These are portraits of St John the Evangelist and St James, seated to the left of Jesus Christ in the famous fresco in Milan, which once belonged to the 19th-century Dutch king William II.
They are extremely rare
The works are part of Sotheby's auction, to be held in London on 6 July, and are attributed to the assistant of the great Italian painter Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio.
They are made to the actual size of the figures in the painting and each is estimated to be worth 146.500 dollars while experts say they could sell for a much higher price.
At the same time, they describe them as "extremely rare" as they are large-scale portraits, and say they are not sure why they were created.
St. John
"They are part of a series of 11 similar works. The collection once belonged to the famous English painter Thomas Lawrence, as well as to William II, King of the Netherlands, before being divided up and passed to various museums, galleries and private individuals. In 2005, the two works were sold separately at Christie's for $96,000 for St. John and $57,600 for St. James. Since then, there has been nothing like it on the market," Christiana Romali, a specialist in old master drawings at Sotheby's, told CNN.
And she explained: "They're large enough to be on paper and that makes them very impressive. And the pastel colours, it's not something you see very often. Leonardo introduced the use of coloured chalk in Italy, but it's something that came from France. The works attributed to Boltraffio are unusual for their size and use of color."
St. James
Da Vinci's only surviving fresco
The Last Supper is one of the best and most widely recognized works of the Renaissance. The fresco was created by Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century (between 1495 and 1498) and is located in Milan, Italy, in the dining room of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace).
The work was commissioned by Duke Louis Sforza and is Da Vinci's largest work and the only surviving fresco.
It depicts Jesus at the moment when he announces that one of his 12 disciples will betray him, capturing the expressive reactions of his most ardent followers. The Italian painter pointed out the culprit, Judas, by painting his face in shadow.
The iconic painting survived wars, vandalism and the identity crisis of its creator. Never before has an artist dramatized a scene with such realistic elements and details.
When King Louis XV of France invaded Milan in 1499, he tried to cut the fresco down and take it home, but he was too late.
Subsequently, due to humidity and flaking, the fresco was considered completely destroyed around the mid-16th century.
In 1796, the French came back. Troops of the revolutionary French Army used the site as a base, vandalized the work and even tried to remove the eyes of the Apostles.
Some years later the church was also used as a prison and in an attempt to shore up the wall, workers nearly broke the fresco.
On August 15, 1943, when Allied forces bombed it while the rest of the church was badly damaged, the "Last Supper" was miraculously saved.
According to Sotheby's, early copies by Leonardo da Vinci's assistants "provide a valuable indication of what the masterpiece must have looked like originally."
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