Feb. 20, 2009 -- Leonardo da Vinci had long blond hair and piercing blue eyes, according to a portrait that has come to light in southern Italy.
Showing the Renaissance master in a three-quarter profile and wearing a hat, the slightly damaged oil painting on wood was discovered by a medieval historian in the private collection of an aristocratic family from Acerenza, a hill town near Potenza in Basilicata.
"The link with Acerenza is not so unusual. We know that Leonardo visited this remote region. We know that a powerful Florentine family, the Segnis, lived in Acerenza around the 16th century. Leonardo had a close friendship with this family, and even gave them one of his drawings as a gift," medieval historian Nicola Barbatelli told Discovery News.
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The 60- by 44-centimeter (23.6- by 17-inch) portrait doesn't show any sign of preparatory drawing, which indicates that it was made by an expert hand.
"Moreover, the back of the painting has revealed an inscription written in the typical Leonardo's reverse handwriting which reads 'Pinxit mea,' basically hinting to a self-portrait," Barbatelli said.
Experts are now investigating whether the painting really dates to Leonardo's time. In the past, several portraits have been hailed as Leonardo self-portraits -- all resulting in wrong attributions.
The most famous example is a portrait at the Uffizi gallery in Florence. For more than two centuries, it was celebrated as a self-portrait by the Florentine master.
But in 1938, X-rays revealed that the painting was made at least a century after Leonardo's death in 1519.
"We need to find out the exact dating of this portrait," said Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, where the artist was born in 1452.
"At a first examination, I can say some things, such as the plume on the hat, have been added at a later stage. One eye, the one damaged by a scratch, is original, the other has been repainted. I also have some doubts about the mouth," Vezzosi told Discovery News.
Indeed, the Acerenza painting shows a rather unusual image of Da Vinci -- much different from the famous "Self Portrait in Red Chalk" which portrays an old bearded man with a slightly aquiline nose.
Preserved in Turin's Biblioteca Reale, the chalk drawing is currently the only work largely agreed to be a self-portrait of Da Vinci.
"The Acerenza portrait is intriguing because it adds a new element to the Leonardo's puzzle. Currently, there are eight typologies of Leonardo portraits. This one, showing a middle-aged, blue-eyed man is particularly interesting because it links Da Vinci to southern Italy," Vezzosi said.
The newly discovered painting will be displayed in the exhibit, "Ancient Peoples of Lucania" in Vaglio di Basilicata, starting March 28, alongside 40 paintings, sculptures and engravings on loan from the Ideale Museum.
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