The Lost Leonardo Da Vinci

An Art Detective's Quest To Find A Lost Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece

(CBS)  At the University of California, San Diego, Seracini presides over an extremely hi-tech center for diagnosing the health of art treasures, helping to figure out how to restore fragile paintings, even buildings. A tiny fleck of paint can yield answers to who did the work, and when. Seracini has mapped out the Palazzo Vecchio in astonishing detail, using images 100 times sharper than any high definition television.

"We have managed to see every single brick. Every single stone that is there. As never done before," he says.

He studied in San Diego himself, 35 years ago, planning a career in medical technology. Asked how he got from wanting to cure patients to wanting to cure paintings, Seracini tells Safer, "Well, it looks like a big jump. A big leap. But it's very straightforward. I wanted to put together art and science."

And art was in his blood: Seracini was born in Florence, where for six centuries children have grown up among the world's most treasured objects.

Upon his return from school in California, Seracini recalls that a friend asked him a fateful question. "Don’t you have any technology that could tell us if there is something left on 'The Battle Of Anghiari'? We're talking about 1975. Now that was enough for me to drop everything I was doing."

So 30 years ago, a young Maurizio Seracini set out to convince the art world that with his equipment he might find Anghiari somewhere in the Palazzo Vecchio. Experts were skeptical, and after two years Seracini hit a dead end.

"In 1977 I had to quit. Because there was no technology good enough to solve the research. The mystery," he explains.

But over the years technology improved, and Seracini built a solid reputation as an international art detective, an art doctor. He stunned historians with his work on another unfinished Leonardo, "The Adoration of the Magi." Seracini revealed that the brown haze on the painting had been added later by someone else.

Even more breathtaking was his ability-without even touching the painting-to reveal Leonardo's under drawing, his very first ideas.

His computers in San Diego allow us to "walk" into the painting, taking us beneath the surface, revealing a world of detail obscured for five centuries - including a frenzied battle scene, similar to Anghiari.

"He has done remarkable work this way. His imaging techniques with infrared reflectology are really, really fantastic resources for art historians," says Carmen Bambach, the Leonardo expert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Bambach finds it somehow fitting that science is filling in some of the blanks in our understanding of the artist. After all, Leonardo's notebooks are full of his own visionary scientific thoughts - from machines of war to flying machines, sketched in the 1490s, four centuries before the Wright brothers.

"Leonardo says the painter must be universal. 'Ho pittore siete universale.' The painter has to know anatomy. The painter has to know all the theories of motion. Statics. Mechanics. Mathematics," Bambach explains.

[nothappyatall]

Why isn''''t there anyone as great as him today?

Posted by jh6379"

Different era, people today love cheap and trashey because in a couple of years they toss it and buy something else. You couldnt even find someone willing to spend 4 years painting a ceiling laying on their back on a scaffold for the equiv of maybe $1 an hour today!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

[calmmm]

Wow -- I just did some research about API -- Advanced Photonix. They''re THE world leader in terahertz research and have already sold scanners to NASA to non-destructively test the foam on the shuttle. They''re rumored to have test units with HUGE companies like Glaxo, and every day someone is coming up with a new application for non-ionizing T-Rays that can see through material like an XRAY yet cause no damage to the human cell.

This is an incredible find!!

[calmmm]

Wow -- I just did some research about API -- Advanced Photonix. They''re THE world leader in terahertz research and have already sold scanners to NASA to non-destructively test the foam on the shuttle. They''re rumored to have test units with HUGE companies like Glaxo, and every day someone is coming up with a new application for non-ionizing T-Rays that can see through material like an XRAY yet cause no damage to the human cell.

This is an incredible find!!

[randyjk-2009]

I think that the poster bobincolor is / has developed a ahem, reputation in the message board world. Come clean Bob, come clean...

[thgdriver]

Maybe Nobama''s plan for change can finally be found back there. LOL.

[bobincolor]

Randy, you oh so right about the company with sticker "api". Their Thq machine would give results with vivid colors, maybe even find the grail back there.

[randyjk-2009]

too bad the story didn''t mention the real cutting-edge technology in this arena which is terahertz. Picometrix a subsidiary of Advanced Photonix, (the company that sold a scanner to NASA to examine the foam on the space shuttle) is the world leader.
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6300

[ham9875]

Amen. Hurry up with the surgical camera, remove a section from the exterior, etc. What is this Geraldo/Capone vault build-up?

