Tormented Youth

Next week the MET will put on display Michelangelo’s “Torment of Saint Anthony,” reputedly the artist’s first painting. It’s a rare chance to see the picture, which was restored by the museum’s crack conservation department, before it heads off to its home at the Kimbell, in Ft. Worth. You have to love how flat-out bezonkers it is, understandable when you learn that it was (supposedly) painted when the artist was all of 12 to 13 years old.

Contemporary sources tell us the boy-genius studied the wares at the local fish market to aid him in the realism of his monsters. The small boat at the bottom of the picture, sailing off apparently unaware of the drama above, is an especially nice touch.