Is this really a da Vinci?

We seem to be on an attribution kick lately. I was perusing my old ArtNews magazines to kill time yesterday and came across the January 2010 issue featuring a debate about the artistic attribution of a portrait of a woman. The painting, known as La Bella Principessa, was thought to have been painted by a German artist in the early 19th century and was sold at auction for a little over $20,000. Recent scholars debate its German roots, however. With no documented provenance, it is easy to fantasize stories about the painting’s origins. The most notorious of the claims concerning this piece is its ties to the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci.


So is it by da Vinci? I don’t pretend to be an expert by any means, but I don’t think so. As before with the Pollock issue, I’d have to see the painting in person before making final judgments. The painting just doesn’t seem right as a da Vinci though. He rarely painted figures in profile (minor figures in the Last Supper and Madonna of the Rocks seem to be the exception). The three-dimensionality that was such a prominent component of da Vinci’s work, through strong contrasts of highlighting and shading from the use of chiaroscuro, is more subtly applied here. Under the chin and the nape of her neck display a sense of rounding, but the bust and shoulder are uncharacteristically flat. She does not stand out against the solid background, a feature often replaced by a hazy landscape in his portraits, to give a sense of depth and at the same time is not blended into her surroundings as da Vinci’s sfumato, meaning smoky, painting technique would have given the appearance of. The color scheme of the painting is too bland for da Vinci’s palette. There is little contrast between coloration in the clothing, skin, and hair, and strong highlighting in the face especially is missing from the portrait.

Italian or German? Worth thousands or millions? Dunno…but I don’t like it. Evidence seems to point more against than towards the notion that it was an original by the famous master. Finding an answer to the question of its origins could make or cost $150 million to the owner, but I think knowing whether or not a painting by THE Leonardo da Vinci has been parading around for hundreds of years as a German portrait is much more enticing.