FLORENCE, Italy (AP) – Researchers may have discovered traces of a lost mural by Leonardo da Vinci by poking a probe through cracks in a 16th-century fresco painted on the wall of one of Florence’s most famous buildings.
The latest findings Monday still leave much mystery in the hunt for the “Battle of Anghiari,” a wall mural painted by Leonardo in Florence’s storied Palazzo Vecchio, and possibly hidden behind a fresco done by Giorgio Vasari decades later.
The hunt for the unfinished mural has captivated art historians for centuries, and took on fresh impetus in the last years with the employment of state-of-art scientific tools.
Some believe Leonardo’s mural, which he began in 1505 to commemorate the 15th-century victory by Florence over Milan at the medieval Tuscan town of Anghiari, may be hidden behind a newer wall, which was frescoed over decades later by Giorgio Vasari. Leonardo’s “Battle of