Hidden Portraits Found Beneath the “Mona Lisa”

What secrets do her smile conceal?

Although Leonardo Da Vinci worked on his famous “Mona Lisa” over five centuries ago, her smile continues to draw visitors to The Louvre and intrigue all those who set eyes on the painting. Recently, it has come to light that the portrait may have even more secrets to share.

Pascal Cotte, a French engineer and founder of Lumière Turcotte, was given access to the “Mona Lisa” in 2004, and after analyzing the portrait, he claims to have discovered a whole new set of paintings beneath it. Using a technique called the Layer Amplification Method, he projected a series of intense lights at 13 different wavelengths onto the painting, which penetrated to various depths. By measuring the light reflected, he created a reconstruction and revealed layers that are invisible to the naked eye.

It has long been believed that the original model for the portrait was Lisa del Giocondo, also known as Lisa Gherardini, a Florentine silk merchant. But is her face actually the one featured beneath the one we know? Cotte believes that to be the case. In an interview with the BBC he said: “When I finished the reconstruction of Lisa Gherardini, I was in front of the portrait and she is totally different to Mona Lisa today. This is not the same woman.”

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Artists’ paintings evolve as they sketch and create them. The hidden images could be nothing more than steps in Da Vinci’s process. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, insists that the images don’t change anything: "I do not think there are these discrete stages which represent different portraits. I see it as more or less a continuous process of evolution. I am absolutely convinced that the Mona Lisa is Lisa."

Cotte’s discovery has stirred up a lot of controversy and the Louvre Museum has declined to comment on the story. A new documentary entitled “Secrets of the Mona Lisa” will be airing at 9pm tomorrow on BBC and may help to shed some light on the whole story.

“The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever,” Cotte said. Is the hidden face just another painting, or is it the real Mona Lisa?

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