A recent discovery by a French scientist is threating to change some of the widely accepted facts in art history. Pascal Cotte, French scientist, claims that he has found 3 layers of images underneath the "Mona Lisa."
After more than a decade of studying the Mona Lisa, Cotte finally stumbles upon something that is could change art history as we know it. Using a technology that uses intense light to reveal the layers of paint in the painting, Cotte shows the public another image underneath the most famous painting in the world.
An image of a totally different sitting woman was revealed in a digital reconstruction made by the machine that uses reflective light technology. "We can now analyze exactly what is happening inside the layers of the paint and we can peel like an onion all the layers of the painting," says Cotte, "We can reconstruct all the chronology of the creation of the painting."
For more than 500 years, it has been widely accepted in art history that the woman in the Mona Lisa painting was Lisa del Giocondo, also known as Lisa Gherardini who was a Florentine silk merchant's wife.
ABC news says, "The hidden portrait features a sitting subject who looks almost identical to the "Mona Lisa," minus small but significant differences."
The eyes of the sitter in the reconstructed image is looking on the side instead of on the eyes of the viewer. The reconstructed image does not possess the controversial smile of today's Mona Lisa.
Cotte says: "The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever."
Art historian Martin Kemp commends Cotte's innovative technique but is still unconvinced that the findings could change art history. He explains that Da Vinci painted took his time in painting the masterpiece.
The painting was commissioned on 1503 but was not finished until 1517. "There are considerable changes during the course of the making of the portrait -- as is the case with most of Leonardo's paintings," Kemp continues saying, "I prefer to see a fluid evolution from a relatively straightforward portrait of a Florentine women into a philosophical and poetic picture that has a universal dimension."
The Louvre Museum has declined to comment on Cotte's claims.
