Last November, researchers finally found evidence of a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting. This discovery was publicised in March this year along with the airing of a National Geographic documentary, Finding The Lost Da Vinci.
Art detective Maurizio Seracini using an endoscope to investigate Vasari’s southeast panel.
The ongoing research aims to determine the size and condition of what remains of da Vinci's Battle Of Anghiari, which is hidden behind a fresco on the east wall of the Hall of the 500 in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, where a copy of Michelangelo's David stands at the entrance.
The research project is funded by the Kalpa Group, founded by philanthropist, Loel Guinness, who first met his Thai wife, Tanya, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The couple spend half of the year at the Guinness Estate in Normandy, and the other half in Thailand.
The Kalpa Group has funded research on several of da Vinci's major works, including the lost mural and the Adoration Of The Magi.
The Battle Of Anghiari disappeared in the 1560s when Giorgio Vasari modified the room and painted new murals, including the Battle Of Marciano, on a brick wall in front of da Vinci's work, which was painted on a plastered wall.
"Vasari was known to be an admirer of da Vinci's mural and did not paint his work directly on top of it. Instead he built a brick wall to hold his fresco and to cover the Battle Of Anghiari, but left a small air gap behind one section of the bricks. The wall instead protected it from sunlight and oxidation, thus preserving it," said Guinness.
From historical archives, the Battle Of Anghiari has been described as da Vinci's most impressive and largest work which was three times wider than The Last Supper.
Guinness hails it as an innovation because it portrayed the horror of warfare, which was never shown anywhere before back in the early 16th century.
Loel Guinness with Maurizio Seracini.
"It was the first painting that conveyed and described violence in the most meticulous detail. At that time, never before in art would you find a painting in which you see people in actual pain or dying," he said.
"Da Vinci was the first one to show it, and he did it in the cultural centre of the Renaissance, in Tuscany's biggest and most famous room _ a parliamentary room, which should be the last place to show violence."
The Hall of the 500 is named after the 500 members of the Republic of Florence's Grand Council. In 1504 da Vinci was commissioned to paint the mural to commemorate the victory of the battle on the plain of Anghiari between Milan (which was under French rule) and the Italian league led by the Republic of Florence.
The battle took place in 1440, and according to Guinness, it wasn't as brutal as da Vinci portrayed as there wasn't really a fight and the only casualty was a man who fell off his horse and broke his leg.
While da Vinci worked on the Battle Of Anghiari, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the Battle Of Cascina on the opposite wall.
"These two guys absolutely hated each other and arrangements had to be made for them to work at different time. But Michelangelo never actually painted in the Hall of the 500. He only drew the 'cartoon' of the Battle Of Cascina, which was later disassembled and destroyed," Guinness said. "Da Vinci did finish his work but the whole thing crumbled before his eyes and he didn't have the heart to redo it."
A new oil painting technique was used in the Battle Of Anghiari, but as da Vinci lit small fires to set the mural, a thunderstorm raged that night in Florence and the humidity caused the paint to run.
The mural was destroyed apart from the central scene of clashing soldiers and horses, battling for control of a standard. Regarded as an exemplar of anatomy and motion, artists such as Raphael came to the Hall of 500 to study The Fight For The Standard and make their own copies before Vasari remodelled the room.
Research on uncovering the Battle Of Anghiari is led by one of the world's leading experts in the field of art diagnostics, Maurizio Seracini, who has been trying to prove that it existed for three decades.
In the 1970s, the art detective searched for clues of this lost mural and climbing a scaffold in front of Vasari's fresco, he found two words inscribed in a flag, "cerca trova" ("seek and you shall find"). The technology at that time, however, was not able to help him find the mural.
With support from the Kalpa Group, Seracini returned to the Hall of 500 in 2000 for further reseach. Using advanced architectural technologies, such as radar scanning and thermographic analysis, his team located the gap between Vasari's brick wall and da Vinci's mural.
"It was real detective work and this is one of the reasons why the Kalpa Group got involved as we are committed to encouraging new forms of scientific cultural research and support projects that apply scientific technology to the investigation of topics in various fields," said Guinness.
After locating the cracks on the Vasari wall, endoscopic photography was employed to see what was behind the brick wall and to obtain samples for chemical testing.
High-definition endoscopic images suggest a beige material on the plastered wall that could only have been applied by a paint brush.
The chemical analysis confirmed that the pigments extracted last November match those used by da Vinci in 1504. This indicates that remnants of the Battle Of Anghiari are still present _ hidden behind the Vasari wall.
Moreover, a sample containing a black material was analysed, and its chemical composition was identified as similar to what da Vinci used to paint the Mona Lisa and St John The Baptist.
"After identifying the location of the Battle Of Anghiari and finding evidence of its remnants, we are in the third stage of determining the size and condition of the mural," Guinness said.
"The fourth stage, however, will be a controversial one because with the evidence that it's still there, how would we take it out, which requires removing the Battle Of Marciano, extracting da Vinci's painting, then replacing Vasari's fresco."
The Hall of the 500 with the scaffolding on the east wall, where the Battle Of Anghiari is hidden.
