Art experts believe a new portrait by Leonardo da Vinci may have been discovered thanks to a 500-year-old fingerprint.
The small picture of a young woman in profile was previously believed to be a German work from the early 19th century and has changed hands in recent years for around £12,000.
But a growing number of leading Leonardo scholars agree the work is almost certainly by the Renaissance figurehead because it appears to have his fingerprint on it. Carbon dating and infrared analysis of Leonardo's techniques back up the theory.
If the scholars are correct, it will be the first major work by Leonardo to be identified for 100 years and will be worth tens of millions of pounds.
Martin Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at Oxford University, is so convinced the portrait is a Leonardo that he has written an as yet unpublished 200-page book about it.
Kemp said he first thought the find was "too good to be true – after 40 years in the Leonardo business I thought I'd seen it all".
But gradually, "all the bits fell into place like a well-made piece of furniture. All the drawers slotted in," he told the Times.
The fingerprint, which corresponds to the tip of the index or middle finger, was found by Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, when he examined images taken of the portrait by the revolutionary multispectral camera. Multi-spectral analysis can capture light from frequencies beyond the visible light range, such as infrared, allowing the extraction of information that the human eye fails to capture.
Biro believed the fingerprint, which was found near the top left corner of the work, was "highly comparable" to a fingerprint on Leonardo's St Jerome in the Vatican, the Antiques Trade Gazette reported.
The magazine said infrared analysis showed "significant" stylistic parallels with those in Leonardo's Portrait of a Woman in Profile in Windsor Castle and showed the work was made by a left-handed artist, as Leonardo is known to have been.
Drawn in ink and chalks, the beautiful young woman's costume and elaborate hairstyle reflected Milanese fashion of the late 15th century, and carbon analysis was consistent with that dating, the magazine reported.
Kemp believed that "by a process of elimination", the fresh-faced teenager could be Bianca Sforza, the daughter of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1452-1508, and his mistress Bernardina de Corradis.
Kemp said he thought the portrait, which measures 33cm x 22cm (13in x 9in), must date from around 1496 when, aged 13 or 14, the Bella Principessa married the Duke's army captain, Galeazzo Sanseverino, a patron of Leonardo's. She died four months after the wedding.
It would be Leonardo's first known portrait of the princess, although he painted two of the duke's mistresses Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli.
The picture was sold at Christie's in New York in 1998, in an Old Master Drawings sale as a Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress, catalogued as German, early 19th century, with an estimate of $12,000-$16,000.
It sold for $19,000 (£12,000) and later went for a similar sum to Canadian-born collector Peter Silverman, in 2007.
Silverman believed there was more to the portrait and delved into the matter after a discussion last year with Dr Nicholas Turner, formerly the keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum.
Silverman told the Times that when he first saw the picture, "my heart started to beat a million times a minute. I immediately thought this could be a Florentine artist. The idea of Leonardo came to me in a flash."
The portrait is due to go on display in an exhibition in Sweden next year.
艺术专家们认为，多亏了一枚500年前的指纹，一幅新出现的列奥纳多·达·芬奇（Leonardo da Vinci）画作得以重见天日。
这幅尺寸较小的少女侧面画像过去被认为是19世纪初的一幅德国作品，近年曾以12000英镑的价格易手。
然而，因为该画作上有一枚似乎属于达·芬奇的指纹，越来越多主要的达·芬奇学家同意，几乎可以肯定这幅作品出自那位文艺复兴时期代表人物之手。碳定年法和红外线分析法对这幅作品作出的分析鉴定支持了该画出自达·芬奇之手的说法。
如果学者们是正确的，那么它将是近100年来首个被确认的达·芬奇主要作品，并且它将价值数千万英镑。
牛津大学艺术史系名誉教授马丁·坎普（Martin Kemp）如此坚信这幅画像是出自达·芬奇之手，以致写就了一本长达200页的书来谈论它，但该书尚未出版。
坎普称他首先想到的是，这个发现“好得令人难以置信——从事了40年的达·芬奇研究工作，我以为自己看到了一切”。
但渐渐地，“一切都明朗了，就像一件制作精良的家具，所有抽屉都协调顺畅，”他对《泰晤士报》说。
蒙特利尔的法医艺术专家彼得·保罗·比罗（Peter Paul Biro）用革命性的多光谱相机拍摄了这幅画像，并在检查照片时发现了这枚属于食指或中指指尖部位的指纹。多光谱分析可以捕捉可见光范围以外的频率的光，例如红外线，这使得人们可以提取肉眼无法捕捉的信息。
据《英国古董报》（Antiques Trade Gazette）报道，比罗认为这枚在该幅画的左上角发现的指纹与另一幅收藏在梵蒂冈的达·芬奇画作《圣杰罗米》（St Jerome）上的一个达·芬奇指纹“高度吻合”。
该杂志称，红外线分析结果显示这幅画像的风格与收藏在温莎城堡（Windsor Castle）的出自达·芬奇之手的女人侧面画像有“重大”的相似之处，而且是由一名左撇子艺术家创作的－－众所周知达·芬奇正是一个左撇子。
据该杂志报道，这幅画像用墨水和粉笔绘制，画中美丽的年轻女子的服饰和精心制作的发型反映了15世纪末的米兰风尚，与碳定年法的分析结果一致。
肯普“通过排除法”考证，认为这位青春勃发的少女可能是米兰公爵鲁多维科·斯福扎（Ludovico Sforza，1452 - 1508）与他的情妇贝纳蒂娜·德·科拉迪斯（Bernardina de Corradis）的女儿——碧安卡·斯福扎（Bianca Sforza）。
坎普认为这幅长33厘米宽22厘米（13英寸 x 9英寸）的画像肯定是1496年前后、碧安卡年约13、14岁时绘制的，这位美丽的公主嫁给了公爵的侍卫队长加里亚佐·桑瑟夫内洛（Galeazzo Sanseverino），他是达·芬奇的一位资助人。碧安卡婚后4个月不幸去世。
这将是首次发现的出自达·芬奇之手的公主画像，尽管他曾为公爵的两位情妇切奇利娅·加莱拉尼（Cecilia Gallerani）和鲁克雷齐娅·克里薇莉（Lucrezia Crivelli）画过肖像。
这幅作品于1998年在纽约佳士得拍卖时被归类为“19世纪初，德国画派”的古典绘画，拍卖的名称叫“穿着文艺复兴时期衣裳的年轻女子侧面像”（A Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress），估价为12000-16000美元。
它以19000美元（12000英镑）的价格售出，后来在2007年以相若的价格转到加拿大裔收藏家彼得·西尔弗曼（Peter Silverman）手中。
去年，西尔弗曼与前大英博物馆的照片和绘画管理人尼古拉斯·透纳博士（Dr Nicholas Turner）讨论过这幅画像，之后他认为画像背后有更多故事并进行了深入研究。
西尔弗曼告诉《泰晤士报》说，当他第一眼看到这幅画像时，“我的心开始怦然跳动，每分钟100万次。我立即想到这可能是佛罗伦萨画派的艺术家。达·芬奇的名字刹那间浮上脑海。”
这幅画像预定于明年在瑞典的一个展览会上展出。
责任编辑：八月骄阳
