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Da Vinci's Hidden Portrait Revealed Beneath the Mona Lisa

Spectral analysis reveals the secrets behind da Vinci's creative process.
Screencap via BBC

Mona Lisa wasn't always so mysterious—at least, not according to multi-spectrum analysis by French scientist Pascal Cotte, who was granted exclusive access to the painting in 2010. Since then, he's been developing technology designed to see "under" famous artworks' many layers of paint, effectively revealing the first drafts of our most admired masterpieces. Previously, his technique claimed to reveal the original colors of da Vinci's mysterious subject, and suggested another, The Lady with an Ermine, had been substantially edited as well.

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Multi-spectral analysis is the key to Cotte's findings. He shines extremely bright light from the whole spectrum onto to the surface, revealing new aspects to the colors involved. Cameras that can pick up infrared light are able to, in a way, see through the surface layers of paint. Here's where the contours of old layers of paint become calculable: the process involves a lot of software and interpretation of infrared data—which humans cant actually see—which is why it's taken the researcher five years to release his findings.

Pascal Cotte exposed The Mona Lisa to light from every part of the spectrum for his research

Assuming Cotte's findings are true, it seems that the most iconic parts of The Mona Lisa were added at the end. Perhaps they were midnight revelations, tacked on somewhere throughout the decade and change da Vinci was working on the painting. What we see "revealed" here is a guess at what an earlier version looked like, and it's not as good as Mona Lisa. That makes complete sense—any artist will tell you that the difference between the first and final drafts are astronomical. Are we surprised that da Vinci didn't just spit his most famous artwork out in one go? If anything, it only confirms the artist's genius that the most memorable parts of the painting came after years of careful consideration and thought.

That said, Cotte's new report is more controversial than the The Lady with an Ermine, since they strip da Vinci's subject of her famous fourth wall-breaking gaze and sly smile. Says BBC art editor Will Gompertz, "I'm skeptical. It's perfectly common for an artist to overpaint an image as it is for a client who's commissioned that artist to ask for changes… The data that the technology generates is open to interpretation, which needs to be analysed and corroborated by the academic and curatorial community, and not just an individual. I think the Louvre's decision not to make a comment is telling. This is the world's most famous painting which, like a celebrity, always makes for a good story. But in this case I think caution is required."

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These findings and more—some of which call into question the true identity of Lisa herself—will be explored in a new documentary called The Secrets of the Mona Lisa, airing tomorrow at 4:00 PM EST on BBC Two, and on their website shortly after broadcast.

Learn more about Pascal Cotte's techniques here.

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