Research finds 'Mona Lisa' copy made alongside original

A copy of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "Mona Lisa" in a museum in Spain turns out to be a very close one – so close, that its maker likely worked next to the artist while he created the original. The copy at the Prado in Spain, which was tested via several modern-day techniques, showed elements like drawing lines under the paint that were similar to the original, The New York Times reported. "It turns out that the Prado’s Mona Lisa is not just any 500-year-old copy. It was most likely painted by someone who was sitting right next to Leonardo da Vinci, trying to duplicate his every brush stroke, as he produced his famous lady with the enigmatic smile," the NYT said. The Prado’s Mona Lisa is on loan to the Louvre until June. But the NYT said there is no doubt the Prado painting was not a copy made by Da Vinci himself. “Like I write an A and you write an A, you can tell it is not the same,” said Ana González Mozo, a researcher in the museum’s technical documentation department. The now-restored copy even offers details obscured in the original Mona Lisa, such as an armrest where none can be seen in the original, and reflectographs show a much clearer image of her waistline. Gonzalez spent two years using X-rays, infrared reflectography and high-resolution digital images to document the unlikely finding. Research showed that when Da Vinci adjusted the size of the Mona Lisa’s head or corrected her hands or slimmed her bosom or lowered her bodice, so did the painter of the Prado’s copy. “It had to be painted at the same time. Someone who copies doesn’t make corrections because they haven’t ever seen the changes. They can see only the surface of the painting,” González said. “What is really important about the copy is that we can see how Leonardo worked. We know something new about his creative process,” she added. Even more interesting is the "work underneath," she said. “I get to see what only the artist saw. And he saw it five centuries ago,” she said. Copy reignites debate But the NYT said the copy has reignited a debate about whether Da Vinci's Mona Lisa should be restored as well. González says this is a hard call for the Louvre because people are so used to the way the painting looks now. Until two years ago, the Prado, which inherited the painting with the rest of the royal collection in 1819, displayed the copy but never suspected its significance. The copy at the Prado was catalogued without fanfare as an anonymous copy, with a black background was black, and the painting was covered in a layer of dark varnish. But as the Louvre was planning a special exhibition of Da Vinci's work and since it did not want to move the original Mona Lisa from its protected area, it wanted to borrow the Prado painting as a stand-in. It was a casual comment by one of the Louvre curators, asking whether the painting had ever been studied, that got González thinking. She took her infrared camera into the gallery and got to work, but the first pictures were enough for her to conclude that the two paintings had been produced in tandem. Black paint The NYT report said the most exciting discovery may have been that the painting’s original background had been obscured by a layer of black paint, a practice sometimes used in the 18th century. Luckily, however, a layer of lacquer protected what was under it. Once the paint was removed, the same Tuscan background as in Leonardo’s painting appeared, offering a tantalizing preview of what might be seen if Leonardo’s Mona Lisa were restored. González started working at the Prado 16 years ago, when she was completing her doctorate, one of the first art researchers to focus on the use of computer techniques to study paintings. “We did not even have Windows when I started as a student,” she said. But little by little, she said, computer techniques of all kinds have become important tools in studying paintings. — LBG, GMA News