Remains found beneath the floor of a convent in Florence may belong to Mona Lisa

 It all began last year, when a team of archaeologists started digging at the abandoned Convent of Saint Ursula (St.Orsola), where they would soon discover a female human skull along with other fragments of human ribs and vertebrae five feet under the convent's original floor. For the team, that crypt located under the remains of the altar, was Lisa Gherardini's final resting place.
However, the digging works were suspended due to the lack of funds and only recently, the team of archaelogists was able to resume their work.

 According to archaelogist Silvano Vinceti, who is in charge of the dig , his search in the convent was based on church records found by historian Giuseppe Pallanti a few years ago. Records from 1495 mention a crypt that was accessed by the archaelogists via a grate followed by a staircase. The second crypt found by the team, where they believe to be the bones belonging to Mona Lisa, is mentioned in the records from 1625.

 During his extensive research, Pallanti found several significant documents, including Francesco del Giocondo's will, where he asked his younger daughter Marietta to take care of his "beloved wife" Lisa.
Marietta was one of the couple's five children and at the time of the will had become a nun, thus she brought her mother to the nearby convent of Saint Ursula, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

 Pallanti found in the church archive, a document known as "Book of the Dead," where it states the following: "Lisa di Francesco del Giocondo died on July 15, 1542 and was buried in Sant'Orsola."
The document noted that the whole parish turned out to her funeral, demonstrating that Lisa was renowned among the Florentine society.

 Vinceti said that the newly discovered remains will undergo DNA testing, radiocarbon dating and hystological analysis. Comparisons will eventually be made with the DNA of Lisa's children Bartomoleo and Piero, who are buried in the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.

 Should the tests confirm that those bones belong to a female skeleton, according to Silvano Vinceti there will be two possibilites: Either they belong to Lisa Gherardini or to the noblewoman Maria del Riccio, since according to historic records, only these two women, who were not nuns, were given special burials in the convent.

 In the outcame of a positive confirmation that not only the bones but also the skull belong to Lisa Gherardini, forensic artists will attempt to reconstruct her face to see how it compares with the portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci near 500 years ago. Maybe it will also help to solve or at least shed some light upon Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile.

 Known in Italy as La Giconda or La Joconde in France, Lisa Gherardini (June 15, 1479 - July 15, 1542) was married to the wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Among the experts exists the concensus that she was the inspiring muse who posed for the most famous portrait in the world: Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Da Vinci's The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne at the Louvre

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, a Leonardo da Vinci's oil on wood painting (168 cm × 112 cm (66 in × 44 in) depicting St. Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion as the Virgin tries to restrain him, is being exhibited at the Louvre together with all surviving related works.

Leonardo had already represented these figures together in The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, sometimes called The Burlington House Cartoon, a charcoal and black and white chalk drawing on eight sheets of paper glued together.

Commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne was started in 1501, as it was first mentioned in Isabella d’Este’s correspondence, and it was left unfinished upon his death in 1519.

The painting was recently restored with the aid of the C2RMF (Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France), however this process wasn't exempt from controversy. On 7 October 2011, Le Journal des Arts, a Paris art publication, reported that the restoration posed more danger to the painting than was previously expected.

The exhibition includes compositional sketches, preparatory drawings, landscape studies and The Burlington House Cartoon (National Gallery), brought together for the first time since the artist’s death and revealing his lengthy meditation and succession of solutions he had envisioned for this masterpiece.
Other painted artworks by Leonardo are also used to illustrate how Saint Anne is the true culmination of the artist’s numerous and varied explorations on nature and art.

In order to bring out the full scale of Saint Anne's innovative nature, the exposition also strives to reposition the artwork in the iconographic tradition of its subject (The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne) and affirm its considerable influence on Italian art in the early 16th century.
More recent tributes to the artist by Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, and Max Ernst bear witness to the masterpiece’s longstanding influence.

Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, can be visited at the Louvre (Napoleon Hall, beneath the Pyramid) from March 29 to June 25, 2012.
The exhibition is organized by Vincent Delieuvin, curator in the Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre.

Da Vinci's lost fresco “La Battaglia di Anghiari” likely found in Florence

Copy made in the mid-16th century and then extended at the edges in the early 17th century by Rubens, who also completed the sword of the fourth horseman.

Behind Giorgio Vasari's fresco “La battaglia di Marciano,” painted in 1563 when the Hall of Five Hundred in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, was being remodeled, is likely to be found Leonardo Da Vinci's “La battaglia di Anghiari” (The Battle of Anghiari), that he started painting in 1505 but left unfinished when he left Florence in 1506.

