Fingerprint may prove da Vinci painted disputed masterpiece
A fingerprint and stylistic touches uncovered during restoration of a disputed Renaissance masterpiece raises the possibility that it may have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
The master sometimes left his digital imprint on works as a kind of signature, restorers said in Rome today.
The Adoration of the Christ Child in Rome’s Galleria Borghese has for decades been attributed to Fra Bartolomeo, but scholars have never been confident of authorship. Through the centuries, candidates have included Raphael, Ghirlandaio and Lorenzo di Credi.
Chief restorer Elisabetta Zatti said she found the fingerprint toward the end of the year-long restoration that ended in November. That, along with stylistic similarities, made scholars think of Leonardo.
Photos of the Adoration, believed to have been painted in the late 15th Century or early 16th, will be flown to Krakow, Poland, to compare its fingerprint with the one on the Leonardo masterpiece Lady with an Ermine.
“Once it was restored, a kind of yellowish halo could be seen in the sky in the upper left,” Zatti said, describing the fingerprint she discovered on the painting.
The restoration, which ended in December, uncovered hitherto hidden details of the painting. They include typically Leonardesque symbolism like wild primrose, which represents resurrection, and the blue veronica flower, symbol of the eyes of the Virgin Mary.
Perhaps most strikingly, the restoration work revealed that the Virgin Mary had the large and somewhat masculine hands that are a hallmark of many female figures in Leonardo’s work.
Zatti said that if the fingerprint turns out to be Leonardo’s, the painting probably could be attributed to him.
“It’s difficult to imagine he would have left it on the painting of someone else,” she said.
