Michelangelo self-portrait found in fresco

VATICAN CITY, July 2 (UPI) -- A multimillion-dollar renovation of the last frescoes painted by Michelangelo at the Vatican may have uncovered a self-portrait of the artist.

Restorers spent seven years cleaning the frescoes of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel, usually used by the pope and his closest aides for private masses, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The Vatican's chief restorer, Maurizio De Luca, said a self-portrait of Michelangelo can be spotted among the crowd in the Crucifixion of St Peter.

"It's an extraordinary and moving discovery," he said.

Michelangelo's face is one of the three knights in the upper left corner of the fresco, De Luca said.

The knight in question is wearing a "lapis lazuli blue turban and in his features are very similar to other known portraits of Michelangelo," he told ANSA.

Michelangelo included another self-portrait in the Sistine Chapel where his face is thought to feature in the lashed skin of St. Bartholomew.