Leonardo discovery

The National Gallery revealed yesterday that it owns a previously unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci but will never be able to exhibit it.

The first scientific study of The Madonna of the Rocks, a beautiful but puzzling painting which, some suggest, is a studio copy of an original in the Louvre, has disclosed preparatory drawings for a completely different picture.

Under an infrared camera, layers down, beneath the drawings for the present painting, an entirely different image shone out: a kneeling woman, one arm folded across her breast, one flung out, probably intended as a Madonna looking down on a sleeping infant who was never drawn in.

From the Guardian. Another writeup in the Times. The National Gallery page on the Madonna of the Rocks is here, but their website does not yet mention the underdrawing discovery.

Posted by David on June 30, 2005 8:49 PM