Overview
- An international team gently swabbed a red-chalk drawing of a child’s head, attributed by some to Leonardo da Vinci, and recovered highly fragmented human DNA.
- Y‑chromosome fragments from the drawing were assigned to a lineage common in the Mediterranean and Tuscany.
- Those markers matched overarching Y‑lineage signals recovered from 15th‑century letters linked to a da Vinci relative, suggesting a Tuscan male‑line connection.
- The authors and independent experts stress that contamination and centuries of handling prevent any firm identification, and the findings are reported in a non–peer‑reviewed preprint.
- Project plans include testing living male‑line relatives, studying bones recovered in a church in Vinci that could belong to kin, and requesting non‑destructive sampling of privately held works.