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2/1/12 7:17 PMYoung Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

of 5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Girl_in_Profile_in_Renaissance_Dress

Young Girl in Profile in RenaissanceDress or "La Bella Principessa".

Young Girl in Profile in RenaissanceDress, fingerprint encircled.

Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance DressFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress, best known as "La BellaPrincipessa", also called Profile of a Young Fiancée (Italian: La BellaPrincipessa), is a portrait whose attribution to Leonardo da Vinci is amatter of contention.[1] The portrait is a mixed media drawing in chalk,pen, ink and wash tint on vellum, measuring 33 cm x by 22 cm(approximately 13 inches tall and 9 inches wide).[2]

It was purchased by the present owner in 2007. Lumière Technology inParis performed a multi-spectral digital scan of the work.[3] The spectralimages were analysed by Peter Paul Biro, a forensic art examiner,[4] whodiscovered a fingerprint "highly comparable" to a fingerprint on theunfinished St. Jerome in the Wilderness.[4]

The first study of the drawing was published by Dr. Cristina Geddo inArtes.[5] Geddo attributes this work to Leonardo based not only onstylistic considerations, extremely high quality and left-handed hatching,but also on the evidence of the execution technique using black, whiteand red chalks (trois crayons or pastel). In fact, Leonardo was the firstartist in Italy to use pastels, a drawing technique he had learned from theFrench artist Jean Perréal whom he met in Milan at the end of thefifteenth century. Leonardo himself acknowledges his debt to Perreal inthe Codex Atlanticus. Geddo also points out that the "coazzone" of thesitter's hairstyle was fashionable during the same period.

Martin Kemp, Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art atOxford University, has written a book about the drawing and hasidentified the girl as Bianca Sforza, the daughter of Ludovico Sforza andhis mistress Bernardina de Corradis, and renamed the portrait La BellaPrincipessa, though Sforza ladies were not princesses.

Contents1 Attribution to Leonardo2 Disagreement with attribution3 Provenance4 References5 Further reading6 External links



Attribution to LeonardoThis is a summary of Kemp's book, published in March 2009 by Hodder & Stoughton:

The portrait of a young lady on the cusp of maturity shows her with the fashionable costume and hairstyle of aMilanese court lady in the 1490s. By process of elimination involving the inner group of young Sforza women,Kemp concluded that she is probably Bianca Sforza, the illegitimate (but later legitimized) daughter ofLudovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), duke of Milan. In 1496, when Bianca was no more than 13, she was married toGaleazzo Sanseverino, captain of the duke’s Milanese forces. Galeazzo was a patron of Leonardo. Tragically,Bianca was dead within months of her marriage, suffering from a stomach complaint (possibly an ectopicpregnancy). Milanese princesses were the dedicatees of books of poetry on vellum: such a portrait of a "belovedlady" would have made a suitable frontispiece or main illustration for a set of verses produced on the occasionof her marriage or death (most probably the latter).

The physical and scientific evidence from multispectral analysis and first-hand study of La Bella Principessamay be summarized as follows:

The technique of the portrait is black, red and white chalks (trois crayons, a French medium), withpen and ink.The drawing and hatching was carried out entirely by a left-handed artist, as we know Leonardo tohave been.There are significant pentimenti throughout.The portrait is characterized by particularly subtle details, such as the relief of the ear hinted at belowthe hair, and the amber of the sitter’s iris.There are strong stylistic parallels with the Windsor silverpoint drawing of A Woman in Profile,which, like other head studies by Leonardo, features comparable delicate pentimenti to the profile.The members of the Sforza family were always portrayed in profile, whereas Ludovico’s mistresseswere not.The proportions of the head and face reflect the rules that Leonardo articulated in his notebooks.The interlace or knotwork ornament in the costume and caul corresponds to patterns that Leonardoexplored in other works and in the logo designs for his Academy.The portrait was executed on vellum—unknown in the surviving work of Leonardo—though weknow from his writings that he was interested in the French technique of dry colouring on parchment(vellum). He specifically noted that he should ask the French artist, Jean Perréal, who was in Milan in1494 and perhaps on other occasions, about the method of colouring in dry chalks.The format of the vellum support is that of a !2 rectangle, a format used for several of his portraits.The vellum sheet was cut from a codex, probably a volume of poetry of the kind presented to markmajor events in the Sforza women’s lives.The vellum bears a fingerprint near the upper left edge, which features a distinctive "island" ridge andclosely matches a fingerprint in the unfinished St Jerome by Leonardo. It also includes a palmprint inthe chalk pigment on the neck of the sitter, which is characteristic of Leonardo's technique.The green of the sitter’s costume was originally obtained with a simple diffusion of black chalkapplied on top of the yellowish tone of the vellum support.The nuances of the flesh tints were also achieved by exploiting the tone of the vellum and allowing itto show through the transparent media.There are noteworthy similarities between La Bella and the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, including the



