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Inventor: Scans reveal Mona Lisa secrets
By Marcus Wohlsen
Associated Press
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SAN FRANCISCO -- For centuries, the “Mona Lisa” has beguiled art buffs unable to resist speculating on its ori-gins and meaning. Now a French inventor claims to have some answers, including the fate of the enigmatic subject’s famously missing eyebrows and lashes.

Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte says his ultra-detailed digital scans of the painting allow him to effectively burrow through layers of paint to “see” into the past of Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th-century portrait of a Florentine merchant’s wife.

The world’s most famous painting originally included both brows and lashes, according to Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte, who says his 240-megapixel scans of the painting reveal traces of Mona Lisa’s left brow, obliterated by long-ago restoration efforts.

“With just one photo you go deeper into the construction of the painting and understand that Leonardo was a genius,” Cotte said at the U.S. debut of an exhibit detailing his findings.

As a boy growing up in Paris in the 1960s, Cotte said, he spent hours staring at the “Mona Lisa” the first time he saw it at the Louvre. He later used his scientific training in light and optics to develop a camera that would let him examine the object of his obsession.

Cotte, 49, estimates he has spent 3,000 hours analyzing the data from the scans he made of the painting in the Louvre’s laboratory three years ago.

Using sensors to detect light from both the visible spectrum and the infrared and ultraviolet ranges invisible to the human eye, Cotte said, his camera allowed him to make these and other findings:

-- Da Vinci changed his mind about the position of two fingers on the subject’s left hand.

-- Her face was originally wider and the smile more expressive than Da Vinci ultimately painted them.

-- She holds a blanket that has all but faded from view today.

Cotte said his analyses also revealed what he believes are the painting’s colors as they looked on Da Vinci’s easel.

Age, varnish and restorations performed by later conservators’ hands have resulted in a painting that, in its permanent home behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre, appears saturated with heavy greens, yellows and browns.

Working with his 22-gigabyte digital photo, made using 13 different color filters rather than the typical three or four found in consumer-grade digital cameras, Cotte created a reproduction of the Mona Lisa with the light blues and brilliant whites he thinks represent the painting in its original form.

“For the next generation, we guarantee that forever you will have the true color of this painting,” Cotte said.

Though some art historians have expressed skepticism about Cotte’s findings, he hopes his technique can be used as a guide for future restoration work on not just the “Mona Lisa,” but also on aging art treasures around the world.

Since scanning the “Mona Lisa,” Cotte has made super-high-resolution photographs of more than 500 paintings, including works by Van Gogh, Brueghel, Courbet and other European masters.

“To communicate our cultural heritage to our kids, we need to provide the maximum of information,” Cotte said.

Take a look
Engineer and inventor Pascal Cotte examines a replica of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in the "Da Vinci: Exhibition of Genius" exhibit at the Metreon in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. Cotte was allowed to photograph the original masterpiece with a multispectral camera he invented and has broken it down to various versions; including an infrared image, an image with and without the varnish and a depiction of what the painting might have looked like when it was first finished by Da Vinci. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Visitors examine various versions of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in the "Da Vinci: Exhibition of Genius" exhibit at the Metreon in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 19, 2007. The exhibit showcases the work of French engineer Pascal Cotte, who was allowed to photograph the original masterpiece and has broken it down to various versions; including an infrared image, an image with and without the varnish and a depiction of what the painting might have looked like when it was first finished by Da Vinci. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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Reader comments on this story - 14 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

i painted wrote on Oct 22, 2007 4:22 PM:

" my dining room once...anyone care to come take photos and analyze. "

To: Cool wrote on Oct 22, 2007 2:55 PM:

" I agree with you but would like to point out one thing. 'Artists' will not let people enjoy their own thing. They INSIST that you must appreciate 'art' and then demands that the government subsidize their efforts. NASCAR doesn't get any funds from the government and neither does country music. Let 'art' survive on its own merits without me having to help pay for a display of urine in a jar that someone called art. "

to just how much... wrote on Oct 22, 2007 2:45 PM:

" Not that this is a post on homeless... But, have you ever stopped and talked to the homeless? I do it almost daily. They chose to be there. Either by direct choice, by not conforming by societal norms, or by crimes that they commit. Because someone choses to spend his $ and time on the arts, entertainment, sports, etc. don't shun him/her for your motives. "

Cool wrote on Oct 22, 2007 1:36 PM:

" I'm sure the guy who invented this machine hasn't donated as much money to feed the homeless as "And Just How Much?" has donated (ha ha ha), but this is very neat. It doesn't interest everyone. Just like I think Nascar is a waste of time and gas and that country "music" should be played loudly at hostage situations to flush the bad guys out, some people don't like art. What one person likes, another doesn't. It's just all part of life's rich tapestry. "

TO: I have had the wrote on Oct 22, 2007 1:04 PM:

" If it wasn't for all the history from Britain to Auschwitz to the Berlin Wall to the Acropolis and Parthenon and the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, Europe would suck. If would offer nothing but a bunch of undergroomed people who really don't like America because America does something that Americans do best, if you got flaunt it. "

I've seen it too wrote on Oct 22, 2007 12:37 PM:

" I've seen the Mona Lisa in pictures. Yep . . . it's a painting of a woman. I'm good . . . "

I have had the.. wrote on Oct 22, 2007 11:48 AM:

" chance to see the painting and visit the muesum and it is an unreal experience. The Louvre itself is really interesting to see and visit. Europe itself is a beautiful place to see. Alot of history and neat things to see. I would love to go back and spend more time seeing more. "

Hippocrates wrote on Oct 22, 2007 10:25 AM:

" Vita brevis, ars longa "

Charlie Chaplin wrote on Oct 22, 2007 10:23 AM:

" "There are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books." "

to:Just a painting wrote on Oct 22, 2007 10:20 AM:

" Yes, something more meaningful than a piece of art that has been admired and studied as one of the greatest in centuries? I'm sure you've done much better than him in your life. "

And just how much?? wrote on Oct 22, 2007 10:16 AM:

" Money is being spent here, how about it going to feeding and sheltering the homeless! Just a thought... "

Dr. Orangutan Chief Cardiologist Miller Park Zoo wrote on Oct 22, 2007 10:07 AM:

" National Mammography Day was October 19, 2007. Did Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte, get dear Mona , a mammography scan? "

Fatso wrote on Oct 22, 2007 9:38 AM:

" Right or wrong, this is pretty neat stuff. "

Just a painting wrote on Oct 22, 2007 9:34 AM:

" It's just a painting. It's not worth the effort to 'discover' what Da Vinci was thinking. The whole time he was painting it, he was thinking "Man, I sure wish I had something better to do with my life. Something more meaningful." "
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