Drilling for a “Lost da Vinci” Mural

Florence, Italy, Troubled by Researchers Tampering with Ancient Art

When Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes were cleaned in the 1980s and ‘90s, the restoration project received praise and criticism. Of the latter, critics said the massive touch-up ruined the antique authenticity of the Michelangelo paintings, making them look too pretty.

            This month, a similar debate took off in Florence, Italy, where a swashbuckling researcher has drilled small holes into a massive fresco by one Renaissance master to see if another fresco—done by Leonardo da Vinci—is hidden underneath. The project has evoked all the hoopla of a “Lost da Vinci.” It has also forced Da Vinci mystery hunters, art historians, and Florentine politicians into a debate on how far to go in tampering with works done 500 years ago.

            The missing Da Vinci mural is a mainstream topic in art history.

            Around 1505, Florence had commissioned Leonardo to paint a mural in its city hall, the Palazzo Vecchio, portraying the Battle of Anghiari. Leonardo got most of it done, but then abandoned the work. Later artists, such as Rubens, saw enough of Leonardo’s composition of furious combat between men and horse to make full sketches. Leonardo also left behind his own small drawings.

            Then in the 1550s, another formidable mural artist, Giorgio Vasari, was ordered by the duke of Florence to remodel the entire civic hall and paint new murals of a more recent Florentine victory, the Battle of Marciano. The mystery is this: What did Vasari do with Leonardo’s old battle mural? Did he whitewash over it? Or did he build a secret double wall to hide and preserve the laborious work done by Leonardo for future generations?

            In 1975, the famous art sleuth Maurizio Seracini, who investigates the authenticity of artworks, noticed that a green battle flag in one of the Vasari murals bore the words, “Seek and you will find.” Knowing his art history, Seracini theorized that in that area, Vasari must have built a double wall over Leonardo’s Anghiari mural to save it from destruction.

            Last week, on March 12, Seracini and his sponsor, the National Geographic Society, announced that by drilling 14 tiny holes in the Vasari mural and inserting medical optical probes, they found an air space and what looked like paint, brush strokes, and bits of material that could be the black pigment and reddish varnish of Leonardo.

            To get to that drilling stage, Seracini had to persuade Florence and the art history establishment that his theory was sound enough to risk damaging the Vasari murals. Seracini requested permission to drill in 2006. Last year a restricted drilling was performed (only in cracks and restored surfaces, and thus not marring anything original). Last week’s press conference in Florence declared that the minimal drilling produced “encouraging” evidence of a long-lost Leonardo.

            To fuel the excitement, National Geographic aired a documentary on Sunday, “Finding the Lost da Vinci,” which sets the tone for the publicity that will now surround future decisions on what to do next.

            “You can’t break the Vasari,” one citizen says in the documentary.

            “No, we’re not going to break the Vasari,” a Seracini team researcher replies.

            Fortunately for this drama, Seracini is at the top of his field. He runs research laboratories at the University of California, San Diego, and in Florence. They are equipped with the newest scientific tools to x-ray walls and analyze tiny particles.

            As an art world celebrity, Seracini has his supporters and his foes. In the latter category, a group of art historians has circulated a petition to stop further work. They say the risk of harming the Vasari is not justified by a mere hunch—the cryptic words “seek and you will find.” Some see Seracini styling himself as an art world Indiana Jones. This can make art conservation workers in Florence worry that his exploits will distract money and attention from the city’s many antiquities that need repair.

            Nevertheless, a lost Leonardo does trump about everything else in the art world.

            Italian officials, balancing the politics, must decide whether Seracini can drill further for definitive evidence. The mayor of Florence supports moving ahead. He has said that if a Leonardo is found, he would prefer that over a Vasari (who is better known as the first art historian, not a painter ranking with Leonardo, Michelangelo, or Raphael). In fact, the story of the mural began as a competition between two great artists of the day, Leonardo and Michelangelo.

            Both were asked to designs battle murals for opposite walls. Michelangelo got only as far as a “cartoon”—a large drawing on paper with charcoal—before the pope summoned him to Rome to begin painting the the Sistine Chapel. Leonardo, meanwhile, put up his Battle of Anghiari, experimenting with oil paints, but ruining some of it by using burners to promote fast drying. Leonardo probably got the full imagery on the wall before he quit and left for Milan.

            Oxford art historian Martin Kemp said that there is no guarantee that the discovered residue comes from Leonardo, since city halls had many wall murals. Still, “I think this needs to be resolved,” he told National Geographic News. “We can’t just leave it hanging in the air. . . . If it’s discovered, it would be one of the most famous discoveries of a century.”

            Then comes the obvious question, posed by writer Noah Charney, head of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art: “If Seracini succeeds, then we are faced with one more puzzle: How do we reveal the entire Leonardo without destroying the Vasari that lies above it?”