Mona Lisa’s Secrets Revealed
Cited: AP
Actually, the “Mona Lisa” smile still remains a mystery. However, French scientists believe they have cracked a few secrets of Leonardo da Vinci’s technique of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze that gave his works their dreamy quality. According to the scientists they have cracked some secrets after studying 7 of the Louvre Museum’s Leonardo da Vinci paintings that included the “Mona Lisa”.
Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.
The technique, called “sfumato,” allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.
The French researchers used a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the paint layers and their chemical composition.
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They brought their specially developed high-tech tool into the museum when it was closed and studied the portraits’ faces, which are emblematic of sfumato. The project was developed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.
The tool is so precise that “now we can find out the mix of pigments used by the artist for each coat of paint,” Walter told The Associated Press. “And that’s very, very important for understanding the technique.”
The analysis of the various paintings also shows da Vinci was constantly trying out new methods, Walter said. In the “Mona Lisa,” da Vinci used manganese oxide in his shadings. In others, he used copper. Often he used glazes, but not always.
The results were published July 14 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a chemistry journal.
According to history, “Mona Lisa” is a painting of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco Del Giocondo. Leonardo da Vinci supposedly started the painting in 1503. Another 16th-century painter and biographer of Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio Vasari, along with other artists believed that perfectionist Leonardo da Vinci took 4 years complete the painting.
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My Take: With so many things wrong in our world, scientists are still going over da Vinci’s paintings? They could be putting their scientific knowledge to better use that would help mankind. They could help to improve air cargo security to prevent terrorists from sending bombs around the world. Or they could help improve metal detection equipment to prevent weapons from entering certain areas.
I can see the necessity of improving airport cargo handling or even walk through metal detectors, but deciphering what da Vinci was doing when painting is just a little out there. That would be like buying baby hair bows for an adult. A hair bow for an adult is a little bit bigger than it is for baby.
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