A High-Tech Hunt for Lost Art

[Kosmo]

Florence, Italy

If you believe, as Maurizio Seracini does, that Leonardo da Vinci

[caesar novus]

Florence, Italy

If you believe, as Maurizio Seracini does, that Leonardo da Vinci’s greatest painting is hidden inside a wall in Florence’s city hall,

If you get the Smithsonian HiDef TV channel, they often repeat documentaries on Maurizio http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/smi...ci_detective.do which is a little less up to date, but full of behind the scenes gossip by him.

 

I was especially hooked by his debunking of the "The Adoration of the Magi painting" because "none of the paint we see on the Adoration today was put there by Leonardo" (his quote from Wikipedia). I always thought that painting was vomitous crap and hated the reverence for it. His claims for it's lineage is funny and further reinforced my impression that the mafia did no serious wrong by blowing up part of the Ufizzi.

 

But the BATTLE OF ANGHIARI documentary was even more wild, with him pointing out that it was considered superior to the Mona Lisa by contemporaries. Maurizio's early sensor machinery pointed to an incorrect location for the BATTLE picture, and he claims it was "guerilla" action unknown to him when unauthorized people started tearing open a wall with a famous mural on it in the search for it there. This event ruined his reputation for when he decided he found the real location of BATTLE, he couldn't get permission to open the wall. If I have this story right, it sounds that now he has permission?

Edited October 6, 2009 by caesar novus

[JGolomb]

Florence, Italy

If you believe, as Maurizio Seracini does, that Leonardo da Vinci

[caesar novus]

unauthorized people started tearing open a wall with a famous mural on it in the search for it there. This event ruined his reputation for when he decided he found the real location of BATTLE, he couldn't get permission to open the wall. If I have this story right, it sounds that now he has permission?

Sounds like all is forgiven, and probes into a wall may have found the "best Leonardo" painting?

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/03/12/world/europe/AP-EU-Italy-Da-Vinci.html?_r=1&ref=news

[JGolomb]

This work is partially funded by National Geographic. Very very exciting find if they can do more with what they have. I'm not exactly sure what happens next.

 

Here's a story from our news department:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120312-leonardo-da-vinci-mural-lost-painting-florence-science-world/

 

[Melvadius]

I rather suspect that the options may be fairly limited. I think there are some fundamental questions:

 

• 
   
  
• Is there really is an earlier work by Da Vinci hidden beneath the later work?
  
• If it exists was it made with Da Vinci's use of experimental materials? - In which case it may have already deteriorated beyond the point where it could be realistically restored.
  
• Is there is a gap between the two works which makes separation relatively feasible or was the later work painted directly on top of the earlier work?
  
• Who is willing to take the risk of further damaging or possibly even destroying an established masterpiece for something which may not be recoverable?
  

Secondary questions include how far Da Vinci progressed with his version ie is it only outline sketches or had work progressed to a semi-complete/ complete stage since the paying public tend to understand/ appreciate more complete works.