While the face of the Mona Lisa is famous the world over, the face of its painter Leonardo da Vinci is a mystery. But that all could change as a group of scientists are attempting to trace the artist and inventor’s DNA.
Researchers hope they will be able to reconstruct the face from genetic materials – such as hairs within a painting – while bones could allow researchers to reconstruct the face of the Italian polymath
Advanced techniques which allow facial reconstruction from DNA – by using genetics to uncover details such as eye colour, hair colour, skin tone and facial shape – will be used to uncover the artist’s features.
The researchers also hope to gain insights into da Vinci’s diet, state of health, personal habits, and places of residence.
An international team including scientists and historians will analyse evidence from paintings, drawings and notebooks touched by the famous Italian polymath.
The researchers – who outline their plans in the journal Human Evolution – are also seeking permission to look for DNA traces in dust from the painting Adoration of the Magi, currently undergoing restoration in Florence.
Their aim is to finish the work in 2019, to mark the 500th anniversary of da Vinci’s death.
Brunetto Chiarelli, from the International Institute for Humankind Studies at the University of Florence, who is the editor of Human Evolution, said: ‘Matching Leonardo’s DNA to that of his family presents puzzles that are minutely specific to their history and circumstances, but the tools the investigators use are generic and broadly applicable.
‘We stand to gain not only greater historical knowledge of Leonardo but possibly a reconstruction of his genetic profile, which could provide insights into other individuals with remarkable qualities.’
He said that if DNA and other analyses yield a definitive identification, conventional and computerised techniques might reconstruct the face of Leonardo from models of the skull.
Born just outside Florence on April 15 1452, Leonardo da Vinci possessed a natural genius that encompassed art, engineering, architecture and biology.
Two of his paintings, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are possibly the most famous and admired works of art in the world.
His notebooks contained detailed designs for inventions that were centuries ahead of his time, including a bicycle, parachute, helicopter, military tank and paddle-boat.
Scientists from the J Craig Venter Institute in the US and the University of Florence are currently examining privately owned paintings from da Vinci’s era to develop techniques for DNA extraction and analysis.
Other institutions participating in the Leonardo Project include the Institut de Paleontologie Humaine in Paris, France, The Rockefeller University in New York City and the Laboratory of Genetic Identification at the University of Grenada, Spain.
This week the participating experts met at the headquarters of the Tuscan Regional Council in Florence.
Daily Mail
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