Fingerprint Points to Leonardo da Vinci as Portrait's Artist
By STAN PARCHIN
October 12, 2009
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| Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). La Bella Principessa (ca. 1480-90). Black, red and white chalk, pen and ink on vellum with watercolor (wash tint) additions. Strengthened with oak panel backing. 23.87 x 33.27 cm (9.39 x 13.09 in.). © Private Collection & Lumière Technology. |
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| Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Head and Shoulders of a Woman (ca. 1488-92). Metalpoint on pale buff prepared paper. 31.8 x 19.9 cm (12.5 x 7.8 in.). Royal Collection © 2008 Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. |
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| Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). St. Jerome Praying in the Wilderness (ca. 1482). Oil and tempera on walnut wood. 102.8 x 73.5 cm (40.5 x 28.9 in.). Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, Vatican City. |
A fingerprint in the upper left-hand corner of a late 15th-century portrait, a work attributed last year to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) after hi-tech examination, further indicates that the long-lost female likeness was executed by the ingenious Italian Renaissance master. The claim was recently made by Martin Kemp, Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Oxford University and a well-respected scholar of Leonardo studies. His assertion was supported by Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert. La Bella Principessa (ca. 1496), previously known as Profile of a Young Fiancée, makes its public debut in And There Was Light: The Masters of the Renaissance, a special exhibition at the Eriksbergshallen in Gothenberg, Sweden (March 20-August 15, 2010).
Provenance and Attribution
On January 30, 1998, Christie's New York offered the portrait, described then as Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress by an unknown early 19th-century German artist, for auction at an estimated price of $12,000 to $16,000 (US). Madison Avenue art dealer Kate Ganz purchased the image for $19,000 and resold it in 2007 for almost the same amount to Canadian-born Peter Silverman, a discerning European entrepreneur. He acquired the work on behalf of an anonymous Swiss collector.
Silverman brought La Bella Principessa to the attention of Nicholas Turner, former Deputy Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum (1974-94) and Curator of Drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum (1994-98). Turner's attribution of the portrait to Leonardo was subsequently supported by Alessandro Vezzosi, Director of the Museo Ideale in Vinci, Italy. Mina Gregori, Professor Emerita of Florence University, agreed. Carlo Pedretti, Director of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles and dean of the artist's scholars, cautiously concurred with their conclusion.
Multispectral Analysis
Lumière Technology, a Paris-based institute, was founded by engineer Pascal Cotte in 1989. Its specialized camera and equipment allow for the advanced multispectral scanning, digitization and analysis of paintings to uncover their layers of varnish and pigment virtually. Important images previously subjected to Cotte's expert examination include Leonardo's Portrait of Lisa Gherardini (Mona Lisa) (ca. 1503-06) and Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) (ca. 1482-85). Cotte's sophisticated testing of Silverman's purchase produced interesting results.
La Bella Principessa, restored right-handedly in the 19th Century, is a mixed-media composition of white, red and black chalks, pen and ink with additions of watercolor (wash tint) on vellum or treated mammal skin, an unusual substance for Leonardo to have used. The likeness was later mounted on a oak panel. Professor Kemp surmised from three needle holes in the work's left-hand side that the portrait was possibly bound to a volume of poetry dedicated to the sitter.
Infrared analysis revealed pentimenti or subtle changes to the portrait, similar to the alterations found in Leonardo's Head and Shoulders of a Woman (ca. 1488-92). The work's drawing and hatching were executed by a left-handed artist, consistent with other images produced by the Florentine polymath.
Leonardo's Fingerprint
Upon detailed examination of the portrait's multispectral images, Peter Paul Biro uncovered the print of an index or middle finger in the composition's upper left-hand corner. The impression bears a striking resemblance to one found on Leonardo's St. Jerome in the Wilderness (ca. 1482), the Vatican Pinacoteca's unfinished oil and tempera on walnut panel composition in the traveling exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius. A partial palm print on the subject's neck suggests the artist's characteristic use of his hand in the image's development of its texture and shading.
Identity of La Bella Principessa
The intricately knotted shoulder of the sitter's dress, in addition to her braided coiffure, identify the subject of La Bella Principessa stylistically as Milanese. The portrait may represent Bianca Sforza (1492-1496), the illegitimate daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (1452-1508) and Bernadina de Corradis, the despot's mistress. Ludovico was a well-known patron of Leonardo. The work may also depict the aristocratic Bianca Maria Sforza (1472-1510), Ludovico's relative and the second wife of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (r. 1493-1519).
Should modern scholars arrive at a consensus that firmly attributes La Bella Principessa to Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance portrait could be worth more than $150 million at auction.
Sources
Bambach, Carmen C. (ed.), et al. Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 370-379.
Clayton, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: The Divine and the Grotesque (exh. cat.). London: Royal Collection Enterprises, Ltd., 2002, 104-105.
Raggio, Olga, et al. The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983, 156-157.
Turner, Nicholas. Statement Concerning the Portrait on Vellum by Leonardo. Paris: Lumière Technology, 2008.
Vezzosi, Alessandro. Nuptial Portrait of a Young Woman. Bologna: Scriptamaneant Editzioni, 2008.