Salerno was researching a book on Michelangelo when she came across a document that showed the artist had in 1550 joined the Brotherhood of the Most Holy Crucifix. Those close to him in his final years were members too.<\/p>\n
Over a decade of research, she followed the document trail between a series of archives in the Vatican, Italy and European cities including Paris.<\/p>\n
As part of what she called a \u201cmaniacal plan\u201d cooked up by Michelangelo, his works were to be hidden \u201cbecause otherwise it would all end up with a nephew he detested\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was to pass on to his poor, vulnerable, non-noble descendants the material to be able to continue studying, to transmit his art to future generations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Those involved in the plan went on to form the famous art Academy of San Luca in the 16th century, she added. It still exists today.<\/p>\n
Salerno believes the secret room designed to safeguard the artist\u2019s creations was likely somewhere inside the Saint Peter in Chains church in central Rome.<\/p>\n
Michelangelo bust<\/p>\n
During her research, she also stumbled across a reference to a bust at the Basilica of Sant\u2019Agnese, also in Rome, currently attributed to an anonymous artist.<\/p>\n
She found documents attributing the white bust of Christ the Saviour to Michelangelo down the centuries.<\/p>\n
In the 1930s it appears to disappear from documentation, only to reappear in the 1980s, attributed to a minor artist.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s cultural authorities later declared it to be a work by an unknown sculptor instead.<\/p>\n
But Salerno insists the bust is a genuine Michelangelo, not just due to the paper trail, but also because it shares a striking resemblance to Tommaso dei Cavalieri.<\/p>\n
Cavalieri was a young nobleman with whom Michelangelo became infatuated in his 50s.<\/p>\n
Salerno\u2019s work has not yet been peer reviewed, but she is a member of the Vatican committee for the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n
-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Salerno was researching a book on Michelangelo when she came across a document that showed the artist had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1628,85379,23552,156,2082,538,78,2198,5829,73293,140511,111,139,69,19719,170243,30308,151320,12605,387,16784,312,9095,2846,61,1865,15146],"class_list":{"0":"post-313265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-artworks","10":"tag-claimed","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-hidden","14":"tag-in","15":"tag-italian","16":"tag-many","17":"tag-michelangelo","18":"tag-michelangelos","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-ordered","23":"tag-posterity","24":"tag-protect","25":"tag-pupils","26":"tag-renaissance","27":"tag-researcher","28":"tag-room","29":"tag-says","30":"tag-secret","31":"tag-them","32":"tag-to","33":"tag-today","34":"tag-works"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}