High-tech hunt aims to find missing Da Vinci mural [audio 6min]
It's one of the great mysteries of the history of Western art: A mural by Leonardo da Vinci that has not been seen for 500 years. The vast painting of the fury of war is said to have been one of the landmarks of Renaissance art. Now, an Italian engineer has joined his scientific knowledge with his passion for art in an Indiana Jones-type quest. He believes the mural is hidden behind another frescoed wall, and he says he can prove it.
Da Vinci left copious notebooks and, in 1505, he wrote, "On the sixth of June, a Friday, at the stroke of the 13th hour, I began to paint in the palace." This "palace" was the grand hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, where Da Vinci was commissioned to paint a huge mural of the Battle of Anghiari. His mural disappeared from sight and was forgotten. In October, Maurizio Seracini, an engineer and art conservationist, will begin his scientific quest aimed at bringing the lost mural back to light.
Read entire article at NPR "Weekend Edition - Sunday"
Da Vinci left copious notebooks and, in 1505, he wrote, "On the sixth of June, a Friday, at the stroke of the 13th hour, I began to paint in the palace." This "palace" was the grand hall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy, where Da Vinci was commissioned to paint a huge mural of the Battle of Anghiari. His mural disappeared from sight and was forgotten. In October, Maurizio Seracini, an engineer and art conservationist, will begin his scientific quest aimed at bringing the lost mural back to light.