Leonardo's fabled lost work The
Battle of Anghiari is not hidden under other works in Florence's
Palazzo Vecchio because he never actually painted it there,
according to a new book.
"Leonardo never painted the Battle on that wall," says Virginia
University art history lecturer Francesca Fiorani in the new
study.
The book does not say where The Battle, which is known from
copies by other artists, was in fact painted.
Fiorani said the existence of preparatory sketches and cartoons
is "proven by documentary evidence" but the existence of the
work is not.
Until now the fresco, the Holy Grail of art research, was
believed to have been hidden by painter and
art historian Giorgio Vasari when he was commissioned to do
another fresco in Florence's municipal headquarters.
The discovery in March 2012 of black paint similar to that used
in the Mona Lisa spurred fresh hope that the fresco may be
hidden behind the wall.
But Fiorani said the pigment "was not in fact the same one used
by Leonardo in the Mona Lisa".
The hunt for the lost fresco by art sleuth Maurizio Seracini was
filmed by national Geographic in 2008.
Seracini, the only real-life character in Dan Brown's
bestselling thriller The Da Vinci Code, said he ewas "certain
the great work is there".
Seracini, of the San Diego-based Center of
Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and
Archaeology (CISA3), has been working on the case since he was a
young researcher in 1975, when it was first suggested that
Vasari hid Leonardo's fresco behind a wall rather than painting
over it.
At that time, new imaging technologies provided
tantalising clues but fell short of being able to let
researchers 'see' clearly behind the current wall on which
Vasari painted his own fresco.
The search was halted for lack of evidence in 1977 but was
subsequently greenlighted again after multispectral imaging
enabled Seracini to build up a stronger case.
Florence commissioned The Battle of Anghiari to
celebrate its famous victory over Milan on June 29, 1440.
It was described by sculptor Benvenuto Cellini
(1500-1571) as a ''ground-breaking masterpiece'' that any artist
simply had to see and study.
In a 1549 letter to a Venetian friend, Florentine
painter Anton Francesco Doni called it ''a miraculous thing''.
The work has long been known from sketches and copies.
But the original was thought lost for ever - a victim of
Leonardo's typically unorthodox decision to jettison the
traditional technique of applying paint to wet plaster.
Leonardo (1452-1519) needed time for his painstaking approach
and so used oils directly on the dry plaster allegedly in
Palazzo Vecchio, the symbol of Florentine civic pride.
Like the Last Supper in Milan it soon began to crumble, helped
on its way by a thunderstorm that hit the unfinished building.
Leonardo gave up and headed for Milan.
Originally, the Leonardo work was to have stood opposite another
grand martial fresco by Michelangelo, on the other side of the
Salone.
But Michelangelo didn't even start it.
Experts have been sure, however, that some version of Anghiari
survived. Under pressure from Seracini, officials knocked
through two square metres of the Vasari in 1979 - but found
nothing.
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