Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy Won't Be Found In His DNA | Defector

Researchers with the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project swabbed a red-chalk drawing of the pouting baby Jesus and recovered mixed DNA including fungal, viral, vegetal, bacterial, and human sequences. The drawing shows left-handed hatching consistent with Leonardo's technique, though some experts attribute it to a student. Botanical traces included sweet orange, a species cultivated in Medici gardens, suggesting historical provenance links. The team published a preprint and ruled out a modern art dealer as a DNA source, but the human material could derive from any handler, so definitive attribution to Leonardo remains unproven.

"This week researchers from the Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project announced they have made the kind of breakthrough you might expect from a project with that name: They have potentially identified Leonardo da Vinci's DNA. The announcement ran exclusively in on Jan. 6 under the (excellent) headline "The Real da Vinci Code" and the researchers have published a preprint, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, about the newly collected DNA."

"Many experts say the drawing is the work of Leonardo, as it has his characteristic left-handed hatching. Others are uncertain, suggesting one of his students could have created the work. According to the preprint, the swab collected a potpourri of DNA: fungal, viral, vegetal, and bacterial, in addition to human. Specifically, the drawing contained traces of the sweet orange tree, which was cultivated in the gardens of the Medici family, a key patron of the artist."

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