By Kelly Rose Almeida, Guest Blogger

From Leonardo Da Vinci to your own paintings, this instrument is used to search for hidden treasures within art across the globe.

Every art history class that learns about the beauty of the Renaissance has heard of “The Lost Leonard.”  The story begins like so.  In 1504 Leonardo da Vinci was given the commission by Piero Soderinito to honor the Hall of Five Hundred of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy.  His adversary, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, who had just finished his masterpiece David, was designated the opposite wall. Michelangelo chose to depict The Battle of Cascin and had finished a preparatory cartoon but other complications kept him from attempting his fresco. Leonardo chose to portray The Battle of Anghiari. Leonardo not only finished the planning drawings but also began painting his mural. Sadly, he never completed this vision.  Decades later, the chamber was reconstructed, and it was believed that this unfinished mural was lost to the ages.

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