Scientists uncover portrait of the artist Leonardo as a young man

[depakid]

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

T SOUNDS like a plot from a Dan Brown thriller but Italian researchers believe they have discovered a previously unknown self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci drawn when the artist was a young man. The delicate pencil sketch has emerged after being hidden for 500 years in one of the Renaissance genius's most famous manuscripts, Codex On The Flight of Birds, written between 1490 and 1505.

An Italian scientific journalist who was studying the document noticed, concealed by lines of bold ink handwriting, the faint outline of a nose which struck him as being similar in shape and drawing style to a later self-portrait of Leonardo.

Piero Angela enlisted the help of art historians, Carabinieri police forensic experts and graphic artists to tease out more detail from the ghostly image. Over months of micro-pixel work, graphic designers gradually "removed" the text by making it white instead of black, revealing the drawing beneath. What emerged was the face of a young- to middle-aged man with long hair, a short beard and a pensive gaze.

Angela was struck by similarities to a famous self-portrait of Leonardo, made when the artist was an old man about 1512. The portrait, in red chalk, is kept in Turin's Biblioteca Reale.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/scientists-uncover-portrait-of-the-artist-leonardo-as-a-young-man-20090301-8lim.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Cool. Too bad they didn't include a pic.

[depakid]

2. Here ya go:

Doesn't look much like Mona Lisa- maybe we can put that speculation to rest

[nakanishi oshi]

3. Wait a sec. I thought it was this one

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/4884789/Leonardo-da-Vinci-self-portrait-discovered-hidden-in-manuscript.html

[BlooInBloo]

4. Heh. Looks very similar to mona lisa to me. But whatever - cool.

[MichaelHarris]

7. everyone back them

looked like Jesus. Or was it Jesus looked like everyone else? I get confused.

[Yavin4]

8. Their Paintings of Jesus Was Based On How They Looked

Not Jesus. More than likely Jesus had an Afro.

[depakid]

5. oops- that's apparently not the one

[The abyss]

6. Cool! I love stuff like this. Thanks for posting!