Saturday, March 17, 2012

On the Hunt for Another Leonardo by Margot Justes

According to Yahoo news, there is another Leonardo Da Vinci
fresco hidden in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Imagine that.

Centuries after his death, he still makes headlines. I try
to keep up because in my vampire tale Blood
Art the Mona Lisa plays a prominent and demonic role. How could I not be
interested?

This story has a fresco hidden by another wall, and the
original fresco is suspected to be a Da Vinci original.

Speculation abounds, but the general belief is that Leonardo
started painting the "The Battle of Anghiari" around 1505, but there
were issues with the paint and it was never finished. It is believed that Giorgio Vasari, another
artist covered the Leonardo fresco with a wall to protect it and then painted
his own fresco.

Chemical analysis, indicates the possibility that the fresco
might actually exist. The data in not conclusive, but there is enough information
to pursue it further.

The process in gaining the information was and continues to
be intricate, and controversial because researchers had to drill six holes in
the Vasari fresco to gain the chemical details needed to identify the Leonardo
fresco.

The project is not without protest, art researchers feel
that the Vasari fresco is being damaged, and that it "was nothing more than
a Dan Brown Style publicity stunt."

However they were able to identify the composition of the black paint used 'exclusively'
by Leonardo. To further enrich the story, the
battle is said to have been painted at the same time as the Mona Lisa.

One other touch to
the mystery is a message Vasari left on his fresco. "Cerca Trova" ("Seek
and You Shall Find.")

We can agree or disagree on the process. Is it worth
potentially destroying a master fresco to find another one, that may be beyond
restoration, or may not even exist save for a few strokes of black pigment. Art
historian are debating the very same thing.

In all the recent Leonardo speculations and potential new
finds, centuries after his death he is still being discovered. A Renaissance
man for all the ages.

Till next time,
Margot Justes
Hearts & Daggers
A Hotel in Paris
www.mjustes.com

11 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

It would be a shame to mess up a nice piece of art just to prove something. Why not just enjoy it!

Morgan Mandel
http://facebook.com/morgan.mandel

Debra St. John said...

It's amazing how the past continues to be a mystery to us and we're making new discoveries every day.

(And I can't wait to read that vampire book!)

Margot Justes said...

Morgan,
Yes it would, but I suspect it can be repaired.
Margot
www.mjustes.com

Deb,
I find it all fantastic. I'm editing the vampire vbook and hope to send it to an editor in a couple of weeks. After that I'll send you the ms, if you want to take a peek.
Margot Justes
www.mjustes.com

writingbee said...

Nice effort, very informative, this will help me to complete my task. Thanks for share it keep it up.

resumewritersworld said...

That article is so interesting and makes a very nice image in my mind. Thank you for sharing this info with us!

kpwriting said...

very interesting. as always))

essay-writing-service said...

Thanks for sharing such an interesting information.

fastessays said...

I think this is really a very nice post. Thanks for the great content!

academia-research said...

Thanks for posting this useful info. It really helped me

academia-research said...

This Post gives me lot of information Great to read

term-paper-writer said...

Blogs are so interactive where we get lots of informative on any topics...... nice job keep it up !!