2021 Leonardo da Vinci. St. John
the Baptist with the bowl in his right hand.
Iconography and iconology. Survey and research,
(Attorno all’arte, 30) Cagli 2021. ISBN
978-88-7658-243-1.
It is very difficult for a publisher to be able
to distinguish, in scientific editions, the
topics that may be unprecedented and innovative
and easy to read. My experience in research in
informatic and archival sectors has led me, more
often than not, to make a choice also for
authors who offer publications of all kinds
every day.
On a specific research and study
assignment on 19 April 2018, I investigated a
painting on a bank vault in Switzerland called
"Saint John the Baptist with a bowl in his right
hand".
The work was carried out on a poplar
board (55 x 42.5 cm) with a mixed oil and
tempera technique and was found to the naked eye
in excellent conservation.
Before starting to
describe, motivate and determine the
authenticity of the painting, I would like to
point out that it has been subject to
examination by prof. Maurizio Marini, art
expert, in Lugano on 18 February 2009 and of
which I was given a copy of the report.
In
addition, I received other documents analyzing
the work and precisely: the scientific analysis
carried out by the "Scientific Laboratory of the
Museum of Art and Science" of Gottfried Matthaes
in Milan on 05.12.2016.
My analyzes have
obtained a different but complementary result to
what had been done previously, as it had not
been examined a drawing by Leonardo kept in a
private collection and exhibited in Lugano, for
the first time in Switzerland, from October 16,
2011 8 January 2012 as part of cultural
initiatives with the opening of the new LAC
museum space (Lugano arte cultura) . Opera is
therefore not known to Marini albeit discovered
in 1991. The four other works that are
approached as iconography to our examined
without verification and without mentioning
Leonardo's Treatise on Painting, transcriptions
of archival sources and historical photographic
recordings made by commissioned laboratories
were not examined.
On the basis, then, to my
specific technique of false color, using as my
exclusive technique the typographic pantone, I
found other particular elements that in any case
were useful to verify the changes on the "veils"
typical of the Master and have put in I
highlight a detail that I define as "the
author's stamp" as a typical seal of Leonardo.
My conclusion is that the work is by Leonardo da
Vinci and can be dated between 1503 and 1506
being some sketches for the left hand and the
inclination of the face.
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