A missing picture of Titian has been found in the UK. The canvas depicting "The Last Supper," which hung on the wall of a temple in the city of Ledbury for 110 years, may have belonged to the great Italian artist Titian. The art researcher and restorer Ronald Moore made the statement.
According to British media, the restorer arrived in Ledbury to restore a 19th-century copy of the famous "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. Suddenly, in the far corner of the church, he found a faded but much more valuable painting.
"The picture hung at the height of about three meters. It was impossible to see it without climbing the stairs," Moore said of the discovery.
The restorer took more than three years to study the canvas. As a result, he found evidence that the discovery was a work of art from the 16th century, and it was created in the studio of one of the greatest representatives of the late Renaissance, Titian.
Painting of the Last Supper that has hung in a parish church in Herefordshire for 110 years 'may be a lost work by Titian' https://t.co/TxDvwzLMjO
— Daily Mail U.K. (@DailyMailUK) March 1, 2021
The art critic noticed on the canvas that the face of one of the apostles, sitting in the left corner of the table in a golden cloak, resembles a portrait of Titian in his youth. This theory was proved by a computer program comparing a 1567 self-portrait of an artist on the canvas. Another piece of evidence was the artist's signature, which appeared after the thin layer was removed from the painting.
The restorer also found a letter from the former owner of the canvas, collector John Skipp, dated 1775. The text of the document states that he bought a "relatively well-preserved work of Titian" from a convent in Venice.