Vasari painted several frescoes there and the Da Vinci's fresco was thought to be destroyed.
But Seracini, when surveying the hall using laser and radar methods, discovered air gaps behind Vasari's fresco and suspected that he built a wall in front of Da Vinci's unfinished masterpiece and painted it over with a fresco in order to preserve it.
Seracini also discovered a telling clue: Vasari included a soldier in the fresco holding a flag that reads, "CERCA TROVA"(Seek and you shall find), a proof of Vasari's intention to preserve Leonardo's work.



Researchers led by Maurizio Seracini, art history professor at the University of San Diego, California, and sponsored by the UCSD and The National Geographic Society, used probes to drill a few small holes in the fresco painted by Vasari.

Terry D. Garcia, executive vice president for Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society, who supports the investigation, atests that the holes in the mural were made in areas that had been previously restored or in fissures, thus assuring Vasari's painting.

Analysis made to the chemical content of the paint, showed that its composition was similar to that in the paint that Da Vinci used when he painted the "Mona Lisa" and "St. John the Baptist."

Beige paint and special black pigments were found, as well as traces of red lacquer, a pigment seldom used in murals due to its reduced light fasteness and high price.
The red lacquer is used in oil paintings and the find of this pigment matches with Leonardo's intention to paint his 'Battle of Anghiari' with a technique used in oil paintings.

Seracini told reporters during a press conference this monday that the pigments found beneath Vasari's fresco are consistent with the organic paint Da Vinci used on his frescoes.

The team of researchers believes be one step closer in its search to find Da Vinci's lost masterpiece "The Battle of Anghiari"



Although this investigation counts with several important supporters, namely from the city of Florence and of renowned art restoration institute Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Tomaso Montanari, a professor at the University of Naples Federico II said that Seracini's process is not transparent and is based on sensationalism rather than science; Seracini, who's been working on this search for near 30 years, was featured in Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code."

He also afirms that the painting behind Vasari's fresco could be ornamental decoration, or paint used by other artists in Florence during the same time period. And because of Da Vinci's experimental painting techniques, it's unlikely that "The Battle of Anghiari" would be preserved for so long.

Montanari has undertook a petition signed by more than 100 art historians who oppose the process, including experts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and The National Gallery in London.

In the meantime, Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi told reporters they may decide to remove parts of the Vasari work which were restored in the 19th and 20th centuries in order to look behind them.

Oldest copy of Mona Lisa found in El Prado

It's no news that the famous portrait by Leonardo da Vinci has always been involved in mistery and has been object of some of the most finical conjectures and theories, namely during the last couple of years. Also with the latest technological developments, important conclusions have been draw.

But a new discover announced this Wednesday by the Museo del Prado has hit the art world like a bomb: The oldest known copy of Mona Lisa - it's not like the usual copies completed during all these centuries, it's a copy accomplished at the same time that the original one and quite probably painted aside by one of Da Vinci students, either Andrea Salai or Francesco Melzi.

Mentioned in the catalogue of Museo del Prado, the painting that for several years stood in the museum's archives, thought to be painted by a Dutch painter because the experts thought that it was painted on oak (a wood not used by Florentine painters), was afteral painted on walnut.
Moreover, after the cleaning and consequent removing of a dark background thought to be added in the 18th century, a Tuscan landscape was revealed.



Measuring 77cm X 53cm (the original measures 76cm X 57cm), this recently discovery is one of the most important ones in the last decades and will soon be exhibited in the Museo del Prado, after which will be traveling to the Louvre where it will be shown to the public side by side with Leonardo's Mona Lisa.

"Leonardo. The genius, the myth" in Turin

An exceptional exhibition featuring near thirty original drawings on loan from leading Italian and international museums, and several writings on the famous Leonardo's Self-Portrait from the Royal Library of Turin, is taking place at the Scuderie Juvarriane della Reggia di Venaria (Venaria Reale) in Turin, Italy.
This is the third time that the master's self-portrait is shown to the public.

The introductory section of the exhibition presents a biography of the artist and references to Leonardo’s social context, his cultural background and training, as well as an overview on his various fields of activity.
A video curated by Piero Angela, entitled “What did the young Leonardo look like?”, illustrates Leonardo’s work with particular emphasis on the artist’s appearance.
At the end of the exhibition, a multimedia display designed and produced by Haltadefinizione, features a digital replica on a 1:1 scale of The Last Supper, on which an indepth analysis takes place concerning the physical appearance and expressions on this masterpice.
Leonardo's legacy is shown through a number of films representative of his Genius, curated by Arnaldo Colasanti.

