<p class="title">Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting Mona Lisa was left unfinished because the Italian polymath suffered a fainting episode that caused traumatic nerve damage affecting his right hand, scientists say.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While the impairment affected his ability to hold palettes and brushes to paint with his right hand, he was able to continue teaching and drawing with his left hand.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The event, which may have hampered Da Vinci's painting skills in his late career, was believed to be related to a stroke.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Doctors writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reached a different conclusion after analysing a 16th-century drawing Da Vinci, together with a biography and an engraving of the Renaissance polymath artist and inventor in earlier years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Davide Lazzeri, a specialist in plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery at the Villa Salaria Clinic and Carlo Rossi, a specialist in neurology at the Hospital of Pontedera in Italy, focused on a portrait of da Vinci drawn with red chalk attributed to 16th-century Lombard artist Giovan Ambrogio Figino.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The drawing is a rare rendering of da Vinci's right arm in folds of clothing as if it was a bandage, with his right hand suspended in a stiff, contracted position.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Rather than depicting the typical clenched hand seen in post-stroke muscular spasticity, the picture suggests an alternative diagnosis such as ulnar palsy, commonly known as claw hand," said Lazzeri.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He suggests that a syncope, or faint, is more likely to have taken place than a stroke, during which da Vinci might have sustained acute trauma of his right upper limb, developing ulnar palsy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The ulnar nerve runs from the shoulder to little finger and manages almost all the intrinsic hand muscles that allow fine motor movements.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While an acute cardiovascular event may have been the cause of da Vinci's death, his hand impairment was not associated with cognitive decline or further motor impairment, meaning a stroke was unlikely.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This may explain why he left numerous paintings incomplete, including the Mona Lisa, during the last five years of his career as a painter while he continued teaching and drawing," Lazzeri said. </p>
<p class="title">Leonardo da Vinci's iconic painting Mona Lisa was left unfinished because the Italian polymath suffered a fainting episode that caused traumatic nerve damage affecting his right hand, scientists say.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While the impairment affected his ability to hold palettes and brushes to paint with his right hand, he was able to continue teaching and drawing with his left hand.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The event, which may have hampered Da Vinci's painting skills in his late career, was believed to be related to a stroke.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Doctors writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reached a different conclusion after analysing a 16th-century drawing Da Vinci, together with a biography and an engraving of the Renaissance polymath artist and inventor in earlier years.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Davide Lazzeri, a specialist in plastic reconstructive and aesthetic surgery at the Villa Salaria Clinic and Carlo Rossi, a specialist in neurology at the Hospital of Pontedera in Italy, focused on a portrait of da Vinci drawn with red chalk attributed to 16th-century Lombard artist Giovan Ambrogio Figino.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The drawing is a rare rendering of da Vinci's right arm in folds of clothing as if it was a bandage, with his right hand suspended in a stiff, contracted position.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Rather than depicting the typical clenched hand seen in post-stroke muscular spasticity, the picture suggests an alternative diagnosis such as ulnar palsy, commonly known as claw hand," said Lazzeri.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He suggests that a syncope, or faint, is more likely to have taken place than a stroke, during which da Vinci might have sustained acute trauma of his right upper limb, developing ulnar palsy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The ulnar nerve runs from the shoulder to little finger and manages almost all the intrinsic hand muscles that allow fine motor movements.</p>.<p class="bodytext">While an acute cardiovascular event may have been the cause of da Vinci's death, his hand impairment was not associated with cognitive decline or further motor impairment, meaning a stroke was unlikely.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This may explain why he left numerous paintings incomplete, including the Mona Lisa, during the last five years of his career as a painter while he continued teaching and drawing," Lazzeri said. </p>