Title: Portrait of a Young Fiancée
Description: Portrait of a Young Fiancée, also called La Bella Principessa (English: "The Beautiful Princess"), is a portrait in coloured chalks and ink, on vellum, of a young lady in fashionable costume and hairstyle of a Milanese of the 1490s. Sold at auction in 1998 as an early 19th-century German work, some experts have since attributed it to Leonardo da Vinci. In 2010 one of those experts, Martin Kemp, made it the subject of his book La Bella Principessa: The Story of the New Masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. Evidence discovered in 2011 accounting for its provenance has strengthened the case for it being by Leonardo; the sheet appears to have been cut from a Milanese book of which the remainder has long been in Warsaw, which comes from the mileu of Francesco Sforza, Leonardo's employer. The attribution to Leonardo da Vinci has been disputed. Most of those who disagree with the attribution to Leonardo believe the portrait is by an early 19th-century German artist imitating the style of the Italian Renaissance, although recent radiocarbon dating tests show a much earlier date for the vellum. The current owner purchased the portrait in 2007.
Author(s): Leonardo da Vinci