Leonardo Da Vinci’s Art May Be Hiding a Secret: His Own DNA
Though human beings remain mortal (for now) and will each, in their own time, shuffle off this earthly plane, some of those fortunate few imbued with the talent and skill to create art will leave a part themselves behind in their work for centuries to come.
By that, of course, we mean actual traces of their DNA. At least, if you believe the theory put forth in a recent paper.
Members of a group branding themselves the da Vinci DNA Project believe that they have found traces of the legendary artist and Renaissance Man Leonardo da Vinci on a chalk drawing attributed to him, as well as on a letter believed to be written by one of his cousins. If they’re right, this could mark a huge step in the effort to map Leonardo’s genome, something the da Vinci DNA Project has sought to do in order to identify the artist’s purported gravesite and confirm the authorship of some unsigned works.
But there’s still a chance they’re wrong about this DNA belonging to Leonardo at all. As others have pointed out, this particular scenario features a good deal of “ifs” that still need to be addressed.
Leonardo da Vinci famously painted with his fingers as much as his brushes, significantly increasing the likelihood that his own organic material remains embedded within his masterpieces. With a simple, standard swab—similar to those used for modern DNA kits or medical tests—a sample of the artist’s genetic code could theoretically be extracted directly from the surface of his canvases.
Rather than risk smuggling a cotton swab into the Louvre or Santa Maria delle Grazie to get at some of Leonardo da Vinci’s more famous works, the Project instead swabbed a chalk drawing referred to as “Holy Child,” believed to have been composed some time between 1472 and 1476. However, using “Holy Child” as the source has caused those skeptical of the endeavor some degree of concern.
The five-by-four-inch chalk drawing of a child’s head was originally attributed to the artist Annibale Carracci when it went up for auction in the 2000s. However, art dealer and historian Fred Kline acquired the piece based on the conviction—as detailed in his subsequent book—that the work’s distinct left-handed hatching identified it as a genuine Leonardo da Vinci. While Kline remains steadfast in his assessment, other experts have disputed this conclusion, suggesting it is more likely the work of one of Leonardo’s talented students.
The Project team sequenced the Y-chromosomes in the DNA extracted both from the “Holy Child” drawing, as well as that extracted from the aforementioned letter believed to be written by the artist’s cousin, Frosino di ser Giovanni da Vinci. Relying on the Y-chromosome is crucial in this case, as Leonardo da Vinci had no direct descendants. He was also, as Biography notes, “born out of wedlock to respected Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman named Caterina,” so any connections that could be made would be through the paternal lineage.
The Project confirmed that the two samples share a common ancestor in Tuscany, the ancestral heartland of Leonardo da Vinci. While this finding is a significant starting point, it remains far from conclusive. Interestingly, human genetic material was not the only discovery; the analysis also revealed a complex ‘microbial map’ consisting of fungi, bacteria, plants, and viruses that have accumulated on the surface of the sketch over the centuries.
So, even if the DNA found on this artwork was not Leonardo da Vinci’s, the myriad of DNA samples on the art taken in totality do themselves paint an organic portrait of what a Renaissance artwork encountered in its centuries-long journey to appear before our modern eyes.
Source: popularmechanics.com
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Leonardo Da Vinci’s Art May Be Hiding a Secret: His Own DNA