Michelangelo: refuting the myth of the poor starving artist?

Michelangelo, the Renaissance artist and sculptor renowned for his stinginess, was much richer than his rivals and may have been one of the wealthiest artists in history, according to a new book by an American academic.
During a long career, which produced icons of Western art such as the statue of David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes, Michelangelo accumulated a fortune which would be worth more than $US46 million ($A90 million) today.
The estimate has been calculated by Rab Hatfield, a professor of art history at the University of Syracuse in Florence, who published The Wealth of Michelangelo (Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura) after stumbling across two previously unknown bank accounts belonging to the artist. The discovery enabled Professor Hatfield to track Michelangelo's expenditure on products such as marble and wine and the income he received from his patrons.

posted by James Russell | 3:27 PM