Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci’s lost fresco “The Battle of Anghiari,” and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden underneath. Should they be part of the viewing experience too?
Maurizio Seracini
Diagnostician of Italian Art
Why you should listen
It’s surprising to hear of a former engineer and medical student who has dedicated his career to the analysis of more than 2,500 works of art. But Maurizio Seracini is not your typical art connoisseur. He uses technologies from both of his worlds, such as multispectral imaging, sonogram and x-ray, to peer through the layers of paintings and reveal their secrets.
Most famous is Seracini’s more-than-30-year quest to find Leonardo Da Vinci’s missing painting The Battle of Anghiari. Seracini suspects the piece is behind another giant fresco painted by Giorgio Vasari in the Sala dei Cinquecento in Florence, Italy. To find it, Seracini must find a way to look beneath Vasari’s masterpiece while keeping it intact.
What others say
“[Seracini] is a pioneer in the use of multispectral imaging and other diagnostic tools as well as analytical technologies as applied to works of art and structures.” — National Geographic