Da Vinci’s Lost Masterpiece?

Posted on March 13, 2012November 16, 2015 by David Meyer

On June 6, 1505, Leonardo da Vinci began to paint The Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio. Over fifty years later, Giorgio Vasari was hired to remodel the room where da Vinci’s mural was located. In the process, da Vinci’s mural vanished into thin air. New evidence suggests that not only does it still exist but that it is in the exact same place where it was painted all those years ago!

Battle of the Anghiari – The Lost Leonardo?

The Battle of Anghiari is often referred to as “The Lost Leonardo.” At the time of its creation, it was considered his finest work. Today it’s remembered via a few sketches done by da Vinci as well as a Peter Paul Rubens drawing which was apparently inspired by a copy of the original work (Ruben’s drawing is pictured above).

For many centuries, this work was feared lost. However, it turns out Vasari had a penchant for secretly preserving artwork. Back in 1861, workers removed a wall from Santa Maria Novella. The wall had been adorned with Vasari’s Madonna of the Rosary. Behind it, they discovered a 1428 piece by Masaccio entitled Trinità. Rather than destroy Masaccio’s fresco, Vasari had covered it up with a false wall and in the process, saved it for future generations.

Did Giorgio Vasari save The Battle of Anghiari?

Art diagnostic expert Maurizio Seracini believes Vasari used similar techniques to save The Battle of Anghiari. In 2005, he used sophisticated radar equipment to discover “a narrow cavity behind the Vasari fresco Battle of Marciano.” In true Da Vinci Code fashion, he also found an inscription from Vasari on the Battle of Marciano. It reads “Cerca, trova.” Or, “Seek and you shall find.”

Yesterday, Seracini’s team reported that they have uncovered chemical evidence of da Vinci’s lost work. Here’s some details on the search for the lost Battle of Anghiari from Live Science:

“One of the samples contained a black material with a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and “St. John the Baptist,” identified in a recently published scientific paper by the Louvre, which analyzed all the da Vinci paintings in its collection.
Flakes of red material found seem to be made up of organic material that may be associated with red lake (lacquer) — something unlikely to exist in an ordinary plastered wall.
From the high-definition images captured by the probe, the researchers saw a beige material on the original wall, which, they say, could only have been applied by a paintbrush.
The researchers confirmed an air gap between the brick wall holding Vasari’s mural and the wall behind it, something that had been identified in previous research using radar scans. The researchers speculate Vasari may have built a wall in front of da Vinci’s masterpiece in order to preserve it.”

Even if Vasari did store the mural behind a false wall, experts believe it could be in extremely poor shape. Still, we continue to believe the search is worthwhile. For if Seracini is right, then what may have been da Vinci’s greatest masterpiece will get a second opportunity to see the light of day…and to dazzle the world.

Da Vinci’s One-Wheeled Car?

Posted on February 11, 2012November 14, 2015 by David Meyer

During his remarkable life, Leonardo da Vinci designed versions of many extraordinary things that we use today – a calculator, a tank, and even a helicopter. But he also designed something that never quite cracked modern society – the monowheel or the one wheeled car.

The Dynasphere: Leonardo da Vinci’s Monowheel?

In 1932, Dr. John Purves, inspired by a da Vinci sketch, invented a strange monowheel vehicle known as the Dynasphere. Back then, monowheels were all the rage among inventors and were considered a potentially serious competitor to the car. This never materialized however, for reasons that will become apparent in a moment.

The Dynasphere was unique among other monowheels of its time, primarily because of its width. This provided stability so the driver didn’t have to worry about rebalancing the vehicle while driving it.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

Amazingly enough, the Dynasphere monowheel could reach speeds up to 25 miles per hour. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to steer or brake. If a driver attempted to brake too hard, he or she would experience “gerbiling.” In other words, the force of braking would overcome the force of gravity. The driver would cease driving the Dynasphere monowheel and become a part of it, spinning uncontrollably along the inside of the wheel. See this Youtube video from British Pathe to watch the Dynasphere monowheel in action.

Mysteries of the Mona Lisa?

Posted on February 8, 2012November 14, 2015 by David Meyer

The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous painting. Yet, it remains cloaked in secrecy to this day. Who was she? Is it even the original painting? Why was it painted? And how did da Vinci create that strange smile of hers?

Mysteries of the Mona Lisa?

