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Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest geniuses in history, with skills and inventions well ahead of his time. On many occasions his work was shrouded in mystery, hiding secrets invisible at first glance. Now a new study has found another, linked to bacteria and fungi.
In search of secrets hidden in Da Vinci’s work, a team of Austrian and Italian researchers decided to study what was beyond the naked eye in seven of Leonardo’s best-known drawings. They weren’t looking for hidden sketches or anything like that: they were looking for the microbiome.
A microbiome is essentially a collection of microorganisms that share the same habitat. They are not visible to the naked eye and advanced technology is needed to try to understand how and why they coexist. Looking for things hidden in Leonardo’s work, the researchers came across very nusual types of microbiome.
Five of these drawings are currently kept in the Royal Library in Turin: Self-portrait, Nudes for the battle of Anghiari, Studies of the front legs of a horse, Studies of insects and study of manly legs. The last two are kept in the Corsican library in Rome: Man of the Bitta and Study of Drapery for a Kneeling Figure.
By analyzing the seven drawings, the researchers found that each’s microbiome was unique enough that they were able to identify each of the works only by their distinctive microorganisms – you can’t tell a book by its cover, but you can. tell a work of art by its microbes.
That’s not to say that the microbiomes were entirely different, they were still similar in many ways, but each had a distinctive touch..
The results can help researchers locate places where the drawing was made, as well as places it passed through throughout its life, such as warehouses, restorers or art dealers. This is very valuable information: the microbiome has a story to tell and if you read it carefully, you can even use it to detect fraud.
The researchers used a tool called Nanopore, a genetic sequencing method that quickly breaks down and analyzes genetic material, to make a detailed study of different biological materials. They had studied microbiomes in the past to determine how the statues recovered from the smugglers were stored.
In the case of Da Vinci’s drawings, they believe that most of the human DNA discovered comes from people who were responsible for the restoration and maintenance of their 15th-century works. They also confirmed that all of the drawings were original works by Leonardo and found a high concentration of bacteria compared to fungi.
In previous studies, they had been able to confirm that fungi tended to dominate microbiomes, but in this case, it was absolutely the opposite. They believe they came from both humans and insects, which is likely related to how the works were stored, especially after Leonardo’s death.
“Overall, the insects, restaurateurs and geographic location all seem to have left an invisible trail on the drawings,” the researchers said in a statement. “[But] it is difficult to say if any of these contaminants originate from the time when Leonardo da Vinci was sketching his drawings.
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
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