Congratulations to the Kimbell and its new young director upon this acquisition.

To get an original copy is another matter. It's a copperplate engraving, and there are seven plates still in existence. Whether they're even up for sale is one issue, another is the current quality of the plate.

One copy, ironically enough, is at the Met in New York. So the Met may very well have the same idea you did: Display them both.

What narrows it to 1487-88 is our knowledge of Michelangelo's biography — this was before he joined Ghirlandaio's workshop and this was when we know he painted such a work.

The experts were convinced by a number of combined factors. First, there was the scientific dating, which means it can't be a more recent fabrication. Second, there's the detail from Condivi's account about Michelangelo adding the fish scales — which you can see very clearly in the top left demon. They're not in the Schongauer original. Third, the painting techniques are mixed. That is, they're not consistent — not like a forger making a copy and trying to convince everyone it's by a master, nor like a more experienced painter, sure of what he's doing. More like a young artist trying things out. Fourth, the color palette does resemble what Michelangelo used later with his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, with its earth tones, greens, browns and reds backed by a blue-grey. Fifth, the pentimenti, the underdrawings, show how Michelangelo changed things. We know that Michelangelo didn't copy the Schongauer precisely (the painting is actually notably larger than the engraving), but we didn't really know what those changes might be. The most significant addition is the landscape beneath St. Anthony and the demons, which resembles Italian Renaissance scenery.

That's what I know now about what went into the attribution. No doubt, there will be more details to come.