The New York Times recently reported an exciting development. The Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo Da Vinci may in fact have been found behind a work by Georgio Vasari in Florence. This work has been lost for hundreds of years. A replica of it was done in the early 17th century by Peter Paul Reubens who copied it from another artist who copied it from Leonardo’s lost work.

Leonardo had studied corpses to establish realistic drawings of musculature that influenced such Renaissance masters like Michelangelo. If one looks at his notebooks and at works in such places as Windsor, the renderings of horseflesh are quite amazing. Leonardo is able to create a sense of urgency and motion in these works that is unrivaled by any other artist since, in my opinion. If this work is behind a painting done by Vasari, this would be exciting news for art historians all over the world and Leonardo scholars especially.

There are two issues that are at hand with this work, however. One is getting the Italian government to approve the testing needed to figure out if there is really a work behind the Vasari one; if testing is allowed and shows the work is there – allowing the Vasari work to be removed to access it; and then reconstructing both the Leonardo and the Vasari without damaging either. An ambitious project to be sure, and one that will not be an easy or quick process. Between the bureaucratic red tape and the specialized talents needed – it will indeed be interesting to see how this plays out.

It is fascinating to see how new technologies are continually being developed and refined for use in restoring and finding new works of art that are hundreds of years old. In this particular case, what tipped the research off was a tiny flag in Vasari’s work that translated to “seek and you will find” – allegedly a clue to what Vasari had covered.

The original article detailing the researchers and the project was written in 2005: M. Pieraccini, D. Mecatti, G. Luzi, M. Seracini, G. Pinelli and C. Atzeni, Non-contact intrawall penetrating radar for Heritage survey: the search of the “Battle of Anghiari” by Leonardo da Vinci, NDT&E international, Vol. 38, pp. 151–157 (2005).

I am interested to see how the project goes and if it is not a Leonardo that is behind Vasari – whose work is it? It remains to be seen but no matter what is behind it – it is sure to be an exciting find. And this is the reason that this matters – because the field of art history can only be improved upon and added to if curious minds and relentless researchers continually push for answers.