Leonardo da Vinci Discovery - "Profile of a Young Fiancée"

Comment

Comment by Jay Egge on October 14, 2009 at 7:29pm

Thanks for the info on provenance. it is such a great work and i love the results DaVinci gets from chalk and watercolor mediums. i guess i have never seen this piece before unless there is validity in being an "old soul". i will keep trying to follow the Lumiere Site and the invetigation of his technique. it is fascinating. my top favorite medium is silverpoint and i hope to attempt it someday when i feel my drawing technique is ready.

Comment by Jonathan Small on October 14, 2009 at 1:54pm

Yeah, the website sometimes makes my computer spit out error messages. Here are some links to PDF statements from experts who have examined it:
Profile_Pr_Vezzosi
Abstract_Pr_Pedretti.pdf
Statement_of_Dr_Cristina_Geddo.pdf
Nicholas_Turner_Statement.pdf

In the last statement they go into the provenance: "The provenance of the work before 1998 remains a complete mystery. The appearance of what seem to be early twentieth-century French customs stamps on the back of its wooden panel implies that, at the very least, it made a passage through France. Whether or not it was exiting or entering remains to be established. Perhaps it was hidden for generations in some French château, although this is pure guesswork. The only hint discovered so far of its possible earlier existence is to be found in two references, both brought to attention by Prof. Alessandro Vezzosi. He has noted that in an inventory taken in the early 1480s of Leonardo’s effects there are two works that might correspond to the newly discovered Portrait, ‘Una testa in profilo con bella cappellatura’ (‘A head in profile with beautiful hair’) and ‘Una testa di putta con trezie rannodate’ (‘A head of a young lady with plaited locks’). It could in theory be either of these." The painting re-emerged in 1998 when it was sold at Christie's

Comment by Jay Egge on October 14, 2009 at 12:27pm

I was trying to find the locations at which this drawing has been. my computer freezes if i try to get in this site. i may have too many images stored in memory. do you know the site that i can find provence? i feel i have seen this piece before. it is so interesting that DaVainci used the full profile like some of the early Renaissance or Medieval artists since the 3/4 profile was so popularized in the Northern Renaissance and later Italian portraits. it is a great piece and i will try to follow the Luminare site after i get some of my 4000 images into an external hard drive and delete them in this one.