Art & Design
Secrets of Mona Lisa
Secrets Of Mona Lisa
By - Shruti Gupta
The world’s premier traveling Mona Lisa exhibition experience, The Secrets of Mona Lisa explores the findings of French scientific engineer and examiner of fine art, Pascal Cotte. Granted unprecedented access by the French Government and The Louvre Museum in Paris, he conducted a painstaking scientific analysis of The Mona Lisa using his self-invented and patented multispectral camera.
Cotte spent over two years verifying his findings with leading Mona Lisa experts and The Louvre Museum. His scientific examination and subsequent findings startled the art world with 25 revelations discovered including identifying her original pigment colours from 1506; proving she indeed was painted with eyebrows and eyelashes and producing the world’s only exact replica – a 360° walk around piece.
• A zoomed-in image of Mona Lisa's left eye revealed a single brush stroke in the eyebrow region, Cotte said "I discovered one hair of the eyebrow."
• "The wrist of the right hand is up high on the stomach. But if you look deeply in the infrared you understand that she holds a cover with her wrist," Cotte said.
• "If you look at the left hand you see the first position of the finger, and he changed his mind for another position," Cotte said. "Even Leonardo da Vinci had hesitation."
• Lace on Mona Lisa's dress
• The transparency of the veil shows da Vinci first painted a landscape and then used transparency techniques to paint the veil atop it.
• A change in the position of the left index and middle finger.
• The elbow was repaired from damage due to a rock thrown at the painting in 1956.
• The blanket covering Mona Lisa's knees also covers her stomach.
• The left finger was not completely finished.
• A blotch mark on the corner of the eye and chin are varnish accidents, countering claims that Mona Lisa was sick.
• And the Mona Lisa was painted on uncut poplar board, contrary to speculations.
Cotte said when he stands back and looks up at the enlarged infrared image of Mona Lisa, her beauty and mystique are apparent. "If you are in front of this huge enlargement of Mona Lisa, you understand instantly why Mona Lisa is so famous," Cotte said. He added, it's something you have to see with your own eyes.
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