Artwork By Steve Ladin - Clearview Views

Lawrence (Larry) Ladin was for many years Chairman of Compressor Controls Corporation, which designs and manufacturers computers for engineers to operate the compressors in oil refineries. He has written many travel, personal and engineering articles for the Sierra Club Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register, The Aspen Times, and Chemical Engineering Magazine. He lives in Aspen, Colorado with his wife, and has two grown sons.

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The Florence II Seminar "That- One-Man Renaissance--Leonardo da Vinci"
Back by popular demand, after the top-rated seminar on Florence last December, this seminar will focus on that wonder of the Renaissance, and wonder of the modern world, Leonardo da Vinci -- renounced scientist, mathematician, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and military engineer.
You name it Leonardo did it.
Our moderators will lead us through what stunning feats Leonardo did, and how he did them, during three morning sessions on December 13th, 14th, and 15th for four hours each. In the late afternoon on December 12th will be a ninety minute panel for the Aspen community.
Each session will begin with a dramatic reading by a professional actor of Leonardo's personality and temperament, which contributed to his burst of creativity in both the arts and sciences.
Leading and inspiring us will be world class experts from Florence, London, and New York, including: William R. Cook, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the State University of N.Y. at Genesco, author of celebrated books on the Renaissance; Ross King, author of best selling books on Brunelleschi's dome and Michelangelo's ceiling; and Contessa Simonetta Brandolini d'Adda, our key moderator, seminar organizer and expert on Florence.
Please contact Cristal Logan to be guaranteed a spot in this sure to be sold out seminar. She's at cristal.logan@aspeninst.org.

The Arts & Ideas Seminars of the Aspen Institute - December 12th to 15th 2008 in Aspen Colorado

Sponsored By Anneliese & Larry Ladin

written by: Lawrence Ladin
edited on: September 14, 2008

Searching For The Lost Painting Of Leonardo DaVinci
Back last September 2007, when my wife and I were vacationing in Italy, we were to meet with an organization called the "Friends of Florence." We were going to hear about their search for a famous masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, a priceless painting that has been lost for hundreds of years. The Friends of Florence is a nonprofit organization that helps fund the restoration of the city of Florence's irreplaceable art, and their web site is www.friendsofflorence.org.

As for the meeting about Leonardo's lost painting, my wife, Anneliese, needed so badly to have a rest day from too much touring that she stayed at our villa deep in the countryside, while I took the train into Florence. So, at 8:30 AM on a Wednesday morning in late September, I found central Florence fresh and sunny after a heavy rain the night before. The stone pavement blocks of the Piazza della Signoria, the Plaza of the Signoria (Governors), Florence's famous central square, were still glistening. Only a few morning strollers sauntered about the Piazza, and at the cafe tables on the square just a dozen or so early risers were leisurely sipping their morning's coffee cappuccino.

I joined the Friends of Florence group near the Piazza, altogether about thirty people including the Contessa Brandolini, the organizer of the Friends. The Contessa was informal, helpful, and very easy to talk to. Our group then walked to the Palace of the Signoria. This Palace, dating from the 13th century, is an austere, weathered, massive structure of tan-colored stone blocks topped by battlements and a tower that dominates the Piazza. This stern fortress-palace was the seat of Florence's government back in the days when the city of Florence was an independent republic with its own empire, its own army and its own foreign policy.

Entering the Palazzo, we walked up a huge stone staircase into a gigantic chamber of nearly 13,000 square feet, the "Hall of the Five Hundred," where the Signoria and their many councilors once met. At one end was a raised dais, and along both sides were several sculptures, including a Michelangelo. High on the sidewalls were huge, huge frescos, paintings of battles scenes by the Florentine artist Vasari that showed Florence's victories over its rival states. Behind one of these huge Vasari frescos lies the never-finished lost masterpiece of Leonardo, still believed to be buried there. Titled "The Battle of Anghiari," its central scene depicted the fierce armed combat between soldiers mounted on raging war-horses, enemies fighting to the death for possession of a battle flag.

Vasari - the painter and architect who also wrote a biography of Leonardo - was commissioned sometime around the years 1560-1570 to bury Leonardo's unfinished fresco behind a six-inch-thick brick wall, as part of a major palace renovation. Vasari was then commissioned to paint his new frescos (that we can still see today) on top of that brick wall. We have every reason to believe that Vasari would have made all possible efforts to protect Leonardo's buried fresco, which he praised so highly in his biography of Leonardo.

This fresco - a painting on plaster - was talked about all over Europe, said Professor Rab Hatfield of Syracuse University, the Friends' chosen speaker. The Signoria of Florence commissioned it, he said, in a contract signed by no less than Machiavelli. We do know that in the year 1505 Leonardo painted his fresco on one of these four chamber walls- we know this both from the city records of Florence, from Leonardo's biographers including Vasari, and from visitors to Florence who marveled at the fresco and wrote home about it. Furthermore, many artists copied Leonardo's famed fresco, including even Raphael, whose copy portrays the full battle fury and power presented by the Leonardo's painting. So, we know a great deal about Leonardo's masterful fresco - except whether it still exists, and if it does still exist, then where in this gigantic chamber, the Hall of the Five Hundred, exactly where was it buried?

The second speaker sponsored by the Friends was Maurizio Seracini, an Italian expert in high-technology art analysis. He believes the exact location of Leonardo's buried fresco has now been correctly deduced from the old records and from other sources. He proposes to use his newly developed high-technology neutron beams, which can penetrate even six-inch-thick brick walls, to discover if anything of Leonardo's fresco still exists. Signor Seracini said that Leonardo chose paint pigments that were unique among all artists, and that his new neutron beam technology can detect them, if still present.

The City Council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture have given him permission for further investigations. Good luck to him, say I, and to his supporters, the Friends of Florence!

written by: Lawrence Ladin
edited on: February 07, 2008