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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 23 2019, @09:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the cover-up dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Da Vinci Hidden Painting | New 'Virgin of the Rocks' Painting

Thanks to books and movies like The da Vinci Code, the name Leonardo da Vinci isn't just associated with being a polymath and a historically important genius, but also a mystery. The National Gallery in England has been working on such a mystery since 2005, and now it's come closer to understanding the secrets of da Vinci's hidden painting.

Fourteen years ago, a team of scientists, conservators, and curators all teamed up to examine da Vinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks." Originally made as a commission for a church, the Gallery owns the second version of the painting da Vinci made, likely as a replacement for the first. da Vinci believed that the church wasn't offering adequate payment for the second version, so he sold it.

Now, none of this is out of the ordinary. Older art is regularly examined, and da Vinci had several financial complications in his life. When the second "Virgin" was brought out to study, the scientists expected to find an underdrawing. But thanks to a modern technique known as infrared reflectography (IRR), they found a hidden painting underneath.

The surprised researchers reached out to a now-closed consortium group known as Access, Research, and Technology for the Conservation of the European Cultural Heritage (EU-ARTECH) for further study. Teams from Italy came with high-resolution digital infrared scanners to further confirm the second painting.

Now, National Gallery says in a press release, after 15 years of technological improvements, "more of these details have been identified."


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  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday August 23 2019, @09:47PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Friday August 23 2019, @09:47PM (#884373)

    the scientists expected to find an underdrawing.

    FTFS. (very next sentence)

    .. they found a hidden painting underneath.

    Hence their surprise.

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