Scientists have successfully recovered what may be Leonardo da Vinci's DNA from a centuries-old red chalk drawing, marking a breakthrough that could unlock secrets about one of history's greatest minds. The discovery, published in a bioRxiv preprint, represents the culmination of a decade-long international effort to identify the Renaissance master's genetic signature. If verified, the DNA could not only authenticate disputed artworks but potentially reveal biological traits underlying da Vinci's extraordinary genius - particularly his seemingly superhuman ability to perceive motion and light with remarkable precision.
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The Holy Child Drawing Yields Genetic Clues
In April 2024, microbial geneticist Norberto Gonzalez-Juarbe carefully swabbed a private New York drawing known as Holy Child using COVID-19-style test swabs. The red chalk sketch, attributed to da Vinci's circle but of disputed authorship, features the characteristic left-handed hatching and sfumato technique associated with Leonardo da Vinci. According to Science magazine, the team recovered abundant human DNA, especially from the back of the drawing, along with DNA from sweet orange trees cultivated in Medici gardens during the Renaissance - an environmental fingerprint suggesting authenticity.
Image of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Holy Child’, from the book ‘Leonardo’s Holy Child’ by Fred R. Kline.
The Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project, an international collective of more than three dozen scientists, compared Y chromosome sequences from Holy Child with DNA extracted from 15th-century letters written by Frosino di ser Giovanni da Vinci, Leonardo's grandfather's cousin. Both samples belonged to haplogroup E1b1b, a genetic lineage found in Tuscany where Leonardo was born in 1452. While this convergence is promising, scientists caution it falls short of definitive proof. "Establishing unequivocal identity is extremely complex," noted David Caramelli, an anthropologist at the University of Florence.
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Forensic biologist Rhonda Roby (center) swabs Holy Child, a 16th century red chalk sketch perhaps created by Leonardo da Vinci, for DNA in April 2024. (Marguerite Mangin)
Tracing the Da Vinci Family Line
The challenge facing researchers stems from the absence of any verified DNA samples from Leonardo himself. He died in 1519 and was buried at the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in Amboise, France, but his burial site was disturbed in the early 19th century. Leonardo had no direct descendants, complicating genetic verification efforts. To overcome this obstacle, genealogists Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato spent years reconstructing Leonardo's paternal lineage through parish registers, wills, and deeds spanning 21 generations. They identified 14 living male descendants of Leonardo's father, Ser Piero da Vinci, whose Y chromosome DNA will be sequenced for comparison.
Meanwhile, archaeologist Alessandro Riga led an excavation at the church of Santa Croce in Vinci, where Leonardo's grandfather Antonio and other relatives were buried. On the first day of digging in April 2024, the team discovered a brick-lined vault containing bones from five or six individuals. One well-preserved petrous temporal bone dated to between 1421 and 1457, precisely when Antonio lived. DNA analysis confirmed the individual was male, and further sequencing will compare Y chromosome markers with those of living relatives. "It reminded me of a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," Riga recalled, of breaking through church tiles to reveal the hidden vault.
The famous Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. (Public Domain)
Could DNA Explain Da Vinci's Genius?
Beyond authentication, scientists hope Leonardo's DNA might reveal biological foundations for his remarkable abilities. His notebooks contain extraordinarily detailed sketches of water flow, showing transient eddies and vortices that flicker past in fractions of a second. When researchers at the University of Bologna recreated flow patterns around a pier depicted in Leonardo's sketches using high-speed cameras, they found his drawings matched phenomena occurring at roughly 100 frames per second—far exceeding normal human perception of 30 to 60 frames per second. "Leonardo was detailing snapshots of phenomena that most of us do not perceive as discrete events," explained geneticist David Thaler of the University of Basel.
Potential genetic candidates include variants in KCNB1 and KCNV2 genes, which code for potassium channel proteins in the retina that affect visual processing speed. However, these genes lie outside the Y chromosome, meaning definitive answers would require Leonardo's complete genome—perhaps from his bones, a lock of hair that surfaced in 2019, or from notebooks rich in his genetic material. The project has opened discussions to sample the Codex Atlanticus held in the Institute of France, the Codex Leicester purchased by Bill Gates in 1994, and the Madrid Codices in the Spanish National Library. Some scholars resist attributing Leonardo's abilities purely to genetics. "I tend to explain Leonardo more as the result of a favorable cultural and economic context," said art historian Domenico Laurenza of the University of Cagliari.
Nevertheless, the emerging field of "arteomics" promises to transform art authentication by supplementing expert opinion with biological evidence. "It's well known that Leonardo used his fingers along with his brushes while painting," noted Jesse Ausubel, the project's chair, "so it could be possible to find cells of epidermis mixed with the colors." As the Leonardo DNA Project continues its work, the intersection of genetics and art history may finally illuminate the biological underpinnings of one of humanity's most extraordinary minds.
Top image: Artist Karina Åberg swabs a 14th century da Vinci family letter from the State Archive in Prato for biological clues, following research initiated by Rossella Lorenzi. Source: Paola Agazzi / Archivio di Stato di Prato / Italian Ministry of Culture
By Gary Manners
References
Caramelli, D. et al. 2026. Biological signatures of history: Examination of composite biomes and Y chromosome analysis from da Vinci-associated cultural artifacts. Available at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697880v1
Gonzalez-Juarbe, N. 2026. Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project findings. Daily Mail. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15441209/Scientists-recover-Leonardo-da-Vinci-DNA.html
Stone, R. 2026. Have scientists found Leonardo da Vinci's DNA? Science. Available at: https://www.science.org/content/article/have-scientists-found-leonardo-da-vinci-s-dna
Singh, H et al. 2026. Leonardo’s Art Still Carries a Biological Record of Its History, Study Shows. Available at: https://theleonardodnaproject.org/category/news/
