
Collection Online as of January 26, 2021
(Italian, 1469-1543)
Tempera and oil with gold on wood
Unframed: 76.2 x 33 cm (30 x 13 in.)
The Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection 1944.91
003 Special Exhibition Hall - 3
Did Michelangelo paint some of this work?
This panel formed part of a series depicting the life of
John the Baptist, with other panels located in New York City and Liverpool. Scholars believe that as many as
five artists may have participated in creating the series
and disagree about who painted this panel. Michelangelo Buonarotti, a lifelong friend of Francesco Granacci’s,
may have contributed to one of the two panels in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Compare the sculptural
quality of the maidservant’s white drapery in the CMA’s picture with figures from the Met’s panels attributed to
Michelangelo (below left) and Granacci (below right).
Which one do you think it more closely resembles?