...or Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress.
I had the chance to see Nova's Mystery of a Masterpiece last night. If you haven't seen this or are unaware of the controvery over this beautiful drawing I highly recommend you watch the vid
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/mystery-masterpiece.html
Here's some of the back history in case you cannot acess the video, though the article does not mention one of the more exciting finds regarding this work of art. Call me a romantic, but I'll be so sad if one day this is deemed to be not DaVinci's work.
http://arthistory.about.com/od/leonardo/ss/leonardo_la_bella_principessa.htm
I don't think the experts will agree conclusively one way or the other.
But I'd like to think that it's Leonardo's work.
I heard a little more about this one. Some experts believe that it is the missing page from a book of the Sforza family. If it matches that would argue for Da Vinci's authorship quite strongly.
That's the exciting find I was alluding too! The way they came about this discovery is in the video, if you can acess it. In a nutshell the vellum has three evenly spaced holes along one side and what looks like a knife mark. They were led to a book of the family made at the time of Leonardo's engagement with the Storza. Though the book has been rebound with two added holes, the page fits perfectly where it is clear one of the vellum pages had been cut out. Exciting to watch this unfold. :)
Has there been speculation that the Bella Principessa could be this lady? Seems likely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrice_d%27Este
She was the wife of DaVinci's Sforza patron 'El Moro'.
Young, beautiful and vibrant at her marriage at age 15; she died at 22 after giving birth to a stillborn son.
To my eye the vellum drawing and that of Beatrice have dissimilar profiles. Especially the nose.
I'd have to view the video again, but there was conjecture as to it possibly being Bianca Sforza (1482-1496; daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan [1452-1508], and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis). I believe I have this right. There was question, though, that she might have been too young at the time of this drawing as the hairstyle would have been that of a married woman/girl.
Then there's this theory:
http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/sforza/boltraffio4.html
This is really interesting stuff!
I love how DaVinci painted that long neck. I would have loved to see a full color portrait done of this lady.
Quote from: Anna Iram on February 03, 2012, 01:22:30 PM
To my eye the vellum drawing and that of Beatrice have dissimilar profiles. Especially the nose.
I'd have to view the video again, but there was conjecture as to it possibly being Bianca Sforza (1482-1496; daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan [1452-1508], and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis). I believe I have this right. There was question, though, that she might have been too young at the time of this drawing as the hairstyle would have been that of a married woman/girl.
Then there's this theory:
http://www.kleio.org/en/history/famtree/sforza/boltraffio4.html
They said that Bianca was married at age 13- accounting for both the age and hairstyle of the portrait girl. Poor Bianca died 4 months after her wedding.