The painting of the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows, was it just the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off, or have they disappeared over time?
French art expert Pascal Cotte said Leonardo da Vinci built the painting up in layers, the last being a special glaze whose optical properties increased the illusion of a three-dimensional face. Above the glaze Leonardo painted details such as the eyebrows. Cotte said: "That could explain why the eyebrows have disappeared – they have faded because of chemical reactions or they have been cleaned off."
He has uncovered a host of secrets about the Mona Lisa using a 240 megapixel camera. It can measure light so sensitively as to see through the top paint surface and uncover the layers below.
For example, infra-red imaging shows Leonardo moved the position of a finger on the left hand "to give a more relaxed position, consistent with the smile", Cotte said.
French art expert Pascal Cotte said Leonardo da Vinci built the painting up in layers, the last being a special glaze whose optical properties increased the illusion of a three-dimensional face. Above the glaze Leonardo painted details such as the eyebrows. Cotte said: "That could explain why the eyebrows have disappeared – they have faded because of chemical reactions or they have been cleaned off."
He has uncovered a host of secrets about the Mona Lisa using a 240 megapixel camera. It can measure light so sensitively as to see through the top paint surface and uncover the layers below.
For example, infra-red imaging shows Leonardo moved the position of a finger on the left hand "to give a more relaxed position, consistent with the smile", Cotte said.