Experts agree painting is likely self-portrait by da Vinci

The portrait of a middle-aged man — an oil-on-wood painting once used as a serving tray — is likely the image of Leonardo da Vinci done by the master himself, says a panel of experts that includes a Calgary art historian.

A dozen of scientists and David Bershad, an art history professor at St. Mary's University College, agree. The image of a man with blue eyes, long greying hair and a moustache appears to be a self-portrait of the renowned Renaissance artist, inventor and thinker.

Coming to that conclusion brought together da Vinci's own passions for art and science as experts used fingerprint analysis, carbon dating and even facial reconstruction software to answer three key questions:

- Does the painting date from the right time period?

- Is it a portrait of da Vinci?

- And, was it painted by the master himself?

"I believe it's a Leonardo," Bershad said Tuesday, the day after returning from Italy, where he was able to look at the portrait in person. "It's exciting to come to that conclusion."

Bershad was the lone art historian — and sole North American — asked to help assess the authenticity of the portrait, which was discovered in 2009 by a medieval historian studying the art collection of a family in Acerenza, a town in southern Italy.

The scientific findings of numerous other experts asked to examine the portrait were presented earlier this month at a conference in Chieti, Italy.

A fingerprint whorl, an inscription on the back of the portrait, the pigments in the paint and even the way the eyes of the man are portrayed all lead experts to believe it is a self-portrait of da Vinci.

"Every one of the experts thought from the beginning there was no way it is a Leonardo. None of us started with that assumption," Bershad said. But as the experts began to look past the grime that has gathered on the portrait over the centuries, clues began to reveal themselves.

Carbon dating established the painting was from the late 15th or early 16th centuries. A forensic anthropologist then concluded the ridges and whorls of a thumbprint found in the painting is the same as one found on da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine.

Bershad said some may argue the print could belong to anyone who touched the painting, but he asserts it is da Vinci's.

"Only the artist himself would use his thumb to pick up that drip of paint," he said.

Adding to the mounting evidence is the inscription on the back of the painting. The handwritten "pinxit mea" — Latin for "I painted" — reads upside down and right to left in writing identical to da Vinci's.

"Leonardo had no reason to identify himself as the artist of the self-portrait," Bershad said. "He knows who he was."

Bershad is continuing to work on tracing the roots of the priceless painting that was once so dirty people were thinking of throwing it out.

The Gazette