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He also found other physical clues to link the bronzes to Michelangelo. The two men – one young, one older and bearded – have rippled torsos. “We all know a six-pack, but these guys actually have an eight-pack,” he said, something seen in very few people. “I found two statues and five Michelangelo drawings that have that same, rare anomaly, which tells me that the model he used for those was the same model he used for these bronzes.
“They look slightly on steroids, slightly pumped up, like bodybuilders. But if you were a guy lifting masonry stone you would have very developed muscles.”
Another indicator was the presence of the sartorius muscle in the legs. The muscle is not outwardly visible, leading Prof Abrahams to conclude that only an artist who had dissected bodies would know of its existence.
When Prof Abrahams was told that the bronzes likely dated to the early 1500s, he was surprised. “The first anatomy textbook was written in 1543 – we’re talking a generation later. So whoever made these beautiful bronzes had actually seen under the skin.”
He narrowed down to less than a dozen a list of artists known to have dissected bodies, and concluded that their work did not match the bronzes.
The statues “took my breath away”, Prof Abrahams said. “Of course, they’re beautiful, but what I’m talking about is anatomical, scientific accuracy.”
Another factor was the pubic hair. Almost every male classical and Renaissance sculpture has pubic hair arranged “in a triangle going down towards the genitalia”, he explained. In Michelangelo’s work, “the triangle goes up towards the umbilicus, not the other way around”.
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