Mona Lisa had eyebrows, art expert says

Someone alert Dan Brown. The novelist's best-selling "The Da Vinci Code" contained many conjectures about the history and provenance of the "Mona Lisa" -- many of  which have been dismissed as pure nonsense by  scholars and religious figures.

Now comes word that at least one persistent rumor concerning the masterpiece is true. Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" used to have eyebrows, according to a French art expert.

Pascal Cotte was granted special access to the 16th-century painting at the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to a report in the London Telegraph. Cotte said Da Vinci built up the painting in layers, the last being a special glaze. He then painted details such as the eyebrows on top of the glaze.

"That could explain why the eyebrows have disappeared," he told the British newspaper. "They have faded because of chemical reactions or they have been cleaned off."

Using a 240 megapixel camera, Cotte was able to see past the top paint surface and examine the layers below.

Among his other discoveries: the dull sky behind Mona Lisa was actually a brighter blue and a finger on her left hand had been moved by Da Vinci to create a more relaxed feeling.

The findings will be a part of the exhibition "The Secrets of Mona Lisa," which is set to open on Saturday at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England.

The exhibition also features the large-scale infrared photograph of the painting as well as other high-definition images that reveal details of the masterwork. It also features a 360-degree walk around -- a  replica of the painting that allows visitors a closeup of some of the details.

-- David Ng

Credit: Agence France Presse

 

Comments

[Natalie DeJohn]

Interesting. So what did her eyebrows look like, I wonder? Did she look surprised? Angry? :-)

[Jaap den Haan]

As I walked past a well-known museum one day with Mahendra, an art lover of Indian origin who had read all of Da Vinci and Rubens, he stood still and asked me if I knew how the Mona Lisa was painted. He made me guess for maybe even too long to enhance the supense so apparent in the painting itself, I presume. But the story is interesting and it is nothing like a code. Mona Lisa lived near Da Vinci, a neighbour, and she used to be very depressed. Leonardo spoke as long with her every time again until a smile appeared on her face which is how he has painted her.

[Jaap den Haan]

I often spoke about portrait with the author of the Global Icon Art Collection, Henk Mommaas, who originally painted nudes, he called his muses, but became a well-known portrait painter. He sought to capture the soul, and he enjoyed painting men in particular, nothing to do with sex. He just said the nude was the proverbial portrait belonging to a woman. He may not have been very emancipated in that sense, but he was very direct; he was a double Aries who drew some of his inspiration from the living remains of Maya culture in the south of Mexico, a manly one, that sees itself as an element in the timeless alone. He also called the portrait a landscape. And he said: "What other landscape is there in the city?"
Mahendra, who explained to me the background of the Mona Lisa, knew him too, and once asked me if I could intermediate so Henk may paint Mahendra's grandfather, an old Maharajah from Rajasthan in the possession of one of the oldest libraries on earth from which Madame Blavatsky, whom he had sponsored, borrowed some of her information. I proposed, but the the plan got diverted. There have been many speculations about Leonardo Da Vinci and about the Mona Lisa, for instance that it really represented a man, possibly Leonardo himself, and there have been many other theories. Yet one of the most magic portraits in history remains that of a woman. She was real. And she doesn't frown.

[Jaap den Haan]

And so: the woman in the Last Supper of Da Vinci was a male, but this not as a code.

[Jaap den Haan]

Man chest

[A. Safar]

What a relief! Can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've had worrying about Mona Lisa's smile, not to mention her seeming lack of eyebrows. Thank goodness for art scholarship! Now on to the really hard stuff, like what happened to Van Gogh's ear after his self inflicted surgery or whether El Greco's elongated figures are the result of astigmatism or some other eye condition. I look longingly at my pillow and await the answers.

[a]

who cares...ppl who has researhed dis r guyz who hav lots of time...

[wallfillers]

I have seen this painting on many sites and Natalie i am also curious did she looked angry surprised or what?..