The Edge
'Profilo Nuziale Di Giovane Dama'
'Profile of a young fiancée'
Leonardo Da Vinci* Circa 1480 - 1490
3 mines technique on vellum,
Black Chalk, Red Chalk,Chalk white.
Dim: 23,87 X 33,27 cm - 9,39 x 13,09 inches.
Strengthened with oak panel backing.
2008 - Renowned French engineer Pascal Cotte made a stunning announcement, that ground-breaking technology has led to the authentification of a work by Leonardo da Vinci called Profile of a young Fiancée (now entitled, Bella Principessa). The work, owned by an anonymous Swiss art collector, was originally purchased for $20,000.
Pascal Cotte has digitalized this Profile of a young Fiancée , a work on vellum, in mixed media, washtint with white, red and black chalks. This portrait--although restored somewhat in the nineteenth century--is in the process of being recognized by internationally respected art historians* as the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
I interviewed Pascal after he announced in Montréal Canada at the symposium IdealCity 2008 that he had discovered a Leonardo da Vinci drawing.
Caroline (CC): There has not been a new Leonardo da Vinci discovery in centuries. It must have been an incredible experience to be the one to make this announcement to the world that the Young Fiancée drawing was in fact a Leonardo da Vinci drawing from the 1400's.
Pascal (PC): I think this new painting by Leonardo da Vinci is really renowned.
CC: Is that why Carlo Pedretti (the world's foremost Leonardo scholar) came to your Paris office to meet you? When you told me he was he was going to pay you a visit I thought it was just to see your camera invention, the multi spectral camera.
PC: Yes, it was difficult for me to tell you, I had to sign 100's of contracts and it was very top secret and I was not allowed to say anything. The owner of the painting was very afraid the news would go out without the approval of Pedretti. Which in the end, Pedretti still had some ambiguity about the Young Fiancée--he was not clear as to the authenticity of the painting.
CC: What did your camera tell you about the drawing?
PC: It revealed the underdrawing and it clearly revealed the technique and the camera revealed quite exactly the drawing we found in Windsor Collection, in the collection of the Queen in London.
CC: This is a drawing in the Queen's collection at Windsor that quite resembles the one you digtalized. Was it a copy?
PC: I don't think it's a copy , I think it's another portrait. The way Leonardo draws it is very similar and that proves it's a Leonardo drawing. I can not tell you it is or it isn't , only Pedretti can tell us or Turner, the expert from the British museum.
CC: So if they hired you not to analyze the drawing then what expertise other than to photograph it did you contribute?
PC: I have scanned the portrait with the highest resolution possible with my camera. My camera the multispectral has proved first of all that 3 chalks were used in the drawing--red chalk, white chalk and black chalk, and my camera was able to prove that. My camera proved that there is a lot of restoration and the reason why all the experts didn't believe it was a Leonardo da Vinci was because the restoration changed the reading of the painting. Do you understand what it means, the ‘reading' of the painting?
CC: Does it mean the way a painting is viewed?
PC: You can read the painting, you can analyze the painting, you can say it's a Renoir, or it's a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt but the reading of the painting was changed because of the restoration and this is the reason why the experts didn't understand and can not say it's a Leonardo da Vinci, but with my camera I revealed the underdrawing and when they saw the underdrawing they were able to say it was a Da Vinci.
CC: The sign of the underdrawing exposed the identification which proves it's a Leonardo.
Pascal: The tell-tale underdrawing shows the drawing and compares the drawing of Leonardo of the “Young Lady" with the one at the Windsor Collection.
CC: How do we know that the one in the Windsor collection is definitely Leonardo?
PC: It more than identification, Leonardo signed it!!
CC: You were very valuable in helping to authenticate this as a Leonardo drawing.
PC: Yes of course, all the experts were in a fog but with the camera it was very clear, you can navigate with your computer and have the capability to look inside the picture.