The “Mona Lisa” has revealed another of its secrets.
Using X-rays to examine the chemical structure of a patch of the famous work of art, scientists have now taken a closer look at the techniques Leonardo da Vinci used to paint the portrait of the woman with the enigmatic smile.
The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, suggests that the Renaissance master, famous for his curiosity, culture and inventiveness, decided to experiment when he painted the portrait of Mona in the early 16th century Lisa made.
The recipe Leonardo used as a base when making the poplar panel is different from the one he used for the portrait itself, the team of French and British scientists and art historians found.
Man throws cake at Mona Lisa in the Louvre
“He loved to experiment and each of his paintings is technically very different from the others,” said chemist Víctor González, the study’s lead author and a member of the CNRS, France’s main scientific research institution.
“In this case, it’s interesting to see that there is actually a special technique for the base of the Mona Lisa,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Researchers found a rare lead carbonate compound in the first layer of paint. The discovery confirmed what had until then been a hypothesis among art historians: that Leonardo likely used lead oxide powder to thicken his paint and speed up drying when he began work on the portrait that now faces the viewer behind protective glass in the Paris painting looks at museum.