Ginevra's Story

• Genre: Visual Arts
• Release Year: 1999
• Run Time: 57 minutes

Plot

Leonardo da Vinci painted only three portraits of women, and only one of those has a place in the Western Hemisphere. Ginevra de Benci, by Leonardo da Vinci, is perhaps the most prized painting in the National Gallery of Art collection. In this documentary, narrated by actress Meryl Streep, the viewer goes to Washington, D.C., to the National Gallery's painting conservation laboratory to try to solve some of the questions that surround the painting Genevra. Who was the model for the picture? Why are both sides of the canvas painted? Why does one part of the painting appear to be missing? Why was the painting sealed in a wine cellar? X-ray analysis and infrared reflectography are employed to look below the surface to find an underdrawing. Computer technology enables the missing part of the painting to be reconstructed. Art history and detective story are joined in this documentary. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide

Cast

Meryl Streep - Narrator