by Jon Lackman | 13 October 2009 | Renaissance
A small portrait, the object of considerable controversy over recent years, is increasingly attributed to Leonardo, reports the Guardian:
The small picture of a young woman in profile was previously believed to be a German work from the early 19th century and has changed hands in recent years for around £12,000. But a growing number of leading Leonardo scholars agree the work is almost certainly by the Renaissance figurehead because it appears to have his fingerprint on it. Carbon dating and infrared analysis of Leonardo’s techniques back up the theory. If the scholars are correct, it will be the first major work by Leonardo to be identified for 100 years and will be worth tens of millions of pounds. Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at Oxford University, is so convinced the portrait is a Leonardo that he has written an as yet unpublished 200-page book about it.
For more, see this article from the Antiques Trade Gazette.
Not long ago Martin Kemp dismissed a fingerprint in a similar situation. What makes this case SO different?