Other than Leonardo da Vinci: according to ceramic experts, the tile is a work of the 20th century, possibly by Aldo Ajò

Criticism continues to rain down on the ramshackle attribution to Leonardo da Vinci of the majolica tile presented in recent days by a teacher, Ernesto Solari, to the press, which has almost always uncritically accepted the attribution of the artifact to the hand of the genius. An expert on Leonardo such as Martin Kemp has already taken sides against the attribution, and even we, from the first article, had harbored the suspicion that the tile is actually a late 19th or early 20th century work.

The hypothesis that it is a very recent tile is confirmed by two ceramic experts, Federico Malaventura, a majolica expert, expert witness for the court of Pesaro and collaborator with museums and private individuals, and Professor Ettore Sannipoli, one of the leading experts on Renaissance and modern Gubbio majolica and author of several publications in the field. “The work attributed to Leonardo,” Malaventura told us, “is actually not attributable to Leonardo, but to a ceramist born in 1901 in Gubbio, the painter Aldo Ajò, who would later die in the same city in 1982.” The tile, Malaventura continues, “can be attributed to the years 1920-1930, when Ajò was director of the SCU (Società Ceramica Umbra) factory of the Rubboli brothers in Gualdo Tadino.” The thesis, Malaventura informs us, is also fully supported by Sannipoli.

The major stylistic incongruities with a Renaissance work, Malaventura specifies, are “the cookie with which the tile is made, attributable precisely to the 1920s-1930s, of industrial production,” and again “the painting technique attributable precisely to Aldo Ajò, who used in the figures an airbrushed tone of the faces, the halo in relief in the most valuable works, and then the lustre, which in 1471 in Italy was yes known, but not effectively produced before 1490, in the kilns of Deruta and Gubbio, which made extensive use of it.” There is therefore a good chance, Malaventura and Sannipoli conclude, that the work is in the hand of Aldo Ajò. Certainly not Leonardo’s.

Other than Leonardo da Vinci: according to ceramic experts, the tile is a work of the 20th century, possibly by Aldo Ajò

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