Art Newspaper Reviews the Strange Tale of “La Bella Principessa”

May 11th, 2016

The Art Newspaper takes a second look at La Bella Principessa, the work attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci that forger Shaun Greenhalgh claims to have executed, and which continues to confound experts to this day.  “The silly season for Leonardo never closes,” argues Martin Kemp, the Oxford professor who has attributed the work to the Renaissance master.  “The story satisfies the public taste for ‘experts’ and the ‘art world elite’ being made to look ridiculous, but it is low on credibility. We are asked to believe that a self-taught 17-year-old was capable of such refined pen work and chalk drawing. His drawing has some lightweight decorative charm, but nowhere suggests that he could achieve this tautly descriptive line and subtly blended modeling.”

Read more at Art Newspaper