Scientists Pry a Secret from the ‘Mona Lisa’ about How Leonardo Painted the Masterpiece

The Mona Lisa by Leornado da Vinci is pictured at the Louvre museum Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Paris. (AP)
The Mona Lisa by Leornado da Vinci is pictured at the Louvre museum Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Paris. (AP)
TT
20

Scientists Pry a Secret from the ‘Mona Lisa’ about How Leonardo Painted the Masterpiece

The Mona Lisa by Leornado da Vinci is pictured at the Louvre museum Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Paris. (AP)
The Mona Lisa by Leornado da Vinci is pictured at the Louvre museum Wednesday, June 7, 2023 in Paris. (AP)

The "Mona Lisa" has given up another secret.

Using X-rays to peer into the chemical structure of a tiny speck of the celebrated work of art, scientists have gained new insight into the techniques that Leonardo da Vinci used to paint his groundbreaking portrait of the woman with the exquisitely enigmatic smile.

The research, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, suggests that the famously curious, learned and inventive Italian Renaissance master may have been in a particularly experimental mood when he set to work on the "Mona Lisa" early in the 16th century.

The oil-paint recipe that Leonardo used as his base layer to prepare the panel of poplar wood appears to have been different for the "Mona Lisa," with its own distinctive chemical signature, the team of scientists and art historians in France and Britain discovered.

"He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically," said Victor Gonzalez, the study's lead author and a chemist at France’s top research body, the CNRS. Gonzalez has studied the chemical compositions of dozens of works by Leonardo, Rembrandt and other artists.

"In this case, it’s interesting to see that indeed there is a specific technique for the ground layer of ‘Mona Lisa,’" he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Specifically, the researchers found a rare compound, plumbonacrite, in Leonardo's first layer of paint. The discovery, Gonzalez said, confirmed for the first time what art historians had previously only hypothesized: that Leonardo most likely used lead oxide powder to thicken and help dry his paint as he began working on the portrait that now stares out from behind protective glass in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Carmen Bambach, a specialist in Italian art and curator at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, who was not involved in the study, called the research "very exciting" and said any scientifically proven new insights into Leonardo's painting techniques are "extremely important news for the art world and our larger global society."

Finding plumbonacrite in the "Mona Lisa" attests "to Leonardo’s spirit of passionate and constant experimentation as a painter – it is what renders him timeless and modern," Bambach said by email.

The paint fragment from the base layer of the "Mona Lisa" that was analyzed was barely visible to the naked eye, no larger than the diameter of a human hair, and came from the top right-hand edge of the painting.

The scientists peered into its atomic structure using X-rays in a synchrotron, a large machine that accelerates particles to almost the speed of light. That allowed them to unravel the speck’s chemical make-up. Plumbonacrite is a byproduct of lead oxide, allowing the researchers to say with more certainty that Leonardo likely used the powder in his paint recipe.

"Plumbonacrite is really a fingerprint of his recipe," Gonzalez said. "It's the first time we can actually chemically confirm it."

After Leonardo, Dutch master Rembrandt may have used a similar recipe when he was painting in the 17th century; Gonzalez and other researchers have previously found plumbonacrite in his work, too.

"It tells us also that those recipes were passed on for centuries," Gonzalez said. "It was a very good recipe."

Leonardo is thought to have dissolved lead oxide powder, which has an orange color, in linseed or walnut oil by heating the mixture to make a thicker, faster-drying paste.

"What you will obtain is an oil that has a very nice golden color," Gonzalez said. "It flows more like honey."

But the "Mona Lisa" — said by the Louvre to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant — and other works by Leonardo still have other secrets to tell.

"There are plenty, plenty more things to discover, for sure. We are barely scratching the surface," Gonzalez said. "What we are saying is just a little brick more in the knowledge."



