The Hunt for Da Vinci's Descendants

The face of Leonardo Da Vinci has always been a mystery, with experts never totally certain what Leonardo looked like.

Now research into Da Vinci’s family tree has revealed an amazing resemblance between one of the descendants of the Renaissance genius and the amiable old man depicted in the famous red chalk drawing kept in Turin's Royal Library, which is the only work largely agreed to be a self-portrait by da Vinci.

“It is certainly a surprising likeness, but we are not drawing any conclusion from it,” Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, where the artist was born on April 15, 1452, told Discovery News.

Last month, Vezzosi and historian Agnese Sabato presented the results of a decades-long genealogical study into Leonardo’s family at a crowded conference in Vinci. Their findings will be published later this week in the journal Human Evolution.

At the conference, Vezzosi and Sabato announced the existence of 35 living relatives of Leonardo Da Vinci, with some of them attending the event. The descendants come from Leonardo’s father, a Florentine legal notary named Ser Piero Da Vinci.

“They have grown into 41 by now,” Sabato told Discovery News.

It was believed that no traces were left of the painter, engineer, mathematician, philosopher and naturalist. The remains of Leonardo, who died in 1519 in Amboise, France, were dispersed before the 19th century. However, around 1863, a skeleton claimed to be Da Vinci’s was buried in a chapel of the Amboise Castle.

To reconstruct Da Vinci’s family tree, Sabato and Vezzosi had to rely on documents such as parish records, contracts, manuscripts, historical maps and other archival data.

We know from a document written by Antonio, Leonardo’s grandfather, that Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 “at 3 o'clock at night.”

In another document Antonio also stated that five-year old Leonardo was the illegitimate son of Ser Piero and “Chaterina, who at present is the wife of Achattabriga di Piero del Vaccha da Vinci.”

Leonardo’s illegitimate status and his complex family of four step-mothers and 21 or even 24 half-brothers and half sisters made it rather difficult to update the official Da Vinci family tree.

Vezzosi and Sabato had to deal with repeating names and confusing surnames. Indeed, Da Vinci had become a surname while “da Vinci” simply meant “from Vinci.”

“We know the surname Da Vinci was kept at least until 1803, since we have found it in the tomb of Ser Anton Giuseppe, an important descendant,” Sabato said.

“The surname Da Vinci was then simplified to Vinci,” she added.

During their research Vezzosi and Sabato made some intriguing findings. They found more details on Lucia, Leonardo’s paternal grandmother. Her family owned a kiln for artistic ceramic ware at Toia di Bacchereto, near Carmignano in the Vinci surroundings. The kiln was then owned by Ser Piero, Leonardo’s father.

“It is more than likely that Leonardo began his artistic activity between the age of 8 and 10, not only in Florence, but also at the family kiln,” Vezzosi said.

The researchers also shed some light on the mysterious figure of Caterina, Leonardo’s mother.

It was known that she lived with her husband Accattabriga in the village of San Pantaleo near Vinci. The most likely reconstruction identifies her as a female slave coming from the Middle East. It is believed she moved to Milan in 1493 to stay with Leonardo and that she died there.

Caterina and Accattabriga had five children. The only male, Francesco, died at 26 “killed by a springald in Pisa." Little is known of Piera, Maria, Lisabetta and Sandra, Leonardo’s half-sisters.

“We know that Lisabetta had three daughters and now we are investigating her genealogy,” Vezzosi said.

Finding Caterina’s descendants would be crucial to possibly retrieving mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through the maternal line.

The most interesting branch of the Da Vinci’s family tree turned out to be connected to one of Ser Piero’s sons -- Domenico Matteo, who was born in 1483 from Ser Piero’s third wife.

From there, Vezzosi and Sabato were able to trace a direct and uninterrupted line up to today’s living descendants.

Dina, who appears to bear a striking resemblance to Leonardo’s self-portrait, was indeed a descendant of Leonardo’s half-brother Domenico Matteo.

“Her son Giovanni has helped us out finding important connections,” Vezzosi said.

He noted that their research added more than 150 names to the Da Vinci’s tree.

Read more at Discovery News