Mysterious Lucania

Wednesday 13 May 2009

CONOR POWER

Research into the ‘Irish’ province of Basilicata in southern Italy has unearthed a painting that experts are now claiming is the only image of the younger Leonardo da Vinci yet discovered. But did he paint it himself?

LEONARDO DA VINCI PORTRAIT ARTICLE BY
CONOR POWER

"The poplar timber panel on which the image is painted, according to Barbatelli, was “assembled in a very particular way; it’s made of three smaller panels which are slotted together on two mountings which are perpendicular to the panels . . . This sort of construction is very specific and does not exist elsewhere.”

This is an exceptional discovery that is opening new prospectives in Lucania,
and we will soon post an article on the discoverer; Nicola Barbatelli

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Nicola Barbartelli

"Nicola Barbatelli, Medieval historian, Fr. Comm. Academic Constantinian, historian and researcher of the O.S.M.T.J.,personal advisor to the grand master of the order, SE. Fr. Alberto Zampolli, was studying the art collection of a family with Lucanian origins in the Basilicata region in 2008. The portrait was hidden beneath another painting and was very deteriorated and scratched much different than you see it now. During the first process of cleaning and removal of paint, the figure of this particular subject appeared. A Carbon 14 analysis was done on the wood supporting the canvas and dated the material to the late 15th or early 16th century; a time when Leonardo was still alive. But experts stress the age of the wood doesn't necessarily mean the portrait was painted at that time. Da Vinci fans say that it could have been a work of Da Vinci himself as the back of the canvas carries the Latin words "PINXIT MEA" written in reverse--meaning "painted by myself" which is one of the artist's established trademarks. The name of the artist who painted the image is still being investigated, but experts did rule out that it is was a Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait."