NEW LEONARDO FOUND IN ATTIC

 sangirolamo

A terracotta bust, on show for the first time in an exhibition at the town of Impruneta, near Florence, is thought by experts to be a hitherto unknown work by Leonardo da Vinci. Discovered in 1990 in the attics of Palazzo Chigi Saracini, Siena, the painted sculpture, believed to represent St. Jerome in Ecstasy, has many similarities with a tempera painting of Christ Crucified between Saints Jerome and Antonio the Abbot in the Galleria Palatina in Florence, recently attributed to Leonardo.

The young Leonardo, while an apprentice at the studio of Verrocchio between 1469 and 1476, is known to have executed several heads of the hermit St. Jerome, who was much venerated at the time. Art critic Giancarlo Gentilini, co-curator of the exhibition: The Terracotta of Impruneta. Masters of the Renaissance and the Kilns of To-day, who found the bust during an inspection of the palace attics along with art historian Carlo Sisi, points out other similarities with the stuccoed St. Jerome in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the St. Jerome Repentent in the Vatican Pinacoteca, painted by Leonardo around 1480.

The bust is on show for the public for the first time, along with a precious collection of sculptures by other renaissance artists, such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, Michelozzi, Desiderio da Settignano, Verrocchio and Benedetto da Maiano. The exhibition, which celebrates Impruneta  seven century-long tradition in terracotta artistry, runs till the 26th July 2009.

For information: www.imprunetacotto.it

Posted on 08 Apr 2009 by Editor
Powered by CuteNews