Italian scholars recently discovered what they believe to be Leonardo da Vinci’s only surviving sculpture. The terracotta work of art, known as The Virgin with the Laughing Child, spent more than 150 years on display in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and up until now was credited to another artist.
The Virgin with the Laughing Child. Image by Victora & Albert Museum
Art scholars believe that The Virgin with the Laughing Child is the work of Leonardo da Vinci and is the Grand Master’s only known surviving sculpture. The 20 inch-tall sculpture, made of red clay, is currently on display in Florence as part of the exhibition Verrochio: Master of Leonardo at Palazzo Strozzi. It’s normally housed in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, where it has been on display since 1858 and credited to another artist, the Italian sculptor Antonio Rossellino.
Francesco Caglioti a well-respected Renaissance academic at Naples University who is leading a new study on the sculpture, told the Guardian that scholars have been misled to believe that the sculpture was Rossellino’s work. Caglioti says that the attribution comes from one source, the late British Museum director John Pope-Hennessy who was an ardent Rossellino promoter at the time. Even the V&A museum’s web page highlights the uncertainty of the artwork’s origins: “we are not sure who modelled it,” the summary reads. “Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci and Desiderio da Settignano are among a variety of 15th-century Florentine sculptors who may have made it.”
Caglioti believes there ar similarities between the sculpture and The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne Image by Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty
The sculpture depicts the Virgin Mary looking down at a smiling baby Jesus on her lap. According to the Guardian, Caglioti says there are many similarities between the sculpture and da Vinci’s paintings. The smile of the terracotta Virgin, for instance, is similar to the smile of St Anne in da Vinci’s painting The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the smile on the baby Jesus’s face resembles how da Vinci portrayed young children in some of his drawings. In fact, da Vinci was one of the only artists at the time who would give Jesus natural childlike expressions when depicting him as a baby, something that was frowned upon at the time. Other telltale signs include the heavy folded draperies around the Virgin Mary’s legs which are similar to drawings of draperies da Vinci was making at the time.
Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, Mona Lisa. Image: Raphael Gaillarde/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
A potential attribution to da Vinci was first proposed in 1899 and it appears that Caglioti’s study has reopened the debate. Caglioti believes that the sculpture was created by da Vinci around 1472 when he was 19 or 20 and studying under his Florentine mentor Andrea del Verrochio. It’s well known that da Vinci worked as a sculptor throughout his life, creating some works in Verrocchio’s studio, though none of his sculptures are known to exist.
The Virgin with the Smiling Child is on display in Florence at Palazzo Strozzi until 14 July.
The post Is this mysterious artwork in Florence Leonardo da Vinci’s only surviving sculpture? appeared first on Lonely Planet Travel News.