[ham9875]

Surgical camera? Why didn''t Morley Safer or anyone suggest just using a surgical camera to examine the old wall???

[cmp271]

This will be a great find. Then how to uncover it. Michelangelo''s work is to be revered, he was a true artist. What we have today are just artists messing around as kindergartners.

One wonders who he was to be able to "see" the future. He lived in a time when it was not acceptable, yet as an artist he could draw these things. Makes one wonder!

Shame on the uneducated American''s who are boorish in their taste and do not have any type of class. go play with your playdoh and paint by number sets.

[usbrit-2009]

Who cares! Anyone who would say this is worth money is an idiot. Art sucks, especially this *** these old painters did. What a waste of time and a guys whole life.

Posted by shafteriffic

Here''s a great example of why Europeans in general think Americans are rude, crude and clueless.

[toolmangler-2009]

Wait till ''Dan Brown'' gets hold of this one, The Da Vinci code will be reborn

[shafteriffic]

Who cares! Anyone who would say this is worth money is an idiot. Art sucks, especially this *** these old painters did. What a waste of time and a guys whole life.

[nothappyatall]

I wonder ''''why'''' it was covered to begin with. It seems to run contrary to the Medici, to the age and the location to obscure even an unfinished piece.


Posted by sincityq

Assuming its there, any number of reasons, political, severe damage, was barely started and then stopped, or even to hide/protect it against damage during some conflict and then forgotten.

[newsterl]

Lastly, I might suggest this "scanning" and photographing can cause more damage than a 3mm hole in an obscure top corner if any LIGHT is used in the process- remember- light destroys pigments, paints, paper and a lot of stuff, last thing you want a painting, photo, prints etc exposed to is any kind of light, high intensity or otherwise.

[newsterl]

"A lot of these comments reflect the ignorance Americans have about the value of art and historical things in general. He cant drill a hole in a painting that is only 50 years newer than this Da Vinci, its just as valuable a painting as the one under it."

Im hardly ignorant of art, Im an artist and antique collector, no one was suggesting they drill a hole large enough through the center of it to drive a truck through! a 3 mm dia hole on a MURAL SIZED painting they need a scaffold to reach is hardly going to ruin the painting.

"As for the *** with the acrobat nets and moving the statue, I think the author of the story was merely giving you an idea as to how high the scaffolding was.
Posted by spadeisspade"

You insult the guy for his concern? easiest way to deal with this is don''t carry anything like hammers, crowbars or bricks up on the scaffold to begin with.

[spadeisspade]

A lot of these comments reflect the ignorance Americans have about the value of art and historical things in general. He can''t drill a hole in a painting that is only 50 years newer than this Da Vinci, it''s just as valuable a painting as the one under it.

As for the *** with the acrobat nets and moving the statue, I think the author of the story was merely giving you an idea as to how high the scaffolding was.

[ssaoutcast]

As I type this, I have just viewed your story on the lost da Vinci mural. I determined to post a comment on it as soon as I heard about the precarious nature of the work: if anything is dropped, it could destroy a priceless Michelangelo statue below.

Hello? Why not move the statue out of the way temporarily? If that''s not practical, perhaps they could put up a net under the worker like the ones used by circus acrobats, to catch anything that might fall and save the artwork below. If it is, why not do both?

I can''t believe I''m the only one on this planet (or at least in your audience) who thought of these things. Granted, I haven''t read every word of every post in this blog, if that''s what you call it. But I did glance at all the ones on this page, anyway. Mostly I saw suggestions about drilling small holes in the wall, although your story talked about x-ray and/or other devices that can see through paint, which would seem to make such holes unnecessary.

[newsterl]

DaVinci''s horses are just plain *** looking, all that muscle and power!

[newsterl]

A small hole in an inconspictuous location up high would work, 3 mm may be too small, 1/4" would work and they can insert a fiber optic bore-scope and look- no camera needed.
They worry about touching this or that or drilling a tiny hole when there''s far more things to worry about- like the next earthquake that could collapse that building. Nothing lasts forever unfortunately, and at some point a quake, fire, flood or war will almost certainly damage/destroy this building and many others.