Author Archives: Pablo G

The world renowned Mona Lisa from the Louvre (left) scored a twin sister. In the Madrid Prado, a more “Mona Lisa” has been discovered (right). Photo: afp

Sensation in the art world: At the Madrid Prado Museum experts have discovered a “twin sister” of the famous “Mona Lisa”. Here it is with the original in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci.

The image has been hung on a wall in the Madrid art gallery for years, “its value was not recognized as yet”, said Miguel Falomir, head of Italian painting of the Prado Museum. It has only now been found during restoration work, and it seems that the work arose in parallel to the original.

The painter was likely Francesco Melzi, who belonged to the most important pupils of da Vinci. The painting has been called “Mona Lisa of Prado”, you’ve had so far associated the Flemish school. During the restoration, it has been found that this had been a mistake.

Photos

Mona Lisa Smile shines through 

The experts discovered that the black background of the copy is only subsequently been applied. Including the Prado experts discovered the appearance of an Italian landscape as she is seen also on the original.

Science confirms simultaneous emergence

The copy is almost the same size as the original “Mona Lisa” and arose also at the beginning of the 16th century. With the help of infrared rays, it has been found that the painter had made similar corrections in his work like Da Vinci to the original. This shows that both works were created simultaneously.

The copy is better preserved than the original. Their discovery would allow the art experts to gain new details about the making of the original. The “Mona Lisa” by da Vinci is located in the Louvre in Paris. It is in the Italian original “La Gioconda” (joyous) and Lisa del Giocondo was named after the Florentinerin.

The origin of the copy was confirmed also by the Louvre, the Spanish news agency EFE reported. The image will be presented officially on 21 February.