Did Leonardo da Vinci Paint This Portrait of Machiavelli Found in a French Chateau? A 150-Year-Old Letter May Offer Some Insight

As art history lovers flock to the Louvre in Paris to see the
blockbuster show
celebrating the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da
Vinci, a new painting by his hand may have been discovered at a
French chateau.

The work, a portrait of a bald man that has been in the historic
house for centuries, could be by the Renaissance master, although
the evidence is far from clear.

A 145-year-old letter mentioning a portrait of the philosopher
Niccolò Machiavelli by Leonardo was discovered last year in the
archives of Château de Valençay in central France. The chateau once
belonged to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the French
diplomat known better as Talleyrand, who died in 1838 after serving
under several French regimes, including Napoleon’s.

The director of the historic house, Sylvie Giroux,
told Agence France Presse
that “it is not impossible” that Leonardo painted the Italian
political theorist, best known for his political
treatise, The Prince.

The local archivist, Anne Gerardot, is more cautious. “Just
because it says so in the archives does not mean it’s true,” she
told AFP, noting that she thinks the Old Master portrait more
closely resembles the French Renaissance essayist Montaigne.

There’s also the issue of the painting’s wooden support, which
has a smooth appearance uncharacteristic of Leonardo’s time. It
could be the result of restoration work done in the 1890s, or a
clue that the painting was made at a later date.

But the painting, featuring a thin, bearded figure in a black
coat and white shirt with necktie, does match the description in
the letter, which mentions a portrait on wood measuring 22 by 17
inches. In the letter, which is dated 1874, the estate manager who
wrote it says: “I am having the concierge wrap up and put on the
train a box containing a painting (Machiavelli by Leonardo da
Vinci).”

The chateau plans to submit the painting to a battery of tests
in the hopes of determining its subject and authorship. If it is
indeed by Leonardo of Machiavelli, it could be the first proof that
the two men had met.

The post Did Leonardo da Vinci Paint This Portrait of
Machiavelli Found in a French Chateau? A 150-Year-Old Letter May
Offer Some Insight appeared first on artnet News.