HN

Comments (79)

• Nifty3929
  If you just want to see the painting without all the ads: https://cdn8.openculture.com/2026/01/14225354/1920px-Michela...
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  amarant
  Something about this painting is reminiscent of the way I(and I'm sure many others) would paint my comic-book heroes at around that age, albeit perhaps lacking some of Michelangelo's talents and skills.This painting makes me feel like the bible was pretty much a comic book to the adolescent Michelangelo, and I like that thought. He later went on to paint the ceiling of a huge temple dedicated to his equivalent of Charles Xavier.I bet that felt pretty cool for him =)
• Jerry2
  This is just a summary of the the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Torment_of_Saint_Anthony
• Fh_
  Must be his earliest work we know, not the first painting he did, because this is too good.
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  al_borland
  Surely this isn’t the first thing he ever painted, but rather the earliest known work that survived?
• racl101
  That picture was always freaky to me as a kid.
• herbertl
  It's mentioned in the article that this is a (really good!) painted version of The Torment of Saint Anthony, an engraving by Martin Schongauer.Michelangelo would go on to find his first patron, a Cardinal named Raffaele Riario, by forging a sculpture and artificially aging it (which, back then, was a conventional practice to demonstrate expertise and skill: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-a-forged-sculpture...)Dishonesty aside, both stories are reminders that there's a power to doing stuff with your own two hands (not genning it), as well as not to let today's emphasis on originality take away from using imitation/transcription to practice your craft: https://herbertlui.net/in-defense-of-copycats/
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  stavros
  Do they mean that he grabbed a paintbrush one day and painted this out of the blue? Or does "painting" here mean "specifically painted on a canvas" or whatever?
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  tummler
  If my 12-year-old painted that, I would call a priest for an exorcism.
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  owlninja
  What a crazy coincidence... I had not been to the Kimbell art musesum that is only about 20 minutes away from me in many years. We had a family outing this weekend to go see the Torlonia Collection exhibit there and this painting was just sitting there in their permanent collection! I even got to listen to the guided tour group that happened to be at that painting as I was walking by.
• mythical_39
  Wonder if we replace the demons with the various things which today try to capture our attention?Or the massive chemical swings we self-induce, and how those might tear at (or help??) our soul?
• ojciecczas
  One thing is to invent such a picture, the other is to copy it almost 1:1 and add some touch, which was the case.
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  worldsavior
  Other than the drawing skill here, it's interesting why a kid thinks about demons attacking god. And why demons look like that for him.
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  agumonkey
  well the man would have loved to have a chat with H.P. Lovecraft it seems
• futurist654
  Trump vs Minnesota protestors?
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  fwip
  I'm inclined to agree with the commenter on the article.
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  LegitShady
  Not his first painting. Nobody picks up a brush for the first time and paints like that. Not an original work either. Just a practice masterstudy, one of many many many he'd made up to that point I'm sure.
• oldpersonintx
  [dead]
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  pstuart
  I wonder how many Michelangelos we'd have today if we didn't have electronic distraction devices and only had old school tech for "entertainment"