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Current Exhibitions
The Young Archer Attributed to Michelangelo
Opened November 3, 2009
Vélez Blanco Patio
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Curator James David Draper discusses the attribution to the teenage Michelangelo of the marble sculpture now on special loan to the Museum from the French Republic's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.
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Download the audio file.  (12.61 MB)
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents the marble sculpture Young Archer, attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (Florence 1475–Rome 1564), in its Vélez Blanco Patio as part of a special loan from the French Republic, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. The Young Archer first entered the United States after it was obtained by architect Stanford White for the Manhattan residence of Mr. and Mrs. Payne Whitney at 972 Fifth Avenue. The fragmentary marble figure of a nude youth, which is missing arms and lower legs, remained in the Fifth Avenue mansion for decades after it became the Cultural Services office of the French Embassy. Displayed in the entrance hall above a fountain, the sculpture was visible from the sidewalk, but remained unremarked until 1990 when it was observed by Metropolitan Museum Curator James David Draper, the first scholar to publish its whereabouts.
In 1997 New York University professor Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt’s attribution of the marble to the young Michelangelo caused a stir, but was championed by Draper and many scholars, while others disagreed. The exhibition includes illustrated text panels outlining the history of the Young Archer and indicating various schools of thought so that viewers can make up their minds accordingly.
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