An Inside Job

The lost Leonardo is a painting within a painting that symbolizes the need to look beneath the surface to find the truth. It relates to the theme of The Deceptive Nature of Appearances. Superficially, there is nothing special about a Madonna-and-child painting by an anonymous Renaissance artist. It isn’t until Penny Radcliff begins removing layers of surface paint that she discovers the masterpiece beneath. Even after she exposes a brush technique and a model’s face that are both associated with Leonardo da Vinci, nobody believes her. This symbolizes the gap between appearance and reality when it comes to expertise. If Penny were a celebrated art critic or historian, others might be more inclined to believe her.

The face in the painting weaves together the threads of the plot. When Penny’s is discovered, her face has been damaged beyond recognition. Ironically, it is the face in the painting that convinces her it is a lost Leonardo. Gabriel becomes involved in the case when he is tasked with reconstructing Penny’s face for identification purposes. When he sees her in the morgue, she appears to be “A woman without a name. A woman without a face” (25). Because Gabriel never settles for superficial appearances any more than Penny did, he soon gets to the deeper truth of the faceless, nameless woman in the canal, and this will lead him to the truth of the lost Leonardo.