The REAL da Vinci code

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.