Is This ‘Vermicelli-Haired’ Archangel Gabriel the Work of a Teenage Leonardo? Italian art historians claim that the 15th-century tile is the Renaissance master’s earliest known work – but a leading Leonardo expert disagrees.

It was a sunny, bright, warming spring day. Tiny pink, lavender, red, yellow and orange flowers and colourful buds falling on the branches of the trees herald a new era, new beginnings and inventions. There was a rush in a historical house on such a beautiful day in Ravella, Italy. The maids cleaning the house were in the old furniture section. One of the family heirlooms stood out. It was a very different piece with its shine and lustre. They immediately informed the owner of the house. And thus, this work that had been hidden for many years opened the doors to a new discussion!

The glazed tile was found by descendants of the aristocratic Fenice family of Ravello, Italy. They did not know the piece’s origins, but they realized it shone brighter than the other things they found when cleaning the house. Thus, they brought it to the experts.

Allegedly, this “brighter object” that appeared by chance, waited for its time for centuries and took precisely 3 years to solve its mystery was none other than Leonardo Da Vinci’s first known work, Archangel Gabriel. Although it is not yet certain that the official name of the work is “Archangel Gabriel”, Professor Ernesto Solari and handwriting expert Ivana Bonfantino combined the codes in the painting after a long effort to reach the message in the work. Da Vinci wrote the following inside the painting: “I, Leonardo Da Vinci, born in 1452, represented myself as Archangel Gabriel in 1471.” When the painting was dated 1499, it was in the possession of Giovanna of Aragon, the Duchess of Amalfi. Giovanna gave the painting to the aristocratic Fenice family in Ravella, Italy. At the time, this work, made by a young boy, did not seem like a noteworthy gift. This priceless gift, which has been in the hands of the Fenice family since 1499, was waiting silently for the right time to reveal itself among the old family heirlooms for centuries due to uncertainty about its authenticity until that exciting moment came!

Experts dispute the claim that an 18-year-old artist made a small tile with a profile image. The small square tile with the profile image of a beautiful angel has been claimed as Leonardo da Vinci’s earliest surviving work and his self-portrait of the Archangel Gabriel. If genuine, the tile has survived miraculously unbroken for more than 500 years since the 18-year-old artist made it in 1471.

At a press conference in Rome, the tile was presented like a holy relic encased in glass. Prof Ernesto Solari, who has written extensively on the Renaissance genius, claims that his research with Ivana Bonfantin, a handwriting expert, proves that the tile bears clues leading to the polymath.

There are secret inscriptions including a sequence of numbers and Leonardo’s signature back to front – his later notebooks are full of his mirror-writing – together making up a coded message translated as: “I, Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452, represented myself as the Archangel Gabriel in 1471.”

Solari claims that extensive scientific dating tests, including thermoluminescence, prove the tile’s 15th-century date. The tile is owned by an aristocratic family in Ravello.

He believes the tile was fired in the pottery kiln of Leonardo’s paternal grandparents, although by 1471, Leonardo, who was illegitimate, had left the home in Vinci where he was brought up and completed years of apprenticeship to the workshop of Verrocchio.

Thermoluminescence dating was used on the tile to trace its firing date back to the latter half of the 15th century. It was given to Solari by a member of the Fenice family of Ravello—it has been in the family since 1499, when it was gifted by Giovanna of Aragon, Duchess of Amalfi.

The claim was dismissed out of hand by the world-renowned Leonardo expert Martin Kemp. Kemp, an emeritus professor of art history at Oxford University, thought the “vermicelli-like” hair was particularly unconvincing. Ha detto: “The chance of its being by Leonardo is less than zero. The silly season for Leonardo never closes.”

Scarcely a year passes without Leonardo’s claimed discovery of a previously overlooked work. The argument still rages over the authenticity of the heavily restored Salvator Mundi, which became the most expensive painting in the world when it sold for more than $450m (£340m) at a Christie’s auction in New York.

One recently claimed and fiercely contested Leonardo discovery, La Bella Principessa, which, if genuine, had been valued at up to £100m, has been counter-claimed by the forger Shaun Greenhalgh, whose work has fooled many experts. He insisted the drawing is his work, a portrait of Sally, a checkout operator in the Co-op branch at Bromley Cross in Bolton.

If the authorship is verified, it would be the earliest surviving work by da Vinci. The 18-year-old artist created it in 1471, more than 500 years ago.