Just English Magazine
Home arrow Magazine arrow Feature arrow A Hidden Masterpiece
Choose Your Category    Year    Month

   A Hidden Masterpiece by Sara Hall
Hits 559 hits    E-mail Tell friends   
 
 

An extraordinary claim by a leading art expert is stirring up a great deal of excitement in the Italian art world. Maurizio Seracini, a university professor, believes he has discovered a long-lost masterpiece by the great artist Leonardo da Vinci. Seracini alleges that Giorgio Vasari's fresco, Battle of Marciano in the Chianna Valley, actually conceals Leonardo da Vinci's earlier fresco, Battle of Anghiari, which used to be on proud display in the Hall of the Five Hundred in Florence, Italy. 

 

If Seracini is correct, discovering the lost masterpiece of Leonardo will solve one of the greatest art mysteries of recent times. Finding the masterpiece will also end centuries of intrigue and speculation. Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari painting is his largest work. This fresco is about three times the size of Leonardo’s

 

 

famous Last Supper. As the art expert explains, "Leonardo's contemporaries considered this to be his foremost masterpiece. It represented the highest achievements in art reached at the time, during the early Renaissance".

Leonardo painted Battle of Anghiari in 1503, to mark Florence's proclamation as a republic, after the infamous Medici family lost power. However, Leonardo never finished the painting. When the Medici family returned to power in 1563, they commissioned the renowned artist Giorgio Vasari to paint a new fresco, the Battle of Marciano. Both battles show important victories which helped Florence create the famous region of Tuscany that we know today.

According to Seracini, the Medicis wanted Giorgio Vasari to paint over Leonardo's earlier fresco. However, Seracini believes Vasari protected Leonardo's painting. He says Vasari left a cryptic clue to the hidden masterpiece in his own painting. One of the battle flags in Battle of Marciano bears the words "Cerca Trova", which say "seek and you will find".


To view the complete article, subscribe to Just English magazine.

 

 

Glossary


Fresco
a picture that is painted on a wall.

Intrigue
a mystery, puzzle or a secret plan.

Contemporary
someone who is alive at the same time as a person on a particular event.

Cryptic
expressing something in a secretive and mysterious way.
  Last Updated ( Friday, 25 June 2010 19:21 )