(Image source: Reproduction / The Daily Mail)

A secret message hidden in Italian artist Giorgio Vasari's painting “The Battle of Martian” led a group of archaeologists to find evidence about the location of a Leonardo da Vinci work. Many believed it had been destroyed during a 16th-century fire at the Palazzo Vechio in Florence.

The scientists arrived at the work after investigating the message “fence thunder” - search and find - present on Vasari's mural, created to replace Da Vinci's unfinished work. Leonardo would have left the job a year after he started it, leaving behind several preparatory studies for the painting, which would be called "The Battle of Anghiari."

Archaeologists believe that Vasari built his mural on Da Vinci's sketches rather than painting on them, leaving a space of several inches between the two murals to preserve the work.

(Image source: Reproduction / The Daily Mail)

Using a probe, which was introduced through the mural located in the Palazzo Vechio, archaeologists collected samples of a dark pigment. This material corresponds to the one used exclusively by Leonardo and is similar to the one used in his most famous work: the "Mona Lisa".

All holes in the Vasari mural to insert the probe were positioned over areas that had already been restored or pre-existing cracks. No area of ​​the original painting was damaged.