Curated by Carlo Pedretti, Paola Salvi and Clara Vitulo, the drawings section presents the Codex on the Flight of Birds (Codice sul volo degli uccelli) and a complete set of near thirteen original works by Leonardo that are part of the collections of the Royal Library of Turin, including the famous Self-Portrait. Italian and international loans provide additional context and further integrate the subjects present in the Turin collection, with a special focus on the human face,
nature, human anatomy and machines.

Selected works by artists from the late 15th to the 19th century, curated by Pietro C. Marani, provide an overview of the figure of Leonardo in literature and figurative art, as the very appearance of the artist becomes an icon of the Renaissance genius.
Starting in the 1500s the image of the Master was associated with that of Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher who led the way into the investigation of nature.

With curatorship of Roberto Barilli, the figure of Leonardo in contemporary art, opens with the Vitruvian Man by Mario Ceroli and the famous tribute Mosa Lisa with moustache by Marcel Duchamp.
The Last Supper has served an inspiration for many artists, reprised by Andy Warhol as well as many other recent protagonists of the art scene like Spoerri, Nitsch, Recalcati and David La Chapelle.
Leonardo’s Notes from the Treatise on Painting describe stains on the walls as forms of arcane passages, a theme that was embraced by Informal Art and specifically Tachisme, including Tàpies, Rotella, Bendini and Novelli.

The exhibition is organised in the vast spaces of the 18th-century Great Stables by Filippo Juvarra of the Reggia di Venaria.
The display is designed by the Academy-Award winner Dante Ferretti, who presents Leonardo’s imposing machines as spectacular settings that contain original works.
Elaborate video projections on the walls celebrate the Self-Portrait.
A catalogue is available through Silvana Editoriale.

"Leonardo: The genius, the myth" (Leonardo. Il genio, il mito) can be visited from November 17, 2011 to January 29, 2012 at the Juvarra Stables of the Reggia di Venaria, Turin Italy. Tuesday - Friday (9.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.), Saturday and Sunday (9.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.). Closed on Mondays (except for any public holidays, in which the visiting hours are the same as Sunday).
The exhibition is closed on December 25.
On January 1st, opens at 11.00 a.m.

Given the exceptional nature of the exhibition and the extraordinary measures required for the conservation and the safety of the works on display, only 120 visitors are allowed inside the Stables every 30 minutes.

This major exhibition marks the end of the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of
Italy’s Unification, a tribute to the brightest example of the Italian creative genius.

In Berlin: Renaissance Faces - Masterpieces of Italian Portraiture

Renaissance Art Exhibit Kicks-Off in Berlin... por NTDTV

The Gemäldegalerie—National Museums in Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, have partnered to organize a major exhibition on the genesis of the Italian portrait of the Renaissance.

The exhibition shows more than 150 works, including drawings, paintings, sculptures and medals loaned by major art museums, galleries and private collections, such as the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, the Uffizi Gallery, Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, Victoria and Albert Museum, Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

Set against the backdrop of Italy’s geographical, political and cultural complexities in the 15th century, the exhibition is divided into three thematic sections: Florence, where the independent portraiture debuted on a significant scale; the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Bologna, Milan, Urbino, Naples and finally papal Rome; and finally Venice, where only late in the century a portrait tradition established itself.
Through the observation of profile portraits from 15th-century Italy, visitors will observe a society dominated by family descent and social hierarchies, where conventions were binding.

Among the celebrated painters from the Renaissance who are represented in this major exhibition, are the names of Antonello da Messina, Bellini, Botticelli, Donatello, Francesco Laurana, Giambono, Lombardi, Mantegna and Masaccio.
But for many, the major highlight is Leonardo da Vinci with his painting ‘Lady with an Ermine’ from the Czartoryski Collection, Cracow.


Leonardo da Vinci - Lady with an Ermine por ikonotv

An extensive programme of events is on offer to accompany the major exhibition,
including a series of five lectures, held from September to November
2011, on the various sitters and the world famous artists who painted them.

The exhibition "Renaissance Faces - Masterpieces of Italian Portraiture" (Gesichter der Renaissance - Meisterwerke Italienischer Portrait-Kunst) can be visited at the Bode Museum in Berlin, from 25 August 2011 to 20 November 2011 (Fri – Wed 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Thur 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.).
After which it will be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
from 19 December 2011 to 18 March 2012.

A catalogue (ISBN 978-3-7774-3581-7) with 432 pages, 261 plates in colour and black-and-white, 20.3 × 25.4 cm, hardback, is available at the museum for the special price of €29.90.

Available for download for free at www.smb.museum/gesichter or at the Apple Store/www.apple.com/itunes, is an online application containing around 100 commentaries, over 250 artworks in high resolution images, as well as some 50 videos.