Art Historian Timothy Clifford has identified the earliest known Michelangelo drawing

A sketch which is believed to be the earliest-known drawing by Michelangelo has been discovered - revealing that, even from a young age, he could make his art look like child's play. 

The Seated Man has been identified by Sir Timothy Clifford, a leading scholar of the Italian Renaissance, as 'the earliest drawing efforts of a youth who would one day emerge as one of the most remarkable artists that has ever lived'. He dates it as being from around 1487.

Few would have realised that the depiction of a seated man was the work of a child aged just 12 or 13. 

But Michelangelo's artistic potential emerged long before he was to create masterpieces such as the sculpture of David and the frescoes on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.