From MSNBC News:
A new portrait by Leonardo da Vinci may have been discovered thanks to a centuries-old fingerprint.
Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said that a fingerprint on what was presumed to be a 19th-century German drawing of a young woman has convinced art experts that it’s actually a Leonardo.
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Canadian-born art collector Peter Silverman bought “Profile of the Bella Principessa” at the Ganz gallery in New York on behalf of an anonymous Swiss collector in 2007 for about $19,000. New York art dealer Kate Ganz had owned it for about 11 years after buying it at auction for a similar price.
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“I would say it is priceless. There aren’t that many Leonardos in existence,” Biro said. He said he had heard that one London dealer felt it could be worth 100 million British pounds (more than $150 million).
Gallery owner Kate Ganz says she does not believe the portrait is by Leonardo. I understand why. Whoever painted it, I think the portrait is lovely.
If it's not a Leonardo (and it might not be), then it's a great pastiche.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, it is. In the end, who decides if the portrait is a Leonardo?
ReplyDeleteI like it!
ReplyDeleteamyj
It's so nice to think Leonardo was the artist. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteAmy, I love it, too.
ReplyDeleteJan, since there are so few of Leonardo's paintings in existence, it would be exciting to have another.
It could've been a pupil, or an early Leonardo, or it may be nothing at all but a lovely painting. Why does a name attached change it? The wonder of seeing a face from - what - 5 centuries ago that could be someone you'd meet now, that takes precedence. There's life in that face, reality, so that "mere paint and brushwork" looks more real than the photographed celebrities we see in our magazines. And she is lovely for that reality.
ReplyDeleteMark, of course you're right. It would only make a huge difference if the owner decided to sell the portrait. The more I look at it, the more I like it.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try to figure out how to do the hair -- that can transcend all the centuries.
ReplyDeleteCaminante, you can do it. Send us a photo when you succeed.
ReplyDeleteMy (completely untrained) gut says "Not Leonardo" but it's still pretty. [I can see why it was thought to be 19th C German: something about the surrounding gold. A little bit Klimt-ian?]
ReplyDeleteI just don't know, JCF.
ReplyDelete