Portrait of the Leonardo Da Vinci found in southern Italy

by S. C.

A painting of Leonardo Da Vinci that experts are dating to the 16th century has come to light in a hill town in Basilicata, southern Italy.

A medieval historian browsing the collection of an aristocratic family from Acerenza came across the 60x44-centimetre oil painting showing Da Vinci in a three-quarter profile and wearing a hat.

Experts are investigating whether the painting could be by Cristofano dell'Altissimo, who painted another Da Vinci portrait in a similar style in the Uffizi in Florence, but have not yet ruled out the possibility that it could be a self-portrait.

There is currently only one work largely agreed to be a self-portrait of Da Vinci - a chalk drawing preserved in Turin's Biblioteca Reale - but experts are undecided on a handful of others.

The freshly discovered painting has been entrusted to Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Leonardo Da Vinci Ideale Museum in the Tuscan village of Vinci, for analysis.

The painting will go on show March 28-June 30 in the Basilicata region's Museum of Ancient Peoples in Lucania alongside 40 paintings, sculptures and engravings on loan from the Ideale Museum.

by S. C.
20 February 2009 Teatro Naturale International n. 1 Year 1

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