Scholars may have uncovered the sad truth about Leonardo da Vinci’s legendary lost masterpiece

Did Leonardo’s lost masterpiece ever exist?

Leading art historians claim that the reason no one has ever found Leonardo da Vinci’s “lost masterpiece” The Battle of Anghiari is because it never existed. While some believe that the artist’s version of famous scene – which exists only as preparatory studies as well as in a famed copy by Peter Paul Rubens – is hidden behind a wall in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio.

A group of historians presented evidence at a roundtable last week that suggests that the painting technique Leonardo had planned for the fresco would not have worked. “Since the process to prepare the wall was not successful, Leonardo never painted on it,” art historian Francesca Fiorani argued. “This means that Leonardo’s battle existed only as a cartoon, never as paint on a wall.”
Courtesy of Artnet News
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