(Paris) The Mona Lisa reveals new secrets. Using X-rays to examine the chemical structure of a tiny dot in the famous work of art, scientists have gained new insights into the techniques Leonardo da Vinci used to paint his groundbreaking portrait of the Woman with the Enigmatic Smile.
The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Societysuggests that the famous Italian Renaissance master, curious, erudite and inventive, may have been in a particularly experimental mood when he began working on The Mona Lisa at the beginning of the 16th centurye century.
The oil paint recipe that Leonardo da Vinci used as a base coat to prepare the poplar wood panel appears to have been different for The Mona Lisawith its own distinctive chemical signature, discovered the team of scientists and art historians in France and Britain.
“He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different on a technical level,” explained Victor Gonzalez, lead author of the study and a chemist at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the largest French research organization. Mr. Gonzalez has studied the chemical compositions of dozens of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and other artists.
“In this case, it is interesting to see that there is indeed a specific technique for the base layer of Mona Lisa “, he emphasized in an interview with the Associated Press.
Specifically, the researchers found a rare compound, leadonacrite, in the first layer of paint. According to Mr. Gonzalez, this discovery confirmed for the first time what art historians had until then only hypothesized: that the artist most likely used lead oxide powder to thicken and help drying his paint as he began to work on the famous portrait exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
An important discovery
Carmen Bambach, a specialist in Italian art and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who was not involved in the study, called the research “very exciting.” She said any new scientific understanding of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting techniques is “extremely important news for the art world and our global society as a whole.”
The discovery of plumbonacrit in The Mona Lisa attests to “Leonardo da Vinci’s passionate and constant spirit of experimentation as a painter – this is what makes him timeless and modern,” argued Mme Bambach by email.
The analyzed painting fragment was barely visible to the naked eye, no larger than the diameter of a human hair, and came from the upper right edge of the painting.
Scientists examined its atomic structure using X-rays in a synchrotron, a large machine that accelerates particles to almost the speed of light. This allowed them to discover the chemical composition of the grain. Plumbonacrit is a byproduct of lead oxide, allowing researchers to say with greater certainty that the painter likely used this powder in his paint recipe.
“Plumonacrite is really a fingerprint of its recipe,” Gonzalez said. This is the first time we can actually confirm it chemically. »
A recipe used by others
After Leonardo da Vinci, the Dutch master Rembrandt may have used a similar recipe when he painted in the 17th century.e century ; Mr. Gonzalez and other researchers have also previously found plumbonacrit in his work.
“It also tells us that these recipes have been passed down for centuries,” he noted. It was a very good recipe. »
Leonardo da Vinci is believed to have dissolved lead oxide powder, orange in color, in linseed or walnut oil by heating the mixture to make a thicker, quicker-drying paste.
“What you will get is an oil that has a very nice golden color,” Mr. Gonzalez said. It flows more like honey. »
But The Mona Lisa – believed by the Louvre to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant – and other works by Leonardo da Vinci have even more secrets to tell.
“There’s a lot more to discover, that’s for sure.” We are barely scratching the surface,” Mr. Gonzalez said.
“What we say is just another little brick of knowledge. »