Leonardo da Vinci's DNA

Popular Archaeology ^ | Vol. 22 Spring 2016 | editors

[SunkenCiv]

Born in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo died in 1519, age 67, and was buried in Amboise, southwest of Paris. His creative imagination foresaw and described innovations hundreds of years before their invention, such as the helicopter and armored tank. His artistic legacy includes the iconic Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

The idea behind the Project, founded in 2014, has inspired and united anthropologists, art historians, genealogists, microbiologists, and other experts from leading universities and institutes in France, Italy, Spain, Canada and the USA, including specialists from the J. Craig Venter Institute of California, which pioneered the sequencing of the human genome.

The work underway resembles in complexity recent projects such as the successful search for the tomb of historic author Miguel de Cervantes and, in March 2015, the identification of England's King Richard III from remains exhumed from beneath a UK parking lot, fittingly re-interred 500 years after his death.

Like Richard, Leonardo was born in 1452, and was buried in a setting that underwent changes in subsequent years such that the exact location of the grave was lost.

If DNA and other analyses yield a definitive identification, conventional and computerized techniques might reconstruct the face of Leonardo from models of the skull."

In addition to Leonardo's physical appearance, information potentially revealed from the work includes his ancestry and additional insight into his diet, state of health, personal habits, and places of residence.

[SunkenCiv]

"Vitruvian Man", by Leonardo da Vinci. This work done by the artist is used to illustrate the cover of the special issue of Human Evolution that features the Leonardo Project. Wikimedia Commons

[Jeff Chandler]

the iconic Mona Lisa

My favorite interpretation is that of Rick Meyerowitz:

.

Mona Gorilla

[Salamander]

Mona Lizard

[miss marmelstein]

The finding of Richard has led to this kind of finding frenzy. We already know what Leonardo looked like. We have many very good cartoons and paintings of him - he was a model as a youth, after all, and drew himself on occasion.

[SunkenCiv]

[Neoliberalnot]

That was a fascinating time that also spawned Michealangelo Buonarotti, another brilliant sculptor, architect, and painter of the Sistine Chapel, and chief architect of St. Peter’s Church. The Italians produced some brilliant people just as much of Europe.

[wideminded]

"In the normal course of events many men and women are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace, and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, and indeed everything he does clearly come from God rather than from human art."

"Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty who displayed infinite grace in everything he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease. He possessed great strength and dexterity; he was a man of regal spirit and tremendous breadth of mind ..."

- Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists

[Rum Tum Tugger]

The idea behind the Project, founded in 2014, has inspired and united anthropologists, art historians, genealogists, microbiologists, and other experts from leading universities and institutes in France, Italy, Spain, Canada and the USA, including specialists from the J. Craig Venter Institute of California, which pioneered the sequencing of the human genome.

Can there be any doubt that the Project will conclude that Leonardo was a transgender, African Jew?

[shibumi]

In her amorous moments also known as “Moaning Lizard.”

[Vermont Lt]

No, not Jewish. Haven’t you been paying attention to the Religion of Peace propaganda? Ha ha.

[shibumi]

Being Jewish is out of step with the Liberal Zeitgeist.

He’ll have to be a Bi-Racial Transgender Palestinian whose father was from Kenya and whose mother was dispossessed by an Israeli settlement.

[chesley]

I have read that da Vinci, and Newton for that matter, possibly had Jewish ancestry. Don’t know, of course, and don’t care either way.

[left that other site]

Nah...he and his cohorts were dead white european males, and hence, of no consequence whatsoever.

/s (Of Course)

[Jeff Chandler]

I have to admit Mona Lizard has the advantage of its title being very similar to the original, guiding one down a predictable path before diverting with a whimsical twist, but I feel the inclusion of the banana in hand of the Mona Gorilla distinguishes it from the competition. It is a subtle, yet poignant touch.

[Jeff Chandler]

"In the normal course of events many men and women are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by heaven with beauty, grace, and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, and indeed everything he does clearly come from God rather than from human art."

You flatter me.

[wideminded]

You flatter me.

Ha ha. BTW that quote comes from a book that was published in 1550.

[wideminded]

Can there be any doubt that the Project will conclude that Leonardo was a transgender, African Jew?

Leonardo Da Vinci may have been an Arab

"Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute." - Wikipedia

So there is evidence that he was a gay Arab rather than a transgender African Jew.

[Larry Lucido]

Born in Vinci,

I knew that! :-)

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[FredZarguna]

He was so far ahead of his time that he predicted there would be no cure for the Summertime Blues over five centuries before Pete Townshend (or even Eddie Cochran.)

Check it out: