Michelangelo 'self portrait' found in fresco

3 Jul 2009, 1:15 pm   -   Source: SBS staff and agencies
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The restoration of frescoes by Michelangelo in the Vatican may have revealed a special prize - a previously unknown self portrait of the artist.

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The restoration of frescoes by Michelangelo in the Vatican may have revealed a special prize – a previously unknown self portrait of the artist.

Chief Vatican restorer Maurizio De Luca said the face of a man on horseback in Michelangelo's "The Crucifixion of St Peter" could be the artsist.

However the De Luca stopped short of confirming it was actually a self portrait and nobody will ever know "with absolute certainty that the face is Michelangelo's".

It's revealed the face of the man in question was painted with the tip of the brush "almost a minute attempt to achieve precise details which was not needed given the distance between the fresco on the ceiling and the people looking at it".

The finding comes as the Vatican announces a restoration project at a cost of almost $6 million.

The frescoes were painted between 1542 and 1549, when Michelangelo was 75, and were the last the artist did.

The Cappella Paolina, or the Pauline Chapel, generally known by its Italian name Cappella Paolina, is used by the pope and is not open to the general public.

It contains Michelangelo frescoes depicting the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter.

They were commissioned by Pope Paul III. 

Pope Benedict XVI will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer service on Saturday.
 

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