The culprit ruined Leonardo Da Vinci's self-portrait

Reddish-brown spots appeared on Leonardo da Vinci's only self-drawing portrait and threatened to "swallow" the face of the great artist.

In 2012, a team of experts found Leonardo da Vinci's only self-portrait to be seriously damaged, causing concern for art lovers around the world. The delicate red chalk painting was born in 1512 unintentionally exposed to sunlight during the framing for the 1929 exhibition, leading to unwanted red-brown spots appearing on the surface of the work.

However, for many years, scientists could not determine the origin of these red spots due to oxidized paint or the development of a fungus. Finding the cause is extremely important because it helps scientists find a way to prevent red spots completely covering the face of Leonardo, according to The Huffington Post.

Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait painting covered red-brown spots.(Photo: Wikipedia Commons).

In a report published last December in the journal Environmental Microbiology Reports, the team led by Guadalupe Pinar at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria, confirmed the red dots were the product. of some fungi.

First, scientists took DNA samples from the picture, then enlarged the area where the fungus was inside, duplicating the recovered gene segments and comparing the results with the bacterial community. While the non-dividing attributes of the portrait microorganism organizations prevent researchers from determining the exact type of harmful fungus, they can conclude that two types of fungi that predominate the picture are Ascomycota phylum and one strain. Acremonium.

The team's electron microscope revealed many types of fungi: a smooth spherical shape with an outer covering, a shape of a spiked cell attached to a molecule, and a flat disc with incisions.

The research results show that red spots form when the iron particles from dust attach to the paper, affecting the paper structure and allowing fungal organizations to ingest. The fungus organism survives by stopping metabolism and occasionally emitting oxalic acid, which makes the painting worse.

The new discovery will help conservationists find effective measures to prevent red spots covering Leonardo's face.