Month: August 2008

Leonardo waz here?

Modern(ish), Renaissance, Treasures

In 1998 Christie’s auctioned off a pretty portrait of a young woman. Classified as a 19th-century German School work, it sold for a modest $21,850. The art dealer who purchased it sold it to a Swiss collector last year and the new owner did a little digging with the help of a collector friend.

The two collectors took the portrait to Lumiere Technology, a Paris-based company specializing in multispectral digital technology that had already digitized two works by Leonardo: the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and “Lady With an Ermine” at the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland.

“The first time that the owner gave me this drawing he didn’t say a thing; the author was secret,” said Pascal Cotte, Lumiere Technology’s chief technical officer.

Though Mr. Cotte carried out a series of tests on the work for nearly four weeks, he said, it did not take him long to come up with a name. “I went to the owner and said, ‘I have a feeling it’s a drawing by Leonardo,’ and he said, ‘We’re here for just that.'”

In June, Lumiere announced that its examination had led to the authentication of the work as a Leonardo.

Carbon 14-dating tests carried out by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and released this month place the work’s date between 1440 and 1650.

So what crack was Christie’s smoking, you ask? They won’t comment until the painting “has been the subject of comprehensive and conclusive academic and scientific analysis.” Which naturally leads one to wonder what exactly their small army of appraisers did with their time before the portrait went on the block.

Not that the Leonardo authentication is a done deal, mind you. There are some weirdnesses. The painting is on vellum, for instance, and no currently known Leonardo uses that medium. Some experts think the style doesn’t match the master’s.

Even so, the Swiss collector has already gotten an insane number of offers for the piece, including one for $50 million from a Russian buyer, all of which he has turned down.

Stained glass windows = solar-powered nanotech air-purifiers

Medieval, Modern(ish)

The medieval glaziers who made the cathedral in Chartres and the Duomo of Milan so breathtaking inadvertently made the taking of said breath healthier.

It’s the gold paint they used that acts as an air purifier when light shines through the glass.

[Associate professor at Queensland University of Technology] Zhu [Huai Yong] said that tiny gold particles found in medieval gold paint react with sunlight to destroy air-borne pollutants like volatile organic chemicals/compounds (VOCs), which are emitted from paints, lacquers, and glues, among other things.

“These VOCs create that ‘new’ smell as they are slowly released from walls and furniture, but they, along with methanol and carbon monoxide, are not good for your health, even in small amounts,” Zhu said.

When interacting with gold particles, sunlight creates an electromagnetic field that reacts with the oscillating electrons in the gold. This field resonates and breaks apart pollutants in the air, according to Zhu.

No wonder churches smell so great. I sense a new/old trend in Green building coming on. No more overpriced Sharper Image ionizer things; just glorious stained glass in every window.

:hattip: The Cranky Professor

Peru on a roll

Looting, Museums, Social policy, Treasures

This time it’s not just pending litigation, but rather a major, major score of almost 3,898 Inca and pre-Inca artifacts returned from the National Institute of Latin American Anthropology and Thinking in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

According to the Peruvian embassy in Buenos Aires, these pieces include valuable ceramics, textiles, metal objects from different pre-Hispanic cultures, as well as a colonial picture, all of which were taken out of the country illegally.

These artifacts are part of an 18,000-piece collection of Peruvian cultural heritage that was illegally taken to Argentina, affirmed the Peruvian embassy.

I can’t find any other information about this collection, the circumstances of its removal from Peru or the legal reasoning behind the return of a fraction of it. I’ll keep digging.

Getting trashed Aztec style

Ancient, Modern(ish)

Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware is releasing a chocolate beer which uses the same ingredients the Aztecs used for their human sacrifice after-parties.

University of Pennsylvania molecular archaeologists examined the remains in an Aztec drinking vessel found in Honduras, and the Dogfish brewmasters recreated the quaff of the gods.

“Before we were eating chocolate, we were drinking it.” [Dogfish Head owner Sam] Calagione said. “In ancient central America, cocoa was considered to be a very divine and sought-after ingredient.”

Combining cocoa nibs, powder and honey with chilies and seeds of the annatto tree, Theobroma aims to dispel the notion that chocolate-flavored alcohol is only for ladies. At a hearty nine percent alcohol-by-volume, it nearly doubles the alcohol content of the average mass-produced beer.

I’ll be raising a glass of that goodness to Xtapolapocetl as soon as I can get mah grubby hands on it.

I just ordered a sixer of their Midas Touch brew, which is also a historical recreation, this time of the dregs left in cups in the Golden One’s tomb. It’s a meady sort of thing, apparently, involving muscat grapes, honey, barley and saffron. Weird, right? If it sucks they’ll be stocking stuffers.

For more about the Aztec chocolate beer, see Dogfish’s page: Theobroma.

Another great Roman city in Turkey

Ancient, Roma, Caput Mundi

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman city of Pompeipolis on the coast of the Black Sea in Turkey have uncovered a mosaic floor, an iron furnance, a marketplace and a bunch of small artifacts like the bronze Apollo on the right.

This dig has been turning up amazing things for three years. Last year they found a temple of Augustus which is even better preserved than the one in Ephesus.

Pompeipolis was founded by none other than Pompey the Great (aka Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) in 65 or 66 B.C. when he was in the East fighting Mithridates VI of Pontus. It’s such a rich site for Roman remains because it was built brand-new, not on top of or amidst an existing town, like Ephesus was.

It was abandoned in the sixth or seventh century A.D. when the Persians invaded.

I found a nice little video tour of the uncovered ruins but fair warning: you’ll want to mute your computer before clicking play.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/RAxrybgGA4w&w=430]