unknown, however it is assumed he was a close friend of Da Volterra.
The fresco is located in the Church of Trinità dei Monti in Romeartem evdokimov / Shutterstock
