the torment of saint anthony

the torment of saint anthony

ORT WORTH – In an extraordinary coup, the Kimbell Art Museum has acquired the earliest known painting by Michelangelo, one of only four easel paintings by the Renaissance master in the world.

The Kimbell's purchase, The Torment of Saint Anthony (1487-88), will be the only painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) to enter the permanent collection of a U.S. museum. Two of the other paintings are in London's National Gallery, and a third is in Florence's Uffizi Gallery.

The 18 ½ -by-131/4-inch oil-and-tempera on poplar panel will go on view at the museum this fall.

The opportunity to buy the work, for an undisclosed sum, came just weeks after the arrival of newly appointed Kimbell director Eric McCauley Lee earlier this year. He was having lunch one day with former Kimbell director Edmund "Ted" Pillsbury, who had heard about the painting, which was being studied in the conservation studios at the Metropolitan Museum of New York