Unknown from the early 16th century
Portrait of Leonardo
Tempera on wood, 60 x 44 cm
Museum of the Ancient People of Lucania
Pervenuto nelle collezioni private di un nobile salernitano (Campania, Italia sud-occidentale), per eredità diretta, e rinvenuto da Nicola Barbatelli nel dicembre 2008, questo dipinto è segnalato nelle precedenti collezioni novecentesche come autoritratto di Galileo Galilei.
È opportuno chiarire che l’opera arriva a Salerno dalla vicina Lucania (l’attuale Basilicata), dov’è appunto registrata sino alla prima metà del XX secolo. Il dipinto viene presentato per la prima volt al pubblico all’inizio del 2009, in occasione della conferenza di inaugurazione della mostra “I ritratti di Leonardo” del Palazzo del Campidoglio di Roma.
The reasons for an initial proposal of attribution to the hand of the Tuscan genius were cautiously described by Orest Kormashov in the context of the conference “A Key to Leonardo” (Tallinn, 5 – 12 February 2010), in which the important scientific data on the radiocarbon dating of the plates and insights into the pigments. Further evidence confirming this hypothesis emerged with the subsequent recovery of a fingerprint found on the pictorial film of the panel, compatible with the same print found on the painted surface of the Lady with an Ermine, il capolavoro autografo di Leonardo a Cracovia, in Polonia.
The painting was finally proposed as part of Leonardo's work by Peter Hohenstatt on the occasion of the exhibition Leonardo and the fantastic Renaissance (Sorrento, 2010). Tale mostra si concentrava sull’imponente analisi critica formulata dallo studioso tedesco e sull’ipotesi di orientarne la datazione nella fase di studi sull’ottica, curati da Leonardo dopo il 1500 e comunque entro il 1510. Al di là del di battito cronologico, che Nicola Barbatelli ha circoscritto tra il 1507 e il 1512, è bene chiarire che l’eventuale riconoscimento di quest’opera alla mano di Leonardo resta vincolato necessariamente alla fitta mole di studi e indagini diagnostiche che, più di ogni altra considerazione di natura storico-artistica, propenderebbero verso questo suggerimento. Un altro elemento importante che ha portato Peter Hohenstatt ad attribuire la paternità leonardiana dell’opera è la menzione di un autoritratto di Leonardo, citato dall’abate Domenico Romanelli nella Collezione Ruffo di Baranello a Napoli, alla fine del XVIII secolo. Sebbene la cattiva essiccazione pigmentaria e gli importanti danni registrati su alcuni punti della superficie pittorica non consentano una lettura integrale del dipinto, l’eccezionale qualità di quest’opera, eseguita con una sintassi cromatica semplice e molto lineare, rende l’idea di un prodotto di straordinaria qualità che merita comunque di essere discusso nell’ambito degli interessi scientifici di Leonardo, ovvero i suoi stessi studi sull’ottica e in particolare sulla vista binoculare.
Bibliografia
• N. Barbatelli, L. Capasso, The alleged Lucanian self-portrait. Scientific studies, and. Mars, Colonnella, 2010;
• A. Tomei, MC Paoluzzi, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo and the fantastic Renaissance, ed. Sorrento, Sorrento, 2010;
• Barbatelli, P. Hohenstatt, O. Kormashov, It's Renaissance. Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael: masterpieces compared, ed. Marte, Colonnella, 2010;
• P. Hohenstatt, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo: Images of a genius, and. Champfleury, Poggio a Caiano, 2012;
• C. Pedretti, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo and Cesare da Sesto in the Southern Renaissance, and. CB, Poggio a Caiano, 2013;
• C. Galzez, Leonardo da Vinci. The faces of genius, ed. Penguin Random House Publishing Group, Madrid, 2018.
Found in the private collections of a nobleman from Salerno (Campania, south-western Italy), by direct inheritance, and discovered by Nicola Barbatelli in December 2008, this painting is reported in earlier 20th-century collections as a self-portrait of Galileo Galilei.
It should be clarified that the work arrived in Salerno from nearby Lucania (present-day Basilicata), where it was registered until the first half of the 20th century. The painting was presented to the public for the first time in early 2009, on the opening conference of the exhibition 'Leonardo's Portraits' at the Palazzo del Campidoglio in Rome.
The reasons for an initial proposal to attribute it to the hand of the Tuscan genius were cautiously described by Orest Kormashov in the context of the conference 'A Key to Leonardo' (Tallinn, 5 - 12 February 2010), where important scientific data on the radiocarbon dating of the panels and in-depth studies on pigments were presented. Further evidence confirming this hypothesis emerged with the subsequent recovery of a fingerprint found on the pictorial film of the panel, compatible with the same print found on the painted surface of the Lady with an Ermine, Leonardo's autograph masterpiece in Krakow, Poland.
The painting was finally proposed as part of Leonardo's oeuvre by Peter Hohenstatt on the exhibition Leonardo and the Fantastic Renaissance (Sorrento, 2010). This exhibition focused on the imposing critical analysis formulated by the German scholar and the hypothesis that it could be dated to the phase of studies on optics carried out by Leonardo after 1500 and in any case by 1510. Beyond the chronological beat, which Nicola Barbatelli has circumscribed between 1507 and 1512, it should be made clear that any recognition of this work to the hand of Leonardo is necessarily bound to the dense number of studies and diagnostic investigations that, more than any other consideration of a historical-artistic nature, would tend towards this suggestion. Another important element that led Peter Hohenstatt to attribute Leonardo's authorship of the work is the mention of a self-portrait by Leonardo, mentioned by Abbot Domenico Romanelli in the Ruffo di Baranello Collection in Naples at the end of the 18th century. Although the poor pigmentary drying and the significant damage recorded on certain points of the painted surface do not allow for a full reading of the painting, the exceptional quality of this work, executed with a simple and very linear chromatic syntax, gives an idea of a product of extraordinary quality that nonetheless deserves to be discussed in the context of Leonardo's scientific interests, i.e. his own studies on optics and in particular binocular vision.
Bibliography
- N. Barbatelli, L. Capasso, The alleged Lucanian self-portrait. Scientific studies, and. Mars, Colonnella, 2010;
- A. Tomei, MC Paoluzzi, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo and the fantastic Renaissance. An exhibition between Naples and the Mediterranean routes, ed. Sorrento, Sorrento, 2010;
- Barbatelli, P. Hohenstatt, O. Kormashov, It's Renaissance. Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael: masterpieces compared, ed. Marte, Colonnella, 2010;
- P. Hohenstatt, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo. Images of a genius, and. Champfleury, Poggio a Caiano, 2012;
- C. Pedretti, N. Barbatelli, Leonardo and Cesare da Sesto in the Southern Renaissance, and. CB, Poggio a Caiano, 2013;
- C. Galzez, Leonardo da Vinci. The faces of genius, ed. Penguin Random House Publishing Group, Madrid, 2018.