Leonardo and forensics strike again

This time it is his fingerprints!

From CBC News:
A small picture of a young woman in profile owned by a Canadian collector may be a work by Leonardo da Vinci.

Art experts say there is strong evidence the picture is by Leonardo after finding a fingerprint on the Renaissance-era painting that matches another fingerprint found on his St Jerome in the Vatican.

The fingerprint was found by Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, through multispectral analysis, which detects images unseen by the naked eye.

The hairstyle and robe worn by the young woman in the ink and chalk image is consistent with Milanese fashion of the late 15th century, experts say. Carbon dating also suggests the painting dates from the late 1400s, when Leonardo would have been painting.

Art Access & Research has put out a press release to highlight the important work performed on this project by its Director of Forensic Studies, Peter Paul Biro.
Art Access & Research Leonardo press release (pdf, 100KB).

"Remote sensing" for Leonardo with neutron beams

The New York Times reported this week on the search for a masterpiece of Da Vinci, The Battle of Anghiari, that is presumably "buried" beneath other frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

One technique uses backscattered neutrons, the other uses emitted gamma rays in a version of neutron activation analysis.


An interview with Maurizio Seracini, the lead engineer, appeared in Wired.

There is also a scientific article out discussing preliminary tests:
Neutron back scattering for the search of the Battle of Anghiari