Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - National Gallery experts using infrared techniques
have discovered a Leonardo da Vinci sketch hidden underneath a
painting by the Italian master. The sketch - the first unknown da
Vinci image to be found in decades - is beneath the delicate
brushstrokes of the artist's "Virgin on the Rocks,'' a powerful
scene of Christ's mother in a dusky cavern, which hangs in the
London museum.
The concealed image shows a woman with one hand clutched to her
breast, the other outstretched, kneeling before what experts said
was planned to be an infant Jesus. He apparently was planning a
picture of the adoration of the Christ child, a scene popular
with Renaissance artists, but changed his mind.
"It came as a complete surprise to finding the sketch,'' said
Rachel Billinge, research associate in the conservation
department of the National Gallery. "We had no idea until we
studied the painting that there was anything under there.''
The National Gallery's "Virgin on the Rocks'' is a copy of the
painting of the same name that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.
National Gallery experts were using infrared techniques to find
out how the copy had been made when they found the sketch.
The Roman Catholic church had commissioned da Vinci to paint "The
Virgin on the Rocks'' for a Milan chapel altarpiece in 1483.
"When (Leonardo) completed the first painting, he was so pleased
with it that he asked for more money, and when this was refused,
he sold it privately,'' Billinge said.
The artist later agreed to paint another picture - and probably
started with the newly found sketch - but was persuaded to make a
copy of the original "Virgin On The Rocks,'' she said.
The copy was placed in the chapel in 1508.
Critics argue over the meaning of the scene in "The Virgin On The
Rocks.'' Some claim it depicts the Immaculate Conception, while
others say it shows the first time Jesus met John the Baptist.
The last time any new da Vinci works were discovered was the
1930s, when the portrait "Ginevra de'Benci'' and "The Madonna of
the Carnation'' were attributed to him.
