Michelangelo’s biographers wrote that his first painting copied a well-known engraving by the German artist Martin Schongauer (1448–1491). Made in about 1487–88, The Torment of Saint Anthony has been known for many years, although it has not always received proper attention due to accumulations of discolored varnish and disfiguring overpaints, which obscured the qualities of the picture’s masterful execution and remarkable color palette.