Masterpiece unnoticed for 500 years

[emad]

John Hooper in Rome
Saturday October 23, 2004
The Guardian

Almost two decades of detective work, triggered by a Latin poem found in the Vatican archives, has led experts to conclude that a statue that had stood unnoticed for five centuries in a small southern Italian town is the work of a Renaissance master.

A new book by an Italian gallery director attributes the life-size statue to the 15th century artist Andrea Mantegna, whose paintings demonstrate a special genius for the creation of three-dimensional illusions.

Until recently, none of Mantegna's sculptures was thought to have survived. David Landau, who chaired the 1992 exhibition of Mantegna's works at the Royal Academy, said he had not yet studied the stone carving at first hand. But Mr Landau added: "When I saw the photographs I thought the claim was a very possible one. I certainly think it's something to be taken seriously."

The statue, of Saint Euphemia, stands behind a dusty glass panel on a high ledge in the cathedral at Irsina, a town 50 miles from Bari that now has a population of less than 7,000. St Euphemia, the patron saint of Irsina, was a young aristocrat from modern-day Turkey who was thrown to wild beasts in about 307 after she had refused to make a pagan sacrifice.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1334262,00.html
Sorry no pic

[barb162]

1. I like these kinds of stories, especially in Italy where there are so

many art experts. I thought everything in that country was examined and numbered.