Antique

The Virgin and the Laughing Child is said to be Leonardo da Vinci's only surviving sculpture.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Leonardo da Vinci is long-thought to have made sculptures, but since his death in 1519, no three-dimensional work of art by him has ever been identified. But now, curators in Italy have unveiled what may be the only known sculpture by the artist, inventor and scientist.

The Virgin with the Laughing Child was part of an exhibition this week in Florence. The 20 inch-tall sculpture, made of red clay, depicts the Virgin Mary, with an enigmatic smile similar to that of Mona Lisa, looking down at a smiling baby Jesus on her lap. Curators say the sculpture was created around 1472, when da Vinci was a student of the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio, reports The Guardian.

Scholars say "the voluminous, complicated draperies" flowing over the Madonna's legs provide more clues: they are similar to drawings that Leonardo made at the time "which were almost obsessive studies of abstract folds and shadowy recesses," The Guardian reports.

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