July 14, 2008
Leonardo’s lost fresco, The Battle of Anghiari
Maurizio Seracini has been looking for Leonardo da Vinci’s Battle of Anghiari, a fresco presumed to be lost behind layers of other frescoes, and by some estimates, the most beautiful work of the Renaissance.
Until recently, art scholars were confident they knew the fate of da Vinci’s mural of war. The painting, so tradition says, had been botched by Leonardo’s own hand, abandoned in shame and then obliterated by an imperious Medici duke.
In 1977, however, Dr. Seracini, then a young apprentice to noted UCLA art scholar Carlo Pedretti, noticed a curious thing. He was inspecting the vast battle fresco by Giorgio Vasari that since 1563 has covered the long wall once occupied by da Vinci’s work. There, in the clash of armies depicted near the ceiling, he was startled to discover that Vasari had painted two words in white on a tiny green banner all but invisible to view from below: “cerca trova.”
Seek; you will find.
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I sure hope this does in fact point to the fresco, and isn’t a bit of self-referential humor put in by the painter.
“What the hell does that tiny banner say? [squint] …’cerca…’ oh. Ha.”