‘Mona Lisa’ Continues To Allure With New Secret Drawings Found In Painting
Image via Wikimedia Commons
Despite having been around for over five centuries, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa still has some secrets up her sleeve. A newly-published study apparently reveals the backbone in the world’s most recognizable painting.
Research published by French engineer Pascal Cotte in the Journal of Cultural Heritage and his book, Lumière on The Mona Lisa: Hidden Portraits, details a previously undiscovered preparatory drawing believed to have been stenciled onto the canvas. The study had been 15 years in the works.
According to the report, Da Vinci could have transferred the sketch by poking holes along his draft and dusting charcoal over the canvas. This possible method, known as the spolvero technique, was discovered through 1,650 photographic scans taken from Cotte’s Lumiere Technology camera with the consent and request of the Louvre.
Cotte told Artnet News that the Louvre had invited him to perform the analysis as he was “the inventor of a new very high-resolution, highly sensitive multispectral camera” as well as the developer of something called the “layer amplification method.”
The optical technology, a mix of infrared and near-infrared photography techniques, can detect light in images on 13 wavelengths, resulting in the appearance of “very fine” charcoal underdrawings in lighter areas of the 500-year-old work.
“The spolvero on the forehead and on the hand betrays a complete underdrawing,” Cotte elaborated.
Artnet News shared that this is the first time a spolvero has been detected in the Mona Lisa. This brings hope that scientists will find underdrawings like these ones in other Da Vinci paintings.
You can see the full hidden sketch here.
Cover of Pascal Cotte’s book, ‘Lumière on The Mona Lisa: Hidden Portraits’. Image via Amazon
Image via Wikimedia Commons
[via Artnet News, images via various sources]
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