Learn Chinese Online: Learn Chinese - Mona Lisa was a new mother

Friday, March 21, 2008

Learn Chinese - Mona Lisa was a new mother - expert

WORLD / Europe

Mona Lisa was a new mother - expert
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-09-27 09:46

OTTAWA - Mona Lisa, the mysterious woman immortalized in Leonardo da
Vinci's 16th century masterpiece, had just given birth to her second son
when she sat for the painting, a French art expert said on Tuesday.

The discovery was made by a team of Canadian scientists who used special
infrared and three-dimensional technology to peer through hitherto
impenetrable paint layers on the work, which now sits in the Louvre
museum in Paris.

A color-coded elevation contour map of the Mona Lisa is seen in this
undated handout image. The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century
masterpiece, is in fragile condition but should not suffer too much
damage if taken care of properly, experts who studied the painting
closely said on Tuesday. [Reuters]
Bruno Mottin of the French Museums' Centre for Research and Restoration
said that on very close examination of the painting it became clear that
the Mona Lisa's dress was covered in a thin transparent gauze veil.

"This type of gauze dress ... was typical of the kind worn in early 16th
century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth.
This is something that had never been seen up to now because the painting
was always judged to be dark and difficult to examine," he told a news
conference.

"We can now say that this painting by Leonardo da Vinci was painted to
commemorate the birth of the second son of the Mona Lisa, which helps us
to date it more precisely to around 1503."

The young woman with the ambiguous half smile has been identified as Lisa
Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco de Giocondo. She had
five children.

Mottin also said that, contrary to popular belief, the subject had not
let her hair hang freely but in fact wore a bonnet from which only a few
curls managed to escape.

"People always wrote that the Mona Lisa had allowed her hair to hang
freely over her shoulders. This greatly surprised historians because
letting your hair hang freely during the Renaissance was typical of young
girls and women of poor virtue," he said.

The experts from Canada's National Research Council said the painting was
in fragile condition but should not suffer too much damage if taken care
of properly.

"The wood panel on which the Mona Lisa is painted is sensitive to
temperature and climate variations. However, if its current storage
conditions are maintained, there is no risk of degradation," the NRC said
in a statement.

"The 12 cm (3-1/2 inch) split on the top half of the painting, which was
probably due to the removal of the original frame and repaired between
the middle of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, appears to be
stable and has not worsened over time."

The council had hoped to discover more details about Leonardo's "sfumato"
technique of subtly blending one tone into another, which the artist used
to create a hazy effect. But scientist John Taylor said the team had been
frustrated by the lack of brush stroke detail on the painting.

"It's extremely thinly painted and extremely flat, and yet the details of
the curls of hair, for example are extremely distinct. So the technique
is unlike anything we've ever seen before. Leonardo was in a league of
his own," he said.

Close examination of the craquelure -- the fine pattern of cracks formed
on old paintings -- showed the paint layers were still firmly attached to
the poplar wood panel on which Leonardo created his masterpiece.

"We didn't see any sign of paint lifting. So for a 500-year-old painting
it's very good news. And if they continue to keep it the way they have in
an environment-controlled chamber, it could remain like that for a very
long time," Taylor said.

Learn Chinese Online

Friday, March 21, 2008

Learn Chinese - Mona Lisa was a new mother - expert

No comments:

Sponsor AD

Sites

Labels

Blog Archive