Art sleuths said on Monday they believe they have found traces of a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece on a hidden wall in a palace in Florence that has not been seen in over four centuries.
A close-up of Giorgio Vasari`s fresco bearing the words "Cerca Trova",( seek and you shall find), that is painted on a wall that researchers believe covers Leonardo da Vinci`s "The Battle of Anghiari" lost painting. (AP-Yonhap News)
The traces were collected using tiny probes introduced into a wall covering the original surface in a lavish hall in the Palazzo Vecchio and contained a black pigment also used in the "Mona Lisa," historians and officials said.
The research is the result of a decades-long quest using cutting-edge technology by University of California San Diego professor Maurizio Seracini, who was featured in Dan Brown's bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code".
"The composition of manganese and iron found in the black pigment has been identified exclusively on Leonardo's paintings," Seracini, whose methods have sometimes stirred art world controversy, told reporters in the Italian city.
Seracini also said that Leonardo had painted the "Mona Lisa" at around the same time as the long-lost "Battle of Anghiari" in the 16th century but said more research was needed to unlock one of art history's greatest mysteries.
The probes also discovered red lacquer and brown pigment on the hidden wall, which researchers said indicated the wall had had a fresco painted on it.
The experts pointed to documentary evidence from the period showing that only Leonardo could have been the author of any work on the older wall.
The probes found an air gap of around three centimeters in some places between the old wall and the new wall built in front of it.
Da Vinci (1452-1519) began his painting of the 1440 battle between Milanese and Florentine forces in a vast hall in Florence's traditional seat of government in 1505 but never finished it because the colors began to run.
The fresco was nevertheless praised by Da Vinci's contemporaries for what art historian and fellow painter Giorgio Vasari called its "graceful beauty"
and Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens drew a famous copy of it.
Renaissance master Benvenuto Cellini said it was "the school of the world."
The Rubens sketch shows a bloody scene of horsemen battling with swords drawn and trampling over infantry men -- their faces contorted with rage and their muscled horses entwined with eyes bulging out with fear.
Da Vinci was a Renaissance polymath and the author of what has become the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa". But very few of his works survive and there are frequent attempts to find traces of his documented work.
Some historians believe Vasari built a wall in front of the fresco so as to preserve Da Vinci's efforts out of respect for the renowned master and then painted his own work, "The Battle of Marciano", on the new wall in 1563.
Seracini said Vasari himself left a tantalising clue on his painting about the hidden Leonardo with an inscription on a banner held up by one of the soldiers in the battle that reads "Cerca Trova" ("Seek and You Shall Find").
The research has been partly funded by National Geographic and the US group's vice president Terry Garcia said: "I am convinced that it is there."
Florence mayor Matteo Renzi said: "This is very exciting, very emotional and very important for the future of our city.
"This is not a crusade by some crazy guy in love with some mystery but a crucial issue for cultural policy in our country," he said.
Renzi said he had also asked the Italian government for permission to carry out further probes through the Vasari painting in over a dozen areas where the original paint no longer exists and has been touched up over the centuries.
Asked whether public funding would be needed for further research, he said: "We're talking about Leonardo here. The money will come from around the world."
The research in Florence has been controversial however and has been even investigated by art police because the researchers had to bore six small holes into Vasari's work out of the 14 they had requested to reach the hidden wall.
International art scholars and the Italian heritage group "Italia Nostra"
last year signed a petition complaining that the search was nothing more than a "Dan-Brown style" publicity stunt which risked damaging Vasari's fresco.
Art historian Tomaso Montanari, who teaches at the University of Naples, said in his blog that the search for the "Battle of Anghiari" was "tragi-comic"
adding: "It will not be found but what counts is the mediatic effect."
Seracini said the criticism had "slowed down" and "damaged" the project. (AFP)
<관련 한글 기사>
사라진 다 빈치의 걸작, 흔적 발견!
르네상스 시대를 대표하는 천재 예술가 레오나르도 다 빈치의 유실된 작품 “앙기아리의 전투”의 흔적이 이탈리아에서 발견되었다고 AP통신이 12일(현지시간) 보도했다.
미국 캘리포니아 대학 샌디에고 캠퍼스의 모리지오 세라치니 교수가 주도한 연구진은 수년간 피렌체 지방의 베키오 궁전 벽화 뒤 3센티미터 정도의 공간에 소형 탐사장치를 투입해 걸작의 흔적을 찾아왔다.
그러던 와중에 벽화 뒤에 숨어있는 것으로 추정되는 벽 파편에서 다빈치가 “모나리자”를 그릴 때 사용한 것과 동일한 흑색 안료를 찾은 것이다.
“안료 속에 포함된 망간과 철 성분은 레오나르도 (다빈치)의 그림에서만 발견되었습니다,”라고 세라치니 교수는 밝혔다.
그는 다빈치가 모나리자와 앙기아리의 전투를 비슷한 시기에 그렸을 것이라고 추정했으나, 아직 연구가 더 필요하다고 말했다.
그 외에도 숨은 벽에서 붉은 색 광택제와 갈색 안료가 발견되었는데, 연구진은 이것이 프레스코 벽화의 흔적이라고 말했다.
무려 450년 이상 유실되었던 앙기아리의 전투는 르네상스 시대의 또 다른 대표 예술가 미켈란젤로의 “카시나의 전투”와의 경쟁작품으로도 유명하다. 그러나 벽화의 제작 과정에서 물감이 흘러내려 완성은 하지 못한 것으로 알려졌다.
그럼에도 불구하고 다빈치의 동시대인들과 동료 화가 지오르지오 바사리는 작품의 “우아한 아름다움”을 찬양했다.
현재 이 작품의 흔적은 약간의 준비소묘와 페테르 폴 루벤스가 그린 유명한 모작으로만 남아있는 상태다.
일부 역사가들은 바사리가 다빈치에 대한 존경의 뜻으로 미완성 작품 앞에 벽을 세우고 자신의 벽화 “마르치아노의 전투”를 그린 것으로 추정하고 있다.
세라치니 교수는 바사리가 자신의 벽화 안에 숨어있는 다빈치 작품에 대한 몇 가지 힌트를 남겼다고 말했다.
그 중 하나는 병사 중 하나가 들고 있는 깃발에 새겨진 “세르카 트로바(Cerca Trova: 추구하면 찾게 될 것이다)란 문구이다.
플로렌스의 시장 마테오 렌지는 이 발견이 “매우 흥미롭고, 우리 시의 미래를 위해 아주 중요하다”고 말하며 연구를 지속하게 해줄 것을 이탈리아 정부에 요청했다고 밝혔다.
“앙기아리의 전투” 찾기에는 내셔널 지오그래픽과 캘리포니아대학, 플로렌스시가 합동으로 참여하고 있다.
그러나 일부 역사가들은 이 연구가 의미가 없는 선전활동에 불과하며, 바사리의 작품만 결과를 낳고 있다고 주장했다. 또한 심하게 훼손되었을 것이 분명한 다빈치의 작품을 복구하는 게 사실상 불가능에 가깝다는 사실도 지적하고 있다.
