by Kelly Moran
for 24 January 1996
Since 1908, a statue of Cupid has been in the building across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A photo of the piece had appeared in a catalog for a 1902 sale in London, which described it as being from the "school of Michelangelo." The sculpture wasn't sold and disappeared. Three years later, an architect, Stanford White, was planning a building on Fifth Avenue in New York City. (It now houses the offices of the French Embassy.) The architect bought the sculpture in Italy for his Renaissance-style rotunda, thinking it was a newly unearthed antiquity.
And, so, the statue has been sitting in the lobby since 1908, encircled by 16 marble columns beneath a ceiling inlaid with carved trellises and pastel frescoes of cherubs. (I don't write like this. I copied this part from the Associated Press. I have never in my life used the word, "frescoes" in normal conversation.)
In 1952, the French government bought the building.
And this week, at a news conference Tuesday, art historian Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt announced that the statue is not only of the "school of Michelangelo," but that it is an "original Michelangelo."
She recalled walking past the building many times before noticing the lobby lit up for an October party.
She looked through the lobby windows and saw the statue. "It was clear we were dealing not with a garden statue, not an imitation, but an important work," she said.
Brandt believes the sculpture was carved in about 1494, when Michelangelo was 20. About 3 feet high, the naked, curly-headed boy with a quiver of arrows appears to be in motion. The statue's calves and arms are broken off.
"The energy, the thrust of the pose, the delicacy of the form, the technique in which the marble was carved ... all the brilliance coherently fits together in a way only Michelangelo can do," Brandt said.
The Metropolitan has expressed interest in conserving the statue, authenticating the marble, and displaying it. France also may want it for the Louvre, but the embassy's cultural counselor says it will remain where it is for now.
Suddenly, everyone wants a piece of this statue: museums, governments, collectors. It has been sitting there for 88 years and been virtually ignored, but now it's ready for the "big time."
Have you ever considered your own worth?
God has. I love this: God thought about you and decided that you were priceless. Everyone else you know may have varying opinions about you, (that's your own problem), but God sees your true value.
The apostle Paul wrote the church in Ephesus: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility." (Ephesians 2:13-14)
Wow! God came after you. He pursued you to bring you near to his own heart through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus has destroyed the barrier that separates you from God. And he did it, not because of what you've done, but because of who He is. God loves you so much...
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
Everyone that looks at you makes some kind of judgment (unfortunately). When God sees you, he recognizes your true value. The art historian said, "All the brilliance coherently fits together in a way only Michelangelo can do." God sees you as His own handiwork. Worthy of salvation. Worthy of tears. Worthy of the blood of His Son.
God, I do not feel worthy ... but thank you.
Published weekly for 4 years and 17 weeks.
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All Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (unless otherwise noted).
Copyright 1996 by Kelly Moran.