Auction introduction: This single-lot sale will bring to the market, for the first time since 1907, a major sheet by Michelangelo, recently rediscovered in a French collection. A work by the young artist, it is partly based on a fresco in the Brancacci chapel in Florence by Masaccio, one of the foremost figures of Early Renaissance painting. Later reworking the man’s slender body and transforming it into a more muscular, monumental one, Michelangelo also added in a rapid, vigorous style the two figures behind, which bear no relationship to Masaccio’s fresco. One of less than ten works by the artist remaining in private hands, the sale of the drawing brings to the market an exceptional and fascinating drawing by one of the greatest figures in Western art.