Leonardo sketch found in London

Experts at London’s National Gallery, using infrared techniques, have discovered a Leonardo da Vinci sketch hidden underneath a painting by the Italian master, conservationists said Friday.

The sketch -- the first unknown Leonardo image to be found since the 1930s -- is beneath the delicate brushstrokes of the artist’s “Virgin of the Rocks,” a powerful scene of Christ’s mother in a dusky cavern, which hangs in the London museum.

The concealed image shows a woman with one hand clutched to her breast, the other outstretched, kneeling before what experts said was planned to be an infant Jesus. Leonardo apparently was planning a picture of the adoration of the Christ child, a scene popular with Renaissance artists, but changed his mind.

The National Gallery’s “Virgin of the Rocks” is a copy of the painting of the same name that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. National Gallery experts were using infrared techniques to find out how the copy had been made when they found the sketch.

From Associated Press