Maurizio Seracini (born 16 December 1946) is an Italian engineer and art diagnostician known for applying scientific imaging and engineering technologies to the study, authentication, and conservation of artworks. He is the founder of Editech, a Florence-based center for the scientific analysis of cultural heritage, and is widely known for his long-running investigation into Leonardo da Vinci‘s lost mural The Battle of Anghiari.[1][2][3]
Career
Seracini studied engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where he later specialized in the application of scientific methods to the analysis of cultural heritage.[4][3] He adapted technologies from medical and military fields, as well as other technical measuring instruments, to aid in the diagnostics and search of art without destroying the artwork itself.
In 2007, Seracini founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (now known as the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI)) at the University of California, San Diego’s Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2). He served as its director until 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he was a visiting professor at the School of Engineering at Monash University, Melbourne.
Seracini has studied over 4,300 works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, Sandro Botticelli‘s Allegory of Spring, and Caravaggio‘s Medusa. He is particularly known for his search for the Leonardo da Vinci mural The Battle of Anghiari in the Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence,[5] which has been the subject of significant controversy within the art community. In 2012, he reported that he had located the mural behind Giorgio Vasari‘s Battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana using high-frequency, surface-penetrating radar. While Seracini’s theory was confirmed by an investigation authorized by the city council of Florence and the Italian Minister of Culture at the time, later evidence against the continued existence of this mural was presented by 25 interdisciplinary experts, whose findings were published in 2018.[6]
Seracini is also notable for his multi-spectral diagnostic work on Leonardo’s Adoration of the Magi which informed major restoration treatments carried out in 2016 by the Opificio delle pietre dure.[7]
Since 2018, Seracini has been collaborating with art investment entities in the Middle East, including Majestic Arts based in Dubai.
References
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
NatGeo2012was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
CBS2019was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
UCSD2007was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
TEDSpeakerwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Tierney, John (October 5, 2009). “A High-Tech Hunt for Lost Art”. The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ “La Sala Grande di Palazzo Vecchio e la Battaglia di Anghiari di Leonardo da Vinci Dalla configurazione architettonica all’apparato decorativo | Casa editrice Leo S. Olschki”.
- ^ “57. The restoration of Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi”. Edifir. September 17, 2021.
External links
- Da Vinci Decoded Archived 2009-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
- On the trail of the lost Leonardo, The Times