Word: muralled
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...being taken more seriously than ever now that Italy's Culture Ministry has committed the nation to a full-fledged pursuit of the so-called Lost Leonardo. Seracini, a forensic expert in Renaissance art and architecture, is trying to prove that The Battle of Anghiari--the mural once considered the greatest of all of Leonardo's masterpieces--lies buried in the Sala del Gran Consiglio in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, behind a wall covered by a mural--a vision of the Battle of Marciano--that was painted in the 16th century...
...equivalent of a Renaissance-era public patron for this cutting-edge cultural pursuit. As we stand under the palazzo's vaulted frescoes, Seracini lures me into his obsessive world, enumerating the historical and technical evidence that has accumulated as part of the centuries-old search for the lost mural. I can't help thinking of Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, and, indeed, Seracini is the only real-life character mentioned in the book, as the man who "unveiled the unsettling truth" about Leonardo. Seracini has devoted 30 years to the task, interpreting ancient diaries and city records...
...together for 20 minutes in the center of the sprawling sala, Seracini looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. "I know I haven't told you where it is yet," he says. He then indicates a 250-sq.-ft. area on the eastern stretch of the Vasari mural, behind which, he asserts, lies the masterpiece. Having looked at sketches and copies of Anghiari, I strain to tap into an inner X-ray to see through the mural to the Leonardo behind. The original, a Renaissance forebear of Pablo Picasso's Guernica, was described by Italian writer Anton Francesco...
...doubts are likely to persist until the outer mural is temporarily removed and the wall behind it is finally opened--if it ever is. For now, Seracini is trying at least to show that Leonardo's mural is likely to be there. To accomplish that, he's using an instrument he developed in collaboration with the University of California at San Diego and Emory University to capture chemical clues of any paint colors that may be present behind the wall. There's a good chance that Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli will grant Seracini permission in the next year...
...soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria's independence from the Turks in the late 19th century, is well trafficked, as are the souvenir stalls outside selling communist and Nazi paraphernalia. Fewer sightseers meander into the Sveta Nedelya Church, where Sofians gather for incense-imbued Bulgarian Orthodox services in a mural-covered sanctuary. It was there that a church employee approached my camera-toting travel companion, asking to be photographed. We wound up sharing warm bread in a side office, even though we didn't share a language...