The Isleworth Mona Lisa: A second Leonardo masterpiece?

Some say Leonardo’s masterpiece has a twin – another portrait of the Florentine merchant’s wife, painted when she was younger.

One of the surprising things about Leonardo da Vinci is that despite his colossal reputation as an artist he didn’t actually produce many paintings. Over the course of a long career lasting almost half a century, he began probably no more than 20 pictures. Only 15 have survived that scholars agree are wholly his.

So the discovery of a new painting by Leonardo would be a very big deal indeed. According to recent reports, a picture by the 19th Century French artist Paul Gauguin has been sold privately for a record-breaking $300 million. Imagine how much an authentic Leonardo could make if one ever came to the market.

The thing is, attributing artworks to Leonardo is notoriously difficult. One