New findings discovered regarding Leonardo da Vinci's technique

Scientists who examined the chemical structure of a very small section of the Italian inventor, architect, and painter Da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting under X-ray light have revealed that the recipe for the oil paint the artist used as a base layer on the poplar panel was different.

A team of researchers from France and England examined a section from the top right corner of the painting as small as the diameter of a human hair.

The team discovered the chemical substance "plumbonacrite," a rare composition, in the first paint layer of the Mona Lisa.

Plumbonacrite, a byproduct of lead oxide, creates a thick layer on the canvas when mixed with oil paint.

The lead author of the study, Victor Gonzalez, stated that the hypothesis previously put forward by art historians—that "the painter may have used 'lead oxide powder' to thicken his paint and help it dry when he began working on the portrait"—has been confirmed for the first time.

Expressing that Da Vinci may have been in an "experimental mood" when he began working on the "Mona Lisa," Gonzalez noted that the world-famous painter loved to experiment.

Stating that each of the famous painter's works is technically completely different, Gonzalez commented that it was interesting to see that there was indeed a special technique for the base layer of the Mona Lisa.

Gonzalez, who had previously encountered the substance "plumbonacrite" in the paintings of the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt, who lived after Leonardo da Vinci, emphasized that this also shows that recipes were passed down over the centuries.

SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN FINDINGS REGARDING THIS TECHNIQUE OF THE PAINTER ARE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

Italian art expert and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Carmen Bambach, also described the research as "very exciting."

Bambach said that the new, scientifically proven findings regarding Leonardo da Vinci's painting techniques are "extremely important."

Stating that the presence of "plumbonacrite" in the Mona Lisa is proof of Leonardo's passion as a painter and that he was constantly experimenting, Bambach expressed that this passion and constant experimentation made the legendary master of the Renaissance period "timeless and modern."

The famous Renaissance-era work "Mona Lisa," which the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci is said to have painted between 1503 and 1507, depicting Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, continues to be exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The results of the research were published in the journal of the American Chemical Society.