A REAL DaVinci Code???

[DemBones DemBones]

(Scientific technology being used to find "lost" artwork.)


It seems that, in the late 1500s, Giorgio Vasari was commissioned to paint over Leonardo's unfinished fresco "The Battle of Anghiari" in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. (Vasari was pretty much a hack as an artist, though he did write a classic book about famous artists.) This was despite the fact that Leonardo had completed a 19' X 13' centerpiece for his mural, called "Fight for the Flag." This portion of the mural is known from Leonardo's own preparatoty studies and from other artists' copies and was supposedly a masterpiece. But too bad, Vasari painted over it, right?

Maybe not. About 30 years ago, an Italian engineer/ art researcher, Mauritzio Seracini, noticed that in the mural Vasari painted over that wall there are many flags but only one with any writing. That one says, in tiny letters, "Cerca, trova" -- "Seek, find." A code (OK, a clue!) for finding the lost Leonardo?


"Vasari raised the hall's roof 23 feet by building a second set of walls, but scans show that at one point he left a space between the two walls that is just large enough to house Leonardo's 19-by-13-foot "Fight for the Flag," Seracini said. A similar technique was used by Vasari to preserve other works of art, he said."

"radar and X-ray scans conducted between 2002 and 2003 have detected a cavity behind the section of wall the message was painted on, which Seracini believes may conceal Leonardo's unfinished mural painting, the "Battle of Anghiari."

Seracini is now complaining that he can't get permission to "conduct another series of scans and insert a small probe through Vasari's painting to detect any traces of the pigments used by Leonardo." Stupid government bureaucrats? Maybe not.


"Chiara Silla, director of the Palazzo Vecchio museum, said the inquiry hasn't been given the go-ahead because Seracini has yet to present a detailed report on his survey. "Seracini's is a work in progress that is difficult to evaluate," Silla said. "For the last two years we have been waiting for technical and scientific documentation to decide together whether to continue or not."


When Seracini gets his act together to get the proper documentation to Silla, it's possible that a "lost" Leonardo may be found. What then?

"If the "Battle of Anghiari" is located, it should be possible for conservation artists to remove a section of Vasari's fresco, extract Leonardo's painting and then safely replace the Vasari, Seracini said. He said it would be a fairly routine operation for experts."


I will remain somewhat skeptical until I see the lost Leonardo, but I know that Italian conservation artists do remarkable work so I don't doubt they could do this.

The mystery aside, what I like best about this story is the possibility that Vasari may have been a decent enough person to safeguard Leonardo's work behind his own, knowing who was the better artist.


Edit: Here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050620/ap_en_ot/italy_lost_leonardo

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. Vasari greatly admired

Leonardo, so this would not be surprising.