Beautiful Princess, the controversial drawing attributed to Leonardo, goes on display in Kazakhstan

One of the most talked about works of art in recent years, the Beautiful Princess attributed by some scholars to Leonardo da Vinci, is about to be exhibited in Kazakhstan. This exhibition, scheduled to run from June 7 to August 4, 2024 at the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana, was made possible through the initiative of the Embassy of Italy in Astana, with support from Forte Bank, Mastercard, the publisher Scripta Maneant, the Italian Cultural Institute, and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The exhibition will be held

The Beautiful Princess is a portrait of a young Italian noblewoman: first appearing on the market in 1998, with attribution to an unknown 19th-century artist, it was purchased for just over $21,000, before sparking a heated attribution debate (those who have lined up in favor of an attribution to Leonardo da Vinci include Martin Kemp, one of the leading scholars of the Tuscan artist, while those against include Pietro C. Marani). According to those in favor of authorship, it would be a drawing from the Warsaw Codex of the Sforziad, recognized as the profile of Bianca Giovanna Sforza, daughter of Ludovico il Moro and wife of Galeazzo Sanseverino, captain of Ludovico il Moro’s armies. It would be Leonardo’s only work on parchment.

Previously, the painting has been exhibited only five times in the world, always attracting immense interest from critics and the public: in Gothenburg, at the Eriksbergshallen, in 2010, then in Urbino, at the Palazzo Ducale, in 2015, in Monza, at the Villa Reale, also in 2015, in Lugano, at the Palazzo Civico, again in 2015, and in Nanjing (China), at the Nanjing Museum, in 2019. At the Astana exhibition, the work is presented as autograph.

Beautiful Princess, the controversial drawing attributed to Leonardo, goes on display in Kazakhstan

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