From Time:
The 13-by-9-inch portrait, which has now been dubbed La Bella Principessa, is a delicate profile of a young aristocratic Milanese woman, drawn with pen, chalk and ink on an animal skin known as vellum. It was bought two years ago by an anonymous Swiss collector at the Ganz Gallery in New York for about $19,000. Experts now put the possible value of the artwork at upwards of $150 million.The identification seems fairly sound. Some experts already thought it was a Leonardo based on the style, and this has now been confirmed by infrared photography, radiocarbon dating, and the discovery of a fingerprint very similar to one on a confirmed Leonardo.
But why is this rather insipid thing worth $150 million? I mean, it's cool to find an unknown Leonardo, but shouldn't a painting's value have something to do with how good a painting it is? This strikes me as quite nice, but there are hundreds of Renaissance portraits more beautiful and exciting than this one.
I always liked the one of the lady with the ermine. Much more dynamic. This is well-executed and actually kind of lovely. Not his most interesting portrait - but he was such an all-around rockstar, it's not surprising that anything he touched turns to 150 million.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that nobody even questions whether it's intriguing, or if it changes what we know about DaVinci - even the more art-savvy media outlets just talk about how lucky the guy who bought it is. Ah, capitalism.