Chalk drawing found inside cardinal's book believed to be one of Leonardo da Vinci's 'first sketches'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:31 PM on 21st April 2011

Art historians 'convinced' 1473 portrait of red-bearded man is by the Renaissance master

Tests are being carried out to discover whether a sketch found tucked inside a book is one of Leonardo da Vinci's first ever drawings.

It is believed that the intricate red-chalk sketch of a man with a wispy beard was created around 1473.

At first it was believed the drawing may be the work of an apprentice of the Renaissance artist but since da Vinci was an apprentice himself until the late 1470s, that makes that theory highly unlikely. He had become an apprentice at the age of 14 to an artist in Florence.

This is the chalk sketch believed to have been drawn by Leonardo da Vinci at around the time when he was ending his apprenticeship with an artist in Florence

Art historian Peter Hohenstaff says he is 'highly convinced' that the find is 'one of the first drawings' by the great Italian painter (pictured), born in Vinci, Florence, in 1452

Art historian Peter Hohenstaff says he is 'highly convinced' that the find is 'one of the first drawings' by the great Italian painter, born in Vinci, Florence, in 1452.

The composition of the paper used for the sketch and the chemical used to whiten the paper are both similar to those used by the artist in other known drawings.

Even more pointedly, a blank space in the Codex Atlanticus, a twelve-volume, bound set of drawings and writings by the artist, matches almost perfectly the 5.5in by 3.5in piece of paper which was drawn on.

After studying test results, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana library in Milan - which holds the Codex Atlanticus - will decide the authenticity of the sketch, reports CNN.

The drawing remained hidden for more than a century, between the cover and first page of a book that had belonged to the one-time Cardinal of Genoa.

The book ended up in the possession of the Ponzellini family when the Cardinal's house in the town of Moncalvo was sold, and it was a member of this family who came across the hidden sketch in 1940.

The onset of World War II, however, interrupted the investigation into the drawing, which was left in a frame for about five decades until antique restorer Amedeo Barile bought it and commissioned studies into its origins.

Leonardo bequeathed only notebooks and drawings that were more or less unknown until the 19th century, but of paintings he left a dozen that were famous in their day, still venerated as among the greatest ever executed.

The Last Supper remains an unprecedented masterpiece of dramatic organisation and with the Mona Lisa he set a new pattern for portraiture, neither in profile nor full-face, but casually turning to smile at the spectator.