AI helps discover 'hidden' drawings by Leonardo da Vinci by mapping faint zinc traces on old canvas

Researchers have enlisted an AI to help them uncover hidden drawings on the canvas of one of Leonardo Da Vinci most famous paintings. The project was a collaboration between the National Gallery's Dr. Catherine Higgitt and a team from the Imperial College of London, led by Pier Luigi Dragotti. Higgitt and her team at the Gallery had discovered faint sketch marks on the canvas of da Vinci's'Virgin on the Rocks,' which he had originally been commissioned to create in 1483 for a chapel in Milan. Researchers in London discovered a hidden drawing on the canvas of one of Leonard da Vinci's most famous paintings, 'Virgin on the Rocks' (pictured above) The sketchings appeared to hint at an early version of the image that differed from the finished version, which depicts the Madonna with an infant Jesus and an infant John the Baptist in a cavern. The sketches showed wings, which suggested that da Vinci might have originally planned for an angel to be in the painting, as well as a different position for the Madonna.