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Michelangelo made small clay and wax models from which he carved his
statues. The "David" 18 feet high is said to have been carved from a model 12 inches high. Most of the models have been lost to time. While most sculptures look stiff, wooden, like they were pieced together, Michelangelo's sculptures look like they are alive. In reality Michelangelo did a lot of piceing to make his sculptures. This makes Michelangelo a even more amazing sculptor: he pieced but made it lifelike. The proof exists in the models that have survived. The right hand appearing in the Lorenzo de Medici statue also is the left hand in reverse image. The same hand also appears in his other sculputres and paintings. Michelangelo is recorded to have destroyed his work two weeks before he died so no one would know his methods.. He is also known to have sometimes cast the wax models into bronze and given them away to admirers. He also gave away his clay models too. It is also recorded that a thief broke into his studio and stole some of his models. Then there are the models that Michelangelo gave to his student, Mini, who took to France. Some of the models were returned to Italy but many were not. It is probably where the 40 models in the Von Praun Collection origninated. This web page is dedicated to finding Michelangelo's lost models and liberating from their private saftey deposit boxes (the fat cats probably have them promently displayed in their homes so they can brag what they got to their rich friends) and putting them in public musuems where everyone can enjoy their beauty. A secondary mission is to get musuems to relabel or label the models to Michelangelo. This can be accomplished by getting their owners to donate them to their local Museum or selling them to a fat cat who for a tax break will then donate the models to a Musueum where everyone can view them. A major problem is convincing the museums that they really are by Michelangelo. The Santa Barbara, CA model, A terracotta plaque , is unlabeled and displayed next to a sharks tooth. This is rediculous since it was part of the well documented Von Praun Collection and was sold at the Christies auction in 1938. The paper trail or provenance of the von Praun collections goes back to the time of Michelangelo. This may be a 100 year search. Realisticly, at this point in time, only two of the models may be locatable: last seen in Vancouver, Canada in 1972 in the private collection of Edward Halprin 1972. Any information about the last owner would be appreciate so he can be contacted about selling it to the Vancouver Museum. said to have been resold to a museum in Australia. Computer copies, using CAT scans, also need to be made and of all the models and distributed to other museums so you don't have to travel all over the planet to see the models. For example, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Texas, only has one. ( The Museum of fine arts in Texas, also claims that this model is not by Michelangelo. This is rediculos since it well documented to be part of the Von Praun Collection that was sold at the Christies auction in 1938.) model a teracotta of the "Day" It would be nice if the Museum displayed the computer generated copies of the other models with its model. Any information about the last owner would be appreciate so he can be contacted about selling it to a public art museum in Switzerland.
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