handling of the eyes, the modelling of flesh tones using the palm of the hand, the intricacy of thepatterns of the knotwork ornament and the treatment of the contours.The now somewhat pale original hatching in pen and ink was retouched in ink in a later restoration,which is far less fluid, precise and rhythmic.There have been some diplomatic re-touchings over the years, most extensively in the costume andheaddress, but the restoration has not affected the expression and physiognomy of the face to asignificant degree, and has not seriously affected the overall impact of the portrait.

Disagreement with attributionA number of Leonardo experts have concurred with Kemps's conclusions, including Carlo Pedretti, NicholasTurner, Alessandro Vezzosi, who is the director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci in Vinci, Italy, Dr.Christina Geddo, Dr. Claudio Strinati of the Italian Ministry of Culture, and Mina Gregori, professor emerita atthe University of Florence.[1][6][7]

However, the attribution to Leonardo is not unchallenged, with other connoisseurs expressingreservations.[1][6][8] Among the reasons for doubt are the lack of provenance prior to the 20th century – unusualgiven Leonardo's renown dating from his own lifetime, as well as the fame of the purported subject's family[8] –and the fact that vellum lasts for centuries, which would facilitate a forger's acquisition of old sheets.[1] Further,there exist around 4,000 drawings by Leonardo, none of which feature vellum as a surface.[8] Leonardo scholarPietro C. Marani discounts the significance of the drawing being made by a left-handed artist, noting thatimitators of Leonardo's work have emulated this characteristic in the past.[8] Marani is also troubled by thevellum surface, 'monotonous' detail, use of colored pigments in specific areas, lack of craquelure, and firmnessof touch.[8] A museum director who wished to remain anonymous believes the drawing is "a screaming 20th-century fake," and finds the damages and repair to the drawing suspicious.[8] Planning an exhibition ofLeonardo's work, Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery, said simply "We have not asked to borrowit."[8]

Klaus Albrecht Schröder, director of the Albertina, Vienna, said "No one is convinced it is a Leonardo," andDavid Ekserdjian, a scholar of 16th century Italian drawings, wrote that he suspects the work is a"counterfeit."[1] Neither Carmen Bambach of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the primary scholars ofLeonardo's drawings, nor Everett Fahy, her colleague at the Metropolitan, accepts the attribution toLeonardo.[1][8]

Several forensic experts on fingerprints have discounted Biro's conclusions, finding the partial fingerprint takenfrom the drawing too poorly detailed to offer conclusive evidence.[1] Biro's description of the print as being"highly comparable" to a known fingerprint of Leonardo's has similarly been discounted by fingerprintexaminers as being too vague an assessment to establish authorship.[1] When asked if he may have beenmistaken to suggest that the fingerprint was Leonardo's, Biro answered "It's possible. Yes."[1]

Noting the lack of inclusion of dissenting opinion in Kemp's publication, Richard Dorment wrote in theTelegraph: "Although purporting to be a work of scholarship, his book has none of the balanced analysis youwould expect from such an acclaimed historian. For La Bella Principessa, as he called the girl in the study, is



not art history – it is advocacy."[8]

Fred R. Kline, an independent art historian known for discoveries of "lost art" among the Nazarene Brotherhoodof German painters[9] suggested in a front page article in The Santa Fe New Mexican,[10] that the creator of thedrawing may actually be Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872), circa 1820, one of the NazareneBrotherhood working in Rome during the early 19th century who revived the styles and subjects of ItalianRenaissance masters. Kline found a related drawing on vellum by Schnorr, Half-nude Female, in the collectionof the State Art Museum in Mannheim, Germany, as well as two other drawings on vellum by Schnorr. Klinesuggests that La Bella Principessa depicts the same model who appears in the Mannheim drawing, but anidealized version of her in the manner of a Renaissance engagement portrait.

Comparative material-testing of the vellum supports of the Mannheim Schnorr and "La Bella Principessa" mayoccur in a New York federal court in the pending lawsuit, Marchig v. Christie's, brought on by the originalowner of "La Bella Principessa" who is accusing Christie's of negligent misattribution and other damages.Christie's had auctioned Mrs. Marchig's drawing in 1998 as "German School, early 19th century".

