Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project Finds Male DNA on Holy Child Drawing: Implications for Art Authentication and Historical Insight

A Scientific American Science Quickly interview explores a decade-long Leonardo da Vinci DNA project that seeks to recover DNA from artworks, including a chalk drawing called Holy Child, to learn about Leonardo and to develop tools for authenticating artworks. The team, a multidisciplinary group of art historians, geneticists and environmental scientists, works with extremely small biomass and uses careful sampling strategies focused on the artwork’s corners to minimize damage. While any DNA found may not prove Leonardo’s personal genome, the research could inform provenance, historical movement of works, and future methods for authenticating art. The conversation also touches ethical considerations and governance for applying this technology to cultural artifacts.

Overview: The Leonardo da Vinci DNA project

In this Science Quickly episode, host Kendra Pierre Lewis speaks with Rhonda Roby, a forensic scientist and member of the Leonardo da Vinci DNA project. The discussion frames a large, interdisciplinary team—art historians, geneticists, environmental scientists, physicians and others—dedicated to uncovering what can be learned from Leonardo’s potential DNA and how this information might illuminate his genius and influence the authentication of artworks. The project has been evolving for over a decade, beginning with private collections and moving toward broader questions about how DNA recovered from art objects could contribute to provenance and the historical narrative around Leonardo’s drawings.

"This is a puzzle," - Rhonda Roby

Swabbing Holy Child: Methods and corner-case handling

The team describes meticulous handling of artworks, avoiding direct contact with fragile works and instead using photographs and corner-focused sampling to minimize damage. They experiment with sampling scales—from 1.2 millimeters to 2 millimeters and beyond—to understand how much material can be retrieved from tiny biomass. Techniques include a wet vacuum approach to collect material and the use of a photograph-based workflow to discuss sampling locations without handling the original drawing. The emphasis on corners aligns with art-handling best practices, as researchers acknowledge that the main image area may be more susceptible to damage while the periphery may retain trace DNA from handling.

"we focused a lot of our work on the corners of the areas of the artwork," - Rhonda Roby

Findings and Implications: DNA, provenance, and historical inquiry

Researchers explain that there is currently no identified material definitively proven to be Leonardo’s DNA, so the project aims to assemble evidence across approaches and samples to glean what can be learned about Leonardo and the artwork’s journey through history. A key idea is that the data could support new provenance frameworks, enabling comparisons across multiple works attributed to a master or era. Lessons extend beyond art authentication to broader questions about how drawings and paintings circulated over five centuries, and how environmental and microbial DNA found on artifacts might inform scholars about historical contexts and preservation needs. The host emphasizes that the goal extends beyond simply finding Leonardo’s DNA to understanding the drawing’s historical trajectory.

"the goal of these discoveries has not always been to just find Leonardo's DNA but to understand how that drawing moved through history" - Kendra Pierre Lewis

Technological Advances and Sampling Challenges

Over the years the project has refined sampling techniques, testing the boundaries of how lightly or aggressively to swab artworks to maximize DNA recovery while avoiding damage. The team has conducted controlled experiments with punched samples of different sizes and even employed wet-vacuum collection to capture DNA from the surface environment. The conversation highlights the broader context of genome science, including the assembly and interpretation of whole-genome data by bioinformaticians, and the reality that trace biomaterials on artwork may include human DNA as well as microbial constituents. The discussion also touches on the potential for building a database of art provenance information based on biome data to improve future authentication efforts. A representative sentiment is that this work represents first steps toward a more integrated, evidence-based approach to art history and conservation.

"the bigger the punch, the more material you're going to get" - Rhonda Roby

Ethics, Governance, and Future Directions

The interview addresses concerns about how this kind of data could be used, including the risk of misuse in attempts to advance eugenics or weaponization of genetic information. The researchers emphasize a commitment to responsible science and acknowledge that while there are broader societal concerns, they cannot allow potential misuse to stall the pursuit of knowledge. They describe the work as laying a foundation for future research and for developing a database-driven approach to provenance and authentication that could be refined as more data becomes available. A closing reflection considers the balance between scientific progress and ethical safeguards, with Roby expressing a hopeful stance that science, when responsibly used, can benefit society.

"I don't worry about that. I hope people use science to help us in this world" - Rhonda Roby

Closing thoughts and future steps

The episode closes with a sense that the Leonardo da Vinci DNA project is an ongoing, collaborative effort that blends art, archaeology, genetics and conservation science. The participants acknowledge the need for broader access to artworks and historical records to build a robust data foundation for future work in art authentication and provenance studies. The discussion ends on a note of curiosity about what will be learned next and how these methods might be applied to other works across history, while remaining mindful of ethical considerations and governance structures as the field evolves.

"This is a foundation that we can build upon and learn more, and that’s what I hope it’s about" - Rhonda Roby