Scientists have announced that they may have extracted Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA from a Renaissance painting for the first time.
Trace DNA embedded in a red chalk sketch called “Saint Son”, which some claim was created by da Vinci, shows similarities to genetic material recovered from letters written in the 1400s by Frosino di ser Giovanni da Vinci, a cousin of Leonardo da Vinci’s grandfather Antonio da Vinci.
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Because Y-chromosome sequences are passed down almost unchanged from father to son, recovering these sequences is a “great starting point” for researchers who want to piece together Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA, Charlie Lee, a geneticist who heads the Jackson Institute for Genomic Medicine in Connecticut and was not involved in the study, told Science.
However, some experts do not believe that Leonardo da Vinci painted the “Saint” himself, but believe that one of his students drew a sketch.
As a result, whether the painting’s DNA is Da Vinci’s is “like a coin toss,” Lee said. The genetic material could belong to the students or to any number of curators with Tuscan roots who worked on the drawing over the years, Science reported.
Researchers want to reconstruct da Vinci’s DNA to make some of his art authentic. Some experts have suggested that the Italian polymath’s genetic material may reveal the biological reasons for his extraordinary artistic abilities and other abilities, such as better-than-normal eyesight.
But there are many hurdles along the way. As an example, da Vinci’s tomb in France was partially destroyed during the French Revolution, and his remains were lost, or at least mixed with other remains, during the move to a purported new burial site in Ambroise’s Chapel of Saint-Hubert.
But even though the tomb may contain the Renaissance polymath’s DNA-rich bones, researchers will not be granted access to sequence genetic material from the tomb until reliable comparative samples are found elsewhere.
This left scientists with little choice but to extract DNA from da Vinci’s artwork. This poses a challenge, as some works are off-limits and others, such as “Study of a Horse’s Front Leg,” have no trace of human DNA at all. “The Holy Child” is the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has ever been imbued with human DNA. However, its authorship is debated.
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Another problem is that da Vinci’s mother, Caterina di Meo Lippi, is buried in an unknown location. Katerina was a teenage servant when she gave birth to Leonardo. If found, her remains could match the mitochondrial DNA picture of the “Holy Child.” Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to child and is a type of DNA that is usually found in larger amounts in objects than DNA from chromosomes.
Scientists have also been denied access to Da Vinci’s father’s tomb in Florence, where they may have found Y-chromosome DNA matching the “Sacred Child.” And since da Vinci himself never married or had children, there are no known direct descendants.
One option left is to find other male relatives of da Vinci and compare the Y-chromosome sequences of the “sacred child.” Researchers are currently analyzing three bones recovered from the family vault in Italy, where Leonardo’s grandfather Antonio da Vinci is buried, and are also collecting DNA from known living descendants. The research team is also sequencing DNA from a strand of hair excavated at Ambroise in 1863 that may have come from Leonardo da Vinci’s beard, Science reported.
Finally, researchers are looking for letters and other documents written by male relatives that may contain the author’s DNA. The letter from Frosino di ser Giovanni da Vinci is one such relic. For the new study, scientists compared the DNA from the letters to about 90,000 known markers that divide Y chromosome sequences into lineages called haplogroups. The Y-chromosome DNA in the letter and the sketch of the Holy Child belongs to haplogroup E1b1b, to which Leonardo da Vinci and his extended family may have belonged.
Scientists gently wiped the paintings to extract DNA. The method could be useful for authenticating all kinds of artworks of uncertain provenance, experts told Science magazine.
Overall, the preprint is an “excellent paper” that uses “state-of-the-art” to reach its conclusions, evolutionary biologist S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University in Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study, told Science.
The study authors are currently working on the various clues available. Researchers say that aside from direct evidence from a lock of hair (if it really belonged to Leonardo da Vinci) and the polymath’s tomb, the most likely source of DNA lies in manuscripts and drawings that da Vinci is known to have written himself.
Scientists hope their paper will help persuade authorities and archivists to examine Leonardo da Vinci’s works more closely. For example, a 72-page observation notebook known as the “Leicester Manuscript” has fingerprints that are almost certainly Da Vinci’s, making it a strong candidate, Domenico Laurenza, an art historian at the University of Cagliari who was not involved in the study, told Science.
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