LEDBURY'S mysterious Renaissance 'Last Supper' painting in the parish church may have been worked on by several great masters of the Italian Renaissance, including Tintoretto.

Tintoretto, together with Veronese and Titian is one of the three giants of 16th century Venetian art, and the Ledbury painting may even contain a previously lost head by Tintoretto, based on his own features.

One Tintoretto painting, The Siege of Asola, sold at Christies in 2014 for £1,142,500, while his portrait of a man in armour sold at Sotheby's in 2013 for £110,500.

However, it seems that in the past the Ledbury painting, which has been hailed as "unique" by experts, narrowly escaped calls for it to be removed from St Michael and All Angels Church.

Art restorer, historian and lecturer, Ronald Moore, speaking at the restored painting's unveiling in the church on Monday (August 6) said: "Many thought the painting to have been of little value and little merit.

"When I first came here, someone said we really ought to get rid of it! But some thought differently."

In fact, four benefactors have paid for the restoration, and subsequent research has been an eye-opener.

Around two hundred people attended the lecture and grand unveiling in the church on Monday evening, August 6, to hear that the Venetian master Veronese had been more or less ruled out as the painter, despite stylistic similarities, partly because of the kind of canvas that was used.

But it may have been worked on by another major Venetian master, Tintoretto, and more substantially by the famous assistant of Titian, Polidoro da Lanciano.

Mr Moore, who studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art said: "The result is exciting. This work is totally unique. It is a completely lost, large scale Renaissance altar piece. This is a very rare occasion indeed. To find an altar piece like this, never seen before, is quite exceptional.

"This is the most complex detective story I've ever encountered."

Mr Moore revealed how the detective work, aided by researcher Patricia Kenny and Professor Alessandra Zamperini of Verona University, a renowned expert on Veronese, eventually focused in on Polidoro da Lanciano and his assistants as the likely source of the composition.

But other hands have been detected, in particular in the painting of some of the heads of the disciples, and it is here that the work of Tintoretto has been suspected.

Mr Moore said: "We have heads that are staggeringly good."

One head in particular was described as "absolutely stupendous in quality", and Mr Moore added: "Not many people could have painted it."

Mr Moore compared a known portrait of Tintoretto with the head of one of the disciples, to reveal facial similarities.

He believes that an ailing Polidoro, who died in 1565, close to the putative date of the composition, received help to get the painting up to scratch.

He said: "I feel Tintoretto came and helped his old friend. This is what I believe happened.

"I think this is lost Last Supper of Polidoro and friends."

And those friends included one other as yet unspecified "important painter", meaning there may be yet more revelations .

Mr Moore said: "Seven different artists worked on the picture, and some were incredibly good."

Light has been thrown on how the painting came to Ledbury.

It appears that the local grandee, John Skipp, probably brought the painting back to Upper Hall during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

In 1908, it was donated to the church.

The new discoveries raise questions about the value of the painting, its security and its insurance.

Art historian and researcher, Patricia Kenny declined to speculate on its likely value when asked, following Mr Moore's lecture.