New Leonardo?

For all Leonardo da Vinci's enduring fame, less than 30 of his paintings (including the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper) have come down to posterity. In the U.S. only two purported Leonardos exist, both of doubtful authenticity.* This week the Detroit Institute of Arts put on display a third painting attributed to Leonardo that has never before been publicly exhibited: The Adoration with Two Angels, presumably done in Leonardo's youth (between 1472 and 1478) while he was still working in Andrea del Verrocchio's studio in Florence.

The Detroit Adoration, a medium-sized (23 3/4 in. by 18 1/2 in.) painting, had long been in the possession of an old Roman family. Eventually it made its way to Switzerland, arrived in the U.S. seven or eight years ago. Detroit Director Edgar P. Richardson believed in the authenticity of the painting "from the first time I saw it," and persuaded a group of Detroit art patrons to chip in and buy it. Price: an estimated $250,000.

The painting shows the Virgin kneeling in adoration of the Christ child, who is being held in the arms of an angel. When it first arrived in the U.S. it was a somewhat different painting. It had apparently left Verrocchio's studio with the kneeling Madonna unfinished. About 40 years later, judging by the style, a minor painter completed it. Examination showed that beneath the visible Madonna was the brush drawing of Verrocchio. The overpaint was removed, revealing Verrocchio's original drawing on white gesso.

Apparently Verrocchio sketched in the design of the Madonna and outlined the position of the Child, and Leonardo finished the painting. Director Richardson insists that there is no question of the painting's authenticity, has the support of eight of the world's outstanding Leonardo experts. But he admits that it may be years before all doubts are cleared up.

* A Madonna in the National Gallery in Washington, and St. Donate and the Tax Collector in the Worcester Art Museum.

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