Many of those mysteries aren’t going away anytime soon. However, a recent discovery might shed some new light on them. Researchers have discovered a copy of the Mona Lisa which was painted in da Vinci’s studio at about the same time as the original. Here’s more on the Mona Lisa from Wired:

A copy of the Mona Lisa that was painted in Leonardo’s studio has been discovered in Spain’s national art museum, the Prado. The discovery could change our understanding of the famous painting…

Philippa Warr, Wired contributor and editor of Art’s In The Right Place, said in an email: “The scientific processes applied to the Prado work suggest that both the Leonardo original and the Prado version were painted in tandem, with the Prado version recording the evolution of the famous work through changes in the underdrawings. The discovery of the exact nature of the Prado work could be key in answering (or at least narrowing down) some of the mysteries which surround Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.”

(See more on the Mona Lisa at Wired)

A Handbag…designed by Leonardo Da Vinci?

Posted on January 17, 2012November 13, 2015 by David Meyer

Leondardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, writer, scientist, inventor, and many others things. Now we can add one more profession to Leonardo da Vinci’s list: fashion expert.

Leonardo da Vinci & the Pretiosa Handbag?

Around 1497, Leonardo da Vinci took time away from his normal activities to sketch a unique and beautiful handbag. It was later discovered by Carlo Pedretti in 1978, along with thousands of other drawings. Now, thanks to the Gherardini fashion house, the Leonardo da Vinci handbag can be yours. It’s called Pretiosa, or Precious, and will be sold in an extremely limited edition (at this point, only 99 actual handbags are expected to be produced).

“Leonardo was no ordinary man. It doesn’t surprise me that he did not conform to the fashion trends of the time. He had his own style, thus he was indeed very fashionable.” ~ Raffaello Napoleone, Pitti Immagine CEO

Here’s more on Leonardo da Vinci and the Pretiosa from Discovery News…

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an artist, inventor, scientist, architect, engineer, writer and even a musician. Now we know that he was also a fashion designer.

After several months of meticulous research, scholars have reconstructed some fragmented drawings of a unique bag designed by the Renaissance genius around 1497.

The sketch was first published in 1978 by Carlo Pedretti, a leading Da Vinci scholar, who identified it among the Atlantic Code’s tens of thousands of drawings.

Overlooked for more than three decades, it has been reconstructed and reassembled by Agnese Sabato and Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, where da Vinci was born in 1452…

(See Discovery News for more on Leonardo da Vinci and the Pretiosa handbag)

Lost Da Vinci Masterpiece Discovered?

Posted on September 9, 2011November 6, 2015 by David Meyer

On June 6, 1505, Leonardo da Vinci began to paint the Battle of Anghiari in the Palazzo Vecchio. The 12 by 15 foot mural depicted a Florentine victory over the Milanese. According to the famous Italian painter Giorgio Vasari, da Vinci never finished the project. New evidence suggests that not only was the painting completed but that it was covered up by none other than Vasari himself!

The Lost Leonardo da Vinci?

Over fifty years after da Vinci stopped working on the Battle of Anghiari, Vasari was hired to remodel the room where it was located. In the process, the mural vanished. Later art historians believed that Da Vinci’s painting was gone forever.

Did Giorgio Vasari save The Battle of Anghiari?

But in 1861, workers removed a wall from Santa Maria Novella. The wall had been adorned with Vasari’s Madonna of the Rosary. Behind it, they discovered a 1428 piece by Masaccio entitled Trinità. Rather than destroy Masaccio’s fresco, Vasari had covered it up with a false wall and in the process, saved it for future generations. In 2000, Carlo Pedretti “proposed that Vasari saved Leonardo’s masterpiece just as he had Masaccio’s.”

Art diagnostic expert Maurizio Seracini took the suggestion to heart. In 2005, he used sophisticated radar equipment to discover “a narrow cavity behind the Vasari fresco Battle of Marciano.” In true Da Vinci Code fashion, he also found an inscription from Vasari on the Battle of Marciano. It reads “Cerca, trova.” Or, “Seek and you shall find.”

Seracini hopes to locate the work by using a “special copper-crystal mosaic gamma ray diffraction lens.” The camera would fire neutrons through the existing wall. If da Vinci’s painting is behind it, then the metals in the paint will emit gamma rays allowing Seracini to map the strokes. An ambitious fund-raising effort is underway to pay for the camera. But with just 32 days to go, it’s short by $244,000. If you’re interested in donating to the cause, visit here.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

It remains uncertain whether or not the painting was actually hidden away in the first place. And even if Vasari did store it behind a false wall, experts believe that it could be in extremely poor shape. Still, the search is worthwhile. For if Seracini is right, then what may have been da Vinci’s greatest masterpiece will get a second opportunity to see the light of day…and to dazzle the world.