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Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci discovered in Basilicata.

Credit: Ordre Souverain et Militaire du Temple de Jérusalem (Italian Knights Templar)
This newly discovered 17-inch by 24-inch painting of Leonardo da Vinci may be a self-portrait.

What may be a hitherto unknown portrait of Leonardo da Vinci in middle age shows that the Renaissance genius had piercing blue eyes, a long nose and long greying hair with a droopy moustache.

The damaged oil-on-panel portrait was discovered by Nicola Barbatelli, a medieval historian, while he was researching the archive and picture collection of an aristocratic family at Acerenza (population 3,000), an ancient village perched on a rock above the river Bradano near Potenza in the southern Italian region of Basilicata. The family has asked to remain anonymous.

At one time thought to portray Galileo Galilei, the great astronomer, it shows a man in three-quarter profile wearing a hat with a feather in it. Mr Barbatelli, who found the painting by chance while researching the history of the Templar Knights and the First Crusade... said that the 60cm-by-44cm (24in-by-17in) painting could even be a self-portrait, since it bore on the back the words "Pinxit Mea" ("painted by me") written in reverse, which was one of Leonardo's trademarks. ...

Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci at Vinci, where the artist was born in 1452, said initial examination of the painting showed it was a Renaissance era original and not a later copy. He said he was investigating whether the painting was by Cristofano dell'Altissimo, who painted the da Vinci portrait in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. ...

Julia Delvaux's The Da Vinci Portraits: Facts, Mysteries, and Chances assembles a few others, for comparison. Click that link to see the works she's referencing.

What may be interesting to note, looking at Ingres' painting, is Leonardo's black beret and the kind of beard we're used to see on his best-known self-portrait in red chalk (left). Leonardo's portrait at the Uffizi gallery is by far the one that seems to seal the accuracy of identification of the sitter, in that there is the beard, but there is also a beret (right). Leonardo painted by Raphael in The School of Athens (where he is disguised as Plato, pointing to the sky and holding the book of Timaeus) once again depicts a bearded man (below, left). And so does the engraving that I found on Wiki Commons (below, right). Potentially quoting from the 1885 book, the image description states that the engraving was made after the painting by an unknown artist which in turn was based on the red chalk drawing. Chances are, thanks to the recent discovery, that the engraving was made precisely after the discovered painting, or its copy.

We know so much about what went on inside Leonardo's head, the curiosity about what he looked like turns to trying to see if genius is etched on his face.

 Tags  art

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1 Comments

Julie Delvaux said:

Sheila, thanks a lot for quoting! I was very excited yesterday to read the news. It would be amazing if one day we could patch Leonardo's life together. This will probably never happen, but the closer we get, the better.

Julie Delvaux

Link | February 24, 2009 8:39 AM
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