Two sides to Da Vinci

RESEARCHERS at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence have proved what was suspected for a long time: that Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci was able to write, draw and paint with both hands.

The museum’s research and restoration institute confirmed Da Vinci’s ambidexterity by analysing a drawing known simply as Landscape (8P), believed to be his earliest work, dated 1473, when the artist was 21. The drawing also features two handwritten text inscriptions, one on the front written backwards and another on the back written left to right.