A new analysis of a tiny fragment from the base layer of one of the world’s most recognizable works of art, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” is shedding new light on the work of the Italian Renaissance master — a “very exciting” discovery celebrated by experts as “extremely important news for the art world and our larger global society.”
An X-ray and infrared microanalysis of the ground layer of the famous portrait has confirmed the presence of a rare compound called plumbonacrite, giving new insight into how the legendary artist and inventor formulated his paints — and suggesting he was in a particularly experimental mood when creating his masterpiece.
The conclusion came after a team of scientists and art historians in France and the U.K. studied the small paint fragment — taken from the painting’s top-right-hand edge and barely visible to the naked eye — and analyzed its atomic structure with the help of a synchrotron, a machine that accelerates particles to almost the speed of light.
The research, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, led scientists to determine that the oil-paint recipe da Vinci used to paint the enigmatic smile of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, differs from the paint he used to prepare the panel of poplar wood on which the famous work was painted.
“He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically,” said Victor Gonzalez, a chemist at France’s top research body, and the study’s lead author. “In this case, it’s interesting to see that indeed there is a specific technique for the ground layer of ‘Mona Lisa.’”
It was the first time scientists could “chemically confirm” the painter used plumbonacrite in his paint recipe, Gonzalez said.
With News Wire Services
Muri Assunção
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