Posted on 08/07/2012 3:34:34 PM PDT by NYer
Fiona McLaren, 59, had kept an old painting in her Scottish farmhouse for decades. She reportedly didn't think much of the painting, which had been given to her as a gift by her father. But after she finally decided to have the painting appraised, some experts are speculating that it may in fact be a 500-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci and potentially worth more than $150 million.
"I showed it to him [auctioneer Harry Robertson] and he was staggered, speechless save for a sigh of exclamation," said Ms. McLaren, according to The People.
The Daily Mail says the painting may be of Mary Magdalene holding a young child. The painting is now undergoing further analysis by experts at the Cambridge University and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, who will attempt to uncover its exact age and origins.
Even if the painting is not a da Vinci original, it is believed to at least be from the da Vinci school, created by one of the master's pupils during the 16th century.
A papal bull was found attached to the back of the painting and is believed to have originated from the era of Pope Paul V, head of the Catholic Church in the early 17th century. McLaren says the word "Magdalene," is visible on the faded paper.
McLaren says she hopes the painting is sold to a museum, and she plans to donate a percentage of the painting's sale value after it is auctioned.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Catholic Ping
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Some people have all the luck.
Picasso had his “blue period” and apparently da Vinci had his “red circles with numbers” period.
A daVinci in Scotland?
What on earth is a daVinci doing in Scotland?
(with apologies to Churchill aka Rudolf Hess)
Perhaps da Vinci all along used the paint by number system. Who would’a known had it not been for this fascinating find!
LOL
Of course he did. You never heard of the Da Vinci code? ;-)
The illuminati conspiracy theorists/Dan Brown are going to make a lot of hay with this one.
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They should search another closet in that farmhouse, they might find a Stradivarius.
McLaren?? I think she’s a long, lost relative of mine. :)
No art expert - but I have seen enough religious paintings that a young woman holding a child greeting another child is almost ALWAYS - Mary the Mother holding the Christ child meeting John the Baptist as a child.
I wouldn’t say always (just because I don’t know) but I have to agree with your observation. It was a very popular subject. Adding in the lamb and the old child (John?) holding a staff which he is usually symbolized with, I think you are spot on.
No way that is da Vinci himself, unless it's a very, very early work. Or perhaps he painted some of it and left his workshop to finish the rest. The figures of the lamb and St. John the Baptist are clumsy and out of drawing.
Even his preliminary sketches are truer and more proportioned.
I’d be more impressed by twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
It’s no Ross.
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