I'm a journalist with particular expertise in the arts, popular science, health, religion and spirituality. As the former culture editor at news and technology website CNET, I led a team that tracked movies, TV shows, online trends and science—from space and robotics to climate, AI and archaeology.
A tiny sample from a hidden corner of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” has revealed a big secret. The famously experimental artist painted the 16th century portrait using a lead compound not previously detected in Italian Renaissance paintings.to analyze the chemical composition of da Vinci’s paint mixture, scientists in France and Britain examined microscopic fragments from the “Mona Lisa” and “Last Supper,” another of the artist's most well-known works.
Many paintings of the time, including the “Mona Lisa,” were painted on wooden panels. The study concludes that da Vinci likely added the lead oxide to create an opaque preparatory undercoat thick enough to cover the wood. The research reflects theto their pigments, but evidence of the technique hadn't surfaced before now in paintings from the earlier time of da Vinci, who lived from 1492 through 1519.
Researchers led by Victor Gonzalez, a chemist at France’s top research body, the CNRS, scoured da Vinci’s manuscripts to confirm the long-held hypothesis that the artist added lead oxide to his paint mixture, but they didn’t spot any solid references. Then, a eureka moment: They discovered a lead mineral called plumbonacrite in the first layer of paint from the da Vinci artworks. They believe it formed due to a chemical interaction between the oil and the lead oxide.
In digging deeper into how da Vinci formulated his palette, researchers have demonstrated that there are still mysteries left to mine.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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