ProvenanceThe work appeared in a Christie's sale on January 1, 1998, in New York, called Young Girl in Profile inRenaissance Dress and catalogued as early 19th-century German,[11][12] when it sold for $19,000. It was soldagain in 2007 and was exhibited in And there was Light in Eriksberg, Gothenburg in Sweden,[13] estimated tobe worth more than $160 million.[14][15][16][17][18][19]

References1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Mark of a Masterpiece" (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/12/100712fa_fact_grann?

currentPage=all) by David Grann, The New Yorker, Vol. LXXXVI, No. 20, July 12 & 19, 2010, ISSN 0028792X(http://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0028792X)

2. ^ Adams, James (14 October 2009). "His Prints Were All Over It" (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/next-big-thing/his-prints-were-all-over-it/article1322645/) . The Globe and Mail.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/next-big-thing/his-prints-were-all-over-it/article1322645/. Retrieved 15 October 2009.

3. ^ McLean, Jesse (13 October 2009). "$19,000 Portrait Could Be Lost Da Vinci Work"(http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/709317---19-000-portrait-could-be-lost-davinci-work) . Toronto Star.http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/709317---19-000-portrait-could-be-lost-davinci-work. Retrieved 13 October2009.

4. ^ a b Pidd, Helen (13 October 2009). "New Leonardo da Vinci painting 'discovered'"(http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/13/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-discovered) . The Guardian (London).http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/13/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-discovered. Retrieved 13 October 2009.

5. ^ Geddo, Cristina. "Il pastello ritrovato: un nuovo ritratto di Leonardo?", Artes, Vol. 14, 2008–2009, p. 63–876. ^ a b Esterow, Milton. "The Real Thing?" (http://www.artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2815) , in ARTnews7. ^ Letter from Peter Silverman, The New Yorker, August 2, 2010, 3.8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dorment, Richard "La Bella Principessa: a £100m Leonardo, or a copy?"

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/7582591/La-Bella-Principessa-a-100m-Leonardo-or-a-copy.html) , The DailyTelegraph, 12 April 2010]



9. ^ Geary, David. "An Art Explorer Finds the Real Creator of Works", New York Times, April 2, 200210. ^ Sharpe, Tom. "Case Closed on da Vinci Mystery?", The Santa Fe New Mexican, September 25, 201011. ^ Lot 402, Sale 8812 ("old master drawings") (http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?

intObjectID=473187) at Christie's. Retrieved 15 October 2009.12. ^ Neuer da Vinci entdeckt? – Teure Prinzessin (http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/551/490923/text/) Süddeutsche

Zeitung, 14 October 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2009.13. ^ "La Bella Principessa på plats" (http://svt.se/2.34007/1.1932778/la_bella_principessa_pa_plats?

lid=senasteNytt_1765014&lpos=rubrik_1932778) , March 18, 201014. ^ "Fingerprint points to $19,000 portrait being revalued as £100m work by Leonardo da Vinci"

(http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/7311.aspx) , 12 October 200915. ^ "Fingerprint unmasks original da Vinci painting"

(http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/13/da.vinci.portrait.found/) . CNN. 13 October 2009.http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/13/da.vinci.portrait.found/.

16. ^ "Finger points to new da Vinci art" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8304021.stm) . BBC News. 13 October 2009.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8304021.stm.

17. ^ Pidd, Helen (13 October 2009). "New Leonardo da Vinci painting 'discovered'"(http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/13/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-discovered) . The Guardian (London).http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/13/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-discovered.

18. ^ Adams, Stephen (12 October 2009). "Leonardo da Vinci picture 'worth millions' revealed by a fingerprint"(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/6309942/Leonardo-da-Vinci-picture-worth-millions-revealed-by-a-fingerprint.html) . The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/6309942/Leonardo-da-Vinci-picture-worth-millions-revealed-by-a-fingerprint.html.

19. ^ Hoyle, Ben (13 October 2009). "Unrecognised Leonardo da Vinci portrait revealed by his fingerprint"(http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6872019.ece) . The Times (London).http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6872019.ece.

Further readingO'Neill, Tom; Colla, Gianluca. Lady with a Secret: A Chalk-And-Ink Portrait May Be a $100 MillionLeonardo (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/02/lost-da-vinci/o-neill-text) , NationalGeographic Magazine, February 2012.

External linksPBS documentary film "Mystery of a Masterpiece" (52:52) PBS film "Mystery of the Masterpiece"(52:52) (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/mystery-masterpiece.html)

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