Picasso on a Plate: Unseen Ceramics Up for Auction

Artworks by Pablo Picasso are pictured during the media preview of 'Picasso for Asia: A Conversation' at M+ in Hong Kong. May JAMES / AFP
Artworks by Pablo Picasso are pictured during the media preview of 'Picasso for Asia: A Conversation' at M+ in Hong Kong. May JAMES / AFP
TT
20

Picasso on a Plate: Unseen Ceramics Up for Auction

Artworks by Pablo Picasso are pictured during the media preview of 'Picasso for Asia: A Conversation' at M+ in Hong Kong. May JAMES / AFP
Artworks by Pablo Picasso are pictured during the media preview of 'Picasso for Asia: A Conversation' at M+ in Hong Kong. May JAMES / AFP

A clutch of one-off and hitherto unseen ceramic plates and dishes by Pablo Picasso are going under the hammer in Geneva on June 19.

Emblematic motifs from Picasso's artistic universe -- pigeons, fish, a goat, a bull, and a bird adorn the colorful plates and dishes, AFP said.

"It's a truly exceptional collection. The plates and dishes we have here are real Picasso works," Bernard Piguet, director of the Piguet auction house in Geneva, told AFP.

"These unique pieces belonged to Picasso's estate, and in the early 1980s, his heirs gave them to one of their friends," he said.

The close friend, a French art lover whose name has not been revealed, kept them until his death. His heirs have decided to put the ceramics up for sale.

Made between 1947 and 1963 in the Madoura workshop in Vallauris on the southeast French coast, the ceramic artworks are being exhibited to the general public for the first time ahead of Thursday's auction.

'Reasonable' prices

The seven pieces are being sold in separate lots.

Two large platters decorated with pigeons are both expected to fetch between 30,000 and 50,000 Swiss francs ($37,000-$61,500).

A third plate depicting three blue, pink, and brick-colored fish on a white background, resembling a child's drawing, is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 francs.

A thin brick, titled "Head of a Bearded Man", and painted with ceramic pastels in yellow, white, garnet, brown, blue orange and green, has the same estimate.

Glazed on a painted background in shades of grey, brown, and black, a terracotta plate depicting a goat's head bears the prestigious stamp "Original Picasso print" on the back. It is valued at 20,000-30,000 francs.

The two others feature a bull on a hexagonal terracotta tile (15,000-20,000 francs), and a stylized bird on a plate painted in black and white (15,000-25,000 francs).

"It's a lot," Piguet said of the price. "But don't forget that these are works of art in their own right and unique pieces" without replicas.

"If you step back from Picasso's work and his drawings, which are becoming practically unaffordable today, you have here original works by Picasso that command a reasonable estimate."

New outlet

Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. The prolific Spanish painter died in 1973, aged 91.

He created thousands of plates, platters, vases, pitchers, and other earthenware utensils in the Madoura ceramics studio, run by the pottery couple Georges and Suzanne Ramie.

After World War II, "Picasso was already an internationally-renowned artist," said Adeline Bisch Balerna, head of paintings and sculptures at Piguet.

"He had already opened up a huge number of avenues for all artists; the great, well-known works had been created, and he was seeking new means of expression for his art."

Picasso would visit the Madoura studio, meet Georges Ranie, and be "captivated by all the possibilities offered" by this new artistic outlet, she explained.

Piguet is also auctioning two Picasso works "never before seen on the art market", from the same family friend's collection: "Serenade" (1919), an Indian ink and watercolor painting estimated at 20,000-30,000 francs, and the pencil drawing "Famille balzacienne" (1962), valued at 80,000-120,000 francs.

Unseen Klein

Meanwhile the contemporary art in Thursday's sale includes one of French artist Yves Klein's first blue monochromes, in what is its first appearance on the art market, according to Piguet auction house.

From 1959, "Monochrome bleu sans titre (IKB 328)", estimated at 100,000-150,000 francs, is painted in International Klein Blue, the deep blue hue developed by the artist himself.

"In daylight, it really has this luminous blue, this completely fascinating Klein blue. And when you put it indoors, you see it as a dark blue, almost midnight blue," said Bernard Piguet.

Klein died in 1962 aged 34, following a series of heart attacks.

The work comes from the collection of the Swiss artist couple Muriel and Gerald Minkoff, who liked to exchange their works with their contemporaries.

It was discovered by their successors in their Geneva apartment, according to Piguet.