In the Flesh
June 12,
2009 -- Leonardo da
Vinci, in a Renaissance version of Mad Magazine, may have painted
his famous Mona Lisa in a number of ways, including nude. Now, a
painting has surfaced that looks much like the original, sparking
debate over just how far the master took his iconic
painting.
The newly revealed painting,
hidden for almost a century within the wood wall of a private
library, shows a portrait of a half-naked woman with clear links to
the famous (and clothed) Mona Lisa.
The work, which documents suggest
was at least based on never-seen similar work by Da Vinci, is now
on exhibit at the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, where
Da Vinci was born in 1452.
The lady in the portrait does not
exactly resemble the original Mona Lisa, but there is little doubt
it has parallels with the painting hanging at the Louvre museum in
Paris.
"The frontal look, the position of
the hands, the spatial conception of the landscape, with columns at
the sides, show a clear link with the Mona Lisa's iconographic
theme," Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the museum, told Discovery
News.
The naked portrait once belonged
to Napoleon's uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839) and was
ensconced within the wood walls of Fesch's private library for
nearly a century, before trading more hands within the Napolean
family.
An art lover, the Cardinal owned
an impressive collection of artworks, including Da Vinci's "St.
Jerome" (now in the Vatican gallery), which he discovered in pieces
in the Roman shops of a second-hand dealer.
A note dating to 1845 records that
the Cardinal bought "the portrait of the Mona Lisa, mistress of
Francis I, by Leonardo da Vinci," from the Rospigliosis, a rich
aristocratic Roman family.
After changing hands at the death
of the Cardinal, the portrait was possibly bought by Napoleon III,
and finally landed in the private collection of Count Giuseppe
Primoli, a descendant of Luciano Bonaparte, Napoleon's
brother.
The documentation from the
painting's original purchase is not enough to verify the work is by
Da Vinci, himself. The nude portrait will now undergo scientific
and artistic investigations in an attempt to date the work and
determine its author. Even if it is not by Da Vinci (and it likely
isn't, experts say), it may be based on a lost original by the
artist himself.
"I think it is very likely that
Leonardo da Vinci conceived a naked Mona Lisa," leading Da Vinci
scholar Carlo Pedretti, director of the Armand Hammer Center for
Leonardo Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles,
told Discovery News.
Indeed, several other claims of
unclothed Mona Lisas have been made over the years, pointing to the
theory that Da Vinci might have had fun with the famous image he
had created around 1503-1506.
"There are at least six nude
version which are very close to Da Vinci's hand. All are attributed
to the Da Vinci school. The most likely scenario is that his
followers got inspired by a now-lost original," Vezzosi
said.
According to Vezzosi, the original
naked Mona might have been part of a series of erotic portraits by
Da Vinci and his pupils, which were never really shown because they
were considered inappropriate.
Called "Monna Vanna," the topless
versions of the Mona Lisa are indeed often considered the portraits
of a court mistress or prostitute.
Nevertheless, these paintings
inspired nudes by other artists, including Raphaello's 1518
portrait of his mistress, "The Baker Girl."
"Our quest for naked Mona Lisas
continues. We are now on the tracks of another interesting version
in Las Vegas," Vezzosi said.