WEBVTT

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In 1975, I met in Florence a professor, Carlo Pedretti,

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my former professor of art history, and today

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a world-renowned scholar of Leonardo da Vinci.

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Well, he asked me if I could find some technological way

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to unfold a five-centuries-old mystery related to

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a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci,

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the "Battle of Anghiari," which is supposed to be located

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in the Hall of the 500 in Palazzo Vecchio, in Florence.

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Well, in the mid-'70s, there were not great opportunities

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for a bioengineer like me, especially in Italy, and so

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I decided, with some researchers from the United States

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and the University of Florence, to start probing the murals

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decorated by Vasari on the long walls of the Hall of the 500

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searching for the lost Leonardo.

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Unfortunately, at that time we did not know that

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that was not exactly where we should be looking,

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because we had to go much deeper in, and so the research

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came to a halt, and it was only taken up in 2000

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thanks to the interest and the enthusiasm of the Guinness family.

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Well, this time, we focused on trying to reconstruct

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the way the Hall of the 500 was before the remodeling,

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and the so-called Sala Grande, which was built in 1494,

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and to find out the original doors, windows,

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and in order to do that, we first created a 3D model,

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and then, with thermography, we went on to discover

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hidden windows. These are the original windows of the hall

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of the Sala Grande. We also found out about the height

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of the ceiling, and we managed to reconstruct, therefore,

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all the layout of this original hall

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the way it was before there came Vasari,

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and restructured the whole thing,

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including a staircase that was very important

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in order to precisely place "The Battle of Anghiari"

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on a specific area of one of the tools.

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Well, we also learned that Vasari, who was commissioned

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to remodel the Hall of the 500 between 1560 and 1574

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by the Grand Duke Cosimo I of the Medici family,

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we have at least two instances when he saved masterpieces

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specifically by placing a brick wall in front of it

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and leaving a small air gap.

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One that really here Masaccio, the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence,

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so we just said, well maybe, Visari has done something

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like that in the case of this great work of art by Leonardo,

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since he was a great admirer of Leonardo da Vinci.

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And so we built some very sophisticated radio antennas

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just for probing both walls and searching for an air gap.

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And we did find many on the right panel of the east wall,

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an air gap, and that's where

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we believe "The Battle of Anghiari,"

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or at least the part that we know has been painted,

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which is called "The Fight for the Standard," should be located.

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Well, from there, unfortunately,

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in 2004, the project

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came to a halt. Many political reasons.

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So I decided to go back to my alma mater,

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and, at the University of California, San Diego,

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and I proposed to open up a research center

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for engineering sciences for cultural heritage.

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And in 2007, we created CISA3 as a research center

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for cultural heritage, specifically art, architecture

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and archaeology. So students started to flow in,

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and we started to build technologies, because that's

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basically what we also needed in order to move forward

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and go and do fieldwork.

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We came back in the Hall of the 500 in 2011,

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and this time, with a great group of students,

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and my colleague, Professor Falko Kuester,

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who is now the director at CISA3, and we

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came back just since we knew already where to look for

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to find out if there was still something left.

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Well, we were confined though, limited, I should rather say,

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for several reasons that it's not worth explaining,

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to endoscopy only, of the many other options we had,

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and with a 4mm camera attached to it,

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we were successful in documenting and taking

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some fragments of what it turns out to be

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a reddish color, black color, and there is some

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beige fragments that later on

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we ran a much more sophisticated exams,

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XRF, X-ray diffraction, and the results are very positive

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so far. It seems to indicate that indeed

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we have found some pigments, and since we know for sure

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that no other artist has painted on that wall

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before Vasari came in about 60 years later, well,

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those pigments are therefore firmly related to mural painting

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and most likely to Leonardo.

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Well, we are searching for the highest and highly praised

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work of art ever achieved by mankind.

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As a matter of fact, this is by far the most important

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commission that Leonardo has ever had,

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and for doing this great masterpiece, he was named

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the number one artist influence at the time.

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I had also had the privilege since the last 37 years

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to work on several masterpieces as you can see behind me,

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but basically to do what? Well, to assess, for example,

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the state of conservation. See here the face of the

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Madonna of the Chair that when just shining a UV light on it

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you suddenly see another, different lady,

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aged lady, I should rather say.

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There is a lot of varnish still sitting there, several retouches,

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and some over cleaning. It becomes very visible.

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But also, technology has helped to write new pages

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of our history, or at least to update pages of our histories.

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For example, the "Lady with the Unicorn,"

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another painting by Rafael, well, you see the unicorn.

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A lot has been said and written about the unicorn, but

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if you take an X-ray of the unicorn, it becomes a puppy dog.

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And — (Laughter) — no problem, but, unfortunately,

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continuing with the scientific examination of this painting

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came out that Rafael did not paint the unicorn,

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did not paint the puppy dog, actually left the painting

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unfinished, so all this writing about the exotic symbol

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of the unicorn — (Laughter) — unfortunately,

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is not very reliable. (Laughter)

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Well, also, authenticity. Just think for a moment

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if science really could move in the field of authenticity

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of works of art. There would be a cultural revolution

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to say the least, but also, I would say, a market revolution,

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let me add. Take this example:

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Otto Marseus, nice painting, which is "Still Life"

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at the Pitti Gallery, and just have an infrared camera peering through,

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and luckily for art historians, it just was confirmed

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that there is a signature of Otto Marseus. It even says

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when it was made and also the location.

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So that was a good result. Sometimes, it's not that good,

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and so, again, authenticity and science could go together

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and change the way, not attributions being made,

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but at least lay the ground for a more objective,

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or, I should rather say, less subjective attribution,

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as it is done today.

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But I would say the discovery that really caught

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my imagination, my admiration, is the incredibly vivid

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drawing under this layer, brown layer,

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of "The Adoration of the Magi." Here you see

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a handmade setting XYZ scanner with an infrared camera put on it,

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and just peering through this brown layer

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of this masterpiece to reveal

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what could have been underneath.

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Well, this happens to be the most important painting

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we have in Italy by Leonardo da Vinci, and

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look at the wonderful images of faces that nobody has seen

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for five centuries. Look at these portraits.

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They're magnificent. You see Leonardo at work.

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You see the geniality of his creation, right directly

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on the ground layer of the panel, and see

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this cool thing, finding, I should rather say,

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an elephant. (Laughter) Because of this elephant,

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over 70 new images came out, never seen for centuries.

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This was an epiphany. We came to understand

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and to prove that the brown coating that we see today

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was not done by Leonardo da Vinci, which left us

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only the other drawing that for five centuries

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we were not able to see, so thanks only to technology.

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Well, the tablet. Well, we thought, well, if we all have

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this pleasure, this privilege to see all this,

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to find all these discoveries, what about for everybody else?

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So we thought of an augmented reality application

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using a tablet. Let me show you just simulating

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what we could be doing, any of us could be doing,

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in a museum environment.

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So let's say that we go to a museum with a tablet, okay?

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And we just aim the camera of the tablet

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to the painting that we are interested to see, like this.

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Okay? And I will just click on it, we pause,

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and now let me turn to you so the moment the image,

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or, I should say, the camera, has locked in the painting,

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then the images you just saw up there in the drawing

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are being loaded. And so, see.

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We can, as we said, we can zoom in. Then we can scroll.

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Okay? Let's go and find the elephant.

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So all we need is one finger. Just wipe off

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and we see the elephant. (Applause)

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(Applause)

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Okay? And then if we want,

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we can continue the scroll to find out, for example,

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on the staircase, the whole iconography is going

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to be changed. There are a lot of laymen reconstructing

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from the ruins of an old temple a new temple,

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and there are a lot of figures showing up. See?

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This is not just a curiosity, because it changes

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not just the iconography as you see it, but the iconology,

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the meaning of the painting,

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and we believe this is a cool way, easy way,

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that everybody could have access to, to become more

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the protagonist of your own discovery, and not just

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be so passive about it, as we are when we walk through

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endless rooms of museums.

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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Another concept is the digital clinical chart, which sounds

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very obvious if we were to talk about real patients,

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but when we talk about works of art, unfortunately,

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it's never been tapped as an idea.

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Well, we believe, again, that this should be the beginning,

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the very first step, to do real conservation,

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and allowing us to really explore and to understand

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everything related to the state of our conservation,

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the technique, materials, and also if, when, and why

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we should restore, or, rather, to intervene on

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the environment surrounding the painting.

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Well, our vision is to rediscover

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the spirit of the Renaissance, create a new discipline

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where engineering for cultural heritage is actually

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a symbol of blending art and science together.

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We definitely need a new breed of engineers

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that will go out and do this kind of work and

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rediscover for us these values, these cultural values

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that we badly need, especially today.

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And if you want to summarize in one just single word,

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well, this is what we're trying to do.

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We're trying to give a future to our past

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in order to have a future.

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As long as we live a life of curiosity and passion,

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there is a bit of Leonardo in all of us. Thank you. (Applause)

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(Applause)