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In October 2009, a major artwork by Leonardo da Vinci was uncovered. The 500 year-old portrait is one of the most extraordinary discoveries of our time. This is the story of how a team of experts - led by Professor Martin Kemp -pieced together the evidence, detailed historical research and technical analysis to follow a trail that leads back to the 15th Century.
There is an element of mystery and an aura of mystical glamour that surrounds Leonardo. So when news of the discovery broke, it was met with astonishment, even disbelief. Here was a new work of art by a genius who left us astonishingly few - no more than a handful.
Martin Kemp takes us on a journey of discovery recounting the steps he and Pascal Cotte took in authenticating the painting including the use of forensic methods usually reserved for criminal investigation. He recounts how experts matched a fingerprint found on La Bella Principessa to the great Renaissance master.
This discovery throws new light on Leonardo da Vinci and his world. We learn the story of the girl who inspired the painting. The sitter, a beautiful young girl, displays a sense of melancholy and strength, a tender and fragile beauty. But who is she? By far the most likely candidate is the illegitimate daughter of Duke Ludovico Sforza. Martin Kemp tells, too, the tragic story of this princess who was to die when she was just fourteen years old.
Previously changing hands for just £12,000, the painting is now thought to be worth something in the region of £150 million. As 'La Bella Principessa' (The Beautiful Princess) finally goes on display to the world, the people responsible for proving it is one of Leonardo da Vinci's tell the story of its discovery. Superbly researched and richly illustrated, La Bella Principessa reveals the Renaissance and its great master in a new light.
About the Author
Martin Kemp FBA is Emeritus Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University. He has written, broadcast and curated exhibitions on imagery in art and science from the Renaissance to the present day. Books include, The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale University Press), and The Human Animal in Western Art and Science (Chicago 2007. He has published extensively on Leonardo da Vinci, including the prize-winning Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (1989 and 2006).He has curated and co-curated a series of exhibitions on Leonardo and other themes, including Spectacular Bodies at the Hayward Gallery in London and Leonardo da Vinci. Experience, Experiment, Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2006 and Seduced. Sex and Art from Antiquity to Now, Barbican Art Gallery London, 2007.
Pascal Cotte of Lumiere Technology is an engineer optician and the inventor of the first multi-spectral high definition camera. In 2004, he performed multi-spectral scans of the 'Mona Lisa' in the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a pleasure to read. The content is fascinating and the quality of reproductions is of the highest standard. I defy anyone to look at the full page reproduction of the 'La Bella Principessa' drawing/painting on page 25 and not be moved by the beauty of the image. Words like exquisite and sublime can often be overused - but not in this instance. If you want to better understand and appreciate the talent of the artist look here (rather than the 'Mona Lisa'). If you want to know more about the way in which attribution of a work can be arrived at then I suggest you read this wonderful account which combines the expertise of art historians and scientists.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Excellent dissection of a masterpiece.
Clear and easy to follow (I don't mean child-like) explanation of why this drawing is believed to be by Leonardo. Where it fits in style-wise, and who the most likely sitter is as well as an overview of the 15th century court of Ludovico Sforza.
Basically the book is split into two sections, the first style and sitter the second the physical and scientific evidence. Both sections are extremely well illustrated with good, clear and informative colour photographs throughout. Some 190 pages long plus index and notes with lots of colour photos.
I found it absolutely fascinating and unputdownable, it's a long time since I was this sorry to come to the end of a book. I only hope someone writes a similar work about the `new' Leonardo painting that I saw at the Leonardo exhibition the other day in London
Clear and easy to follow (I don't mean child-like) explanation of why this drawing is believed to be by Leonardo. Where it fits in style-wise, and who the most likely sitter is as well as an overview of the 15th century court of Ludovico Sforza.
Basically the book is split into two sections, the first style and sitter the second the physical and scientific evidence. Both sections are extremely well illustrated with good, clear and informative colour photographs throughout. Some 190 pages long plus index and notes with lots of colour photos.
I found it absolutely fascinating and unputdownable, it's a long time since I was this sorry to come to the end of a book. I only hope someone writes a similar work about the `new' Leonardo painting that I saw at the Leonardo exhibition the other day in London
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Leonardo never ceases to astonish! After all these centuries, one more artistic miracle.
A "new" work of art by the Renaissance genius comes to us courtesy of three great experts: Professor Martin Kemp, Leonardo's renowned specialist (cf. also his Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man; Leonardo; et al.); Pascal Cotte, the engineer optician who performed the multi-spectral authentication of this rediscovered masterpiece; and finally, Paul Biro, the forensic professional who matched a fingerprint found on La Bella Principessa to the great Florentine polymath.
What a coup! Originally sold for a pittance, this work is now worth close to two hundred million pounds. Imagine the current owner's joy: this extraordinary portrait of a tender and melancholy young lady (perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Milan's Duke Ludovico Sforza - Testamento Di Lodovico Il Moro (1836)) has resurfaced to our great delight. I hope to be able to admire it in one of its future displays as it goes on tour around the world, so that I may say with Shakespeare... "with my love's picture then my eye doth feast". Meanwhile, I can savour it through this splendid book.
The human being can really create wonder and beauty, when they're not wasting their time destroying each other. Actually, and come to think of it, Leonardo did produce ideas on war machines and killing instruments... didn't he? Well, there you are, Good and Evil in the creative mind of an immortal genius!
A "new" work of art by the Renaissance genius comes to us courtesy of three great experts: Professor Martin Kemp, Leonardo's renowned specialist (cf. also his Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man; Leonardo; et al.); Pascal Cotte, the engineer optician who performed the multi-spectral authentication of this rediscovered masterpiece; and finally, Paul Biro, the forensic professional who matched a fingerprint found on La Bella Principessa to the great Florentine polymath.
What a coup! Originally sold for a pittance, this work is now worth close to two hundred million pounds. Imagine the current owner's joy: this extraordinary portrait of a tender and melancholy young lady (perhaps the illegitimate daughter of Milan's Duke Ludovico Sforza - Testamento Di Lodovico Il Moro (1836)) has resurfaced to our great delight. I hope to be able to admire it in one of its future displays as it goes on tour around the world, so that I may say with Shakespeare... "with my love's picture then my eye doth feast". Meanwhile, I can savour it through this splendid book.
The human being can really create wonder and beauty, when they're not wasting their time destroying each other. Actually, and come to think of it, Leonardo did produce ideas on war machines and killing instruments... didn't he? Well, there you are, Good and Evil in the creative mind of an immortal genius!
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