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 That was the unique opportunity restorers in Florence have
relished as they clean the "Adoration of the Magi", a massive
painting that Leonardo started in 1481 at the age of 29 but
abandoned a year later, leaving it in various stages of
conception and development.
The painting on wood, measuring about 2.5 by 2.5 meters (8.2 by
8.2 feet) depicts the three wise men who paid tribute to the
infant Jesus in Bethlehem, but it also includes a riot of human
figures, battling horses, architectural designs, landscapes and
skies.
Done on 10 slabs of wood glued together, it has blank areas,
areas with under-drawings, and sections in advanced stages.
"This is perhaps the most quintessential work-in-progress in the
history of art," said Cecilia Frosinini, one of the directors of
the ongoing restoration of the work, which is slated to return
to Florence's Uffizi Gallery next year.
"Leonardo never wanted this to be seen by anyone at this stage,
probably not even by those who commissioned it, probably not
even his assistants. This is the phase in which he was still
elaborating in his mind what the final work would look like,"
she said, standing in front of the piece.
Leonardo received the commission to paint an altar piece
depicting the Adoration from the monks of the monastery of San
Donato a Scopeto, near Florence. He stopped abruptly when he
left to take up an offer of steady income from the Dukes of
Milan.
In the late 1500s it was acquired by Florence's Medici family,
whose restorers added layers of both clear and sepia-colored
varnish to give it a homogenous, monochrome look when they put
it in their collection.
The current restoration project, which began three years ago,
has removed much of the dull, oxidized varnish as well as traces
of past restoration attempts, revealing many previously hidden
details, facial expressions and subtleties of light and shadow.
There are sections where the same horse's head is drawn in
various positions, where horses in battle still have three hind
legs because Leonardo still had not decided which would go and
which would stay.
A PEEK AT A SECRET
"The great fascination of this project was seeing something that
we were not supposed to see, standing behind the artist and
imagining what the final version could have looked like," said
Patrizia Riitano, one of the two restorers who cleaned it.
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"I hope that I have been able to enter Leonardo's mind, at least a
little bit," said Riitano, who has also worked on paintings by
Raphael and other Renaissance masters.
The restoration showed that despite the large size of his work,
Leonardo did all the under drawings freehand, eschewing the
"cartoons", or dotted-lined outlines, used at the time to divide
large complex works into sections.
"We have gotten close to this inexhaustible genius who is never
satisfied with his work, who wants to be totally free, even from
himself, free from the restrictions that the cartoons would have
imposed," said Frosinini.
"It is as if we are privy to a private conversation - Leonardo
talking to himself, perhaps even arguing with himself," she said.
Experts at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Italy's premier,
state-run art restoration lab, have ruled out a hypothesis put
forward 15 years ago that Leonardo had done only the preliminary
work and the paint was added by an unknown artist long after the
master's death in 1519.
"Of course there were restorations and small additions here and
there over the centuries but we are convinced that this is all
substantially Leonardo," said Roberto Bellucci, a renowned expert on
cleaning oil paintings who restored it with Riitano.
In 2001, the Uffizi, after much public and in-house hand wringing,
decided not to restore the masterpiece because it was deemed too
delicate by some.
Improved techniques and more scientific studies convinced the Uffizi
to go ahead with the restoration this time.
Marco Ciatti, the head of the restoration lab, said that if the
cleaning had not gone ahead, viewing it would have been "like trying
to read a book of poems in a dark room".
After the wood backing of the painting is restored, it is due to
return to a special room in the Uffizi, where it will be on display
with two other Leonardo works.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Michael Roddy and Sonya
Hepinstall)
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