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Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is, arguably, the most famous painting in the world. But would it be devalued if it wasn’t the original? We might soon find out, because a very similar painting from the same period has surfaced — and it’s by a different artist.
This painting has been discovered by conservators at the Prado art museum in Madrid, Spain, reports the Guardian, and it looks extremely similar to the one painted by da Vinci. Once hidden beneath black overpaint, new research reveals that it was in fact painted by a pupil working alongside Leonardo, reports the Arts Newspaper.
Comapred to da Vinci’s version, which hasn’t been cleaned for a long time, this painting looks fresh and vibrant, giving a taste of what the world-famous picture may have looked like when it was first painted. In fact, the restoration work of the Prado painting isn’t yet complete, which is why there’s only this small section to admire. The picture should be fully restored by March, when it will go on exhibition in the Louvre in Paris.
As to whether this painting pre-dates da Vinci’s work, nobody has yet been bold enough to say either way. So, for now at least, it remains unclear whether the master’s work will be usurped by his student’s. [The Guardian; Image: Museo Nacional del Prado]
No.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_Law_of_Headlines
If it is possibly painted alongside Da Vinci himself, how is it going to pre-date the original piece? Could have been finished before but they are both of the same time.
Due to how fragile the Mona Lisa is, it’s pretty good to see how it might have originally looked since it’s unable to be restored.
But I don’t see it taking the place of the original Da Vinci painting, that name alone makes the price of the Mona Lisa much much more then this painting by his student. Though having Da Vinci’s name attached to this new painting isn’t going to exactly hurt its price either.
It won’t show how the Mona Lisa original looked, it will show how a contemporary restorer thinks an assistant in Leo’s studio painted – in other words, it tells us sweet fa about the Mona Lisa.
Might have originally looked. Still the chance there is a giant purple bouncy castle in the background that’s not been restored yet.
Yeah, considering that the Mona Lisa is definately maybe Vinci, in a dress. It makes sense, that histories most over rated painting was painted by a student/friend. Leonardo had a sense of humour.
Leo had a studio full of assistants who’s job was to make his life easy, they trained up by copying works of their master, hence why such a painting would appear and is unsurprising.
It looks like Leo because he painted it over many years, and a lot of Leo’s sketches look like himself, while technically a great painter he wasn’t the best artistically speaking in creating a good likeness – he deviated far too much to do any better.
But many artists suffer from portraits looking like themselves, it is the standard model of what a face is, and in a real sense all an artist is ever doing is creating a picture of themselves – like every landscape Van Gogh painted.
Should the ‘original’ Mona Lisa come after this one, I would think the value would only increase – it would become the painting that tricked the world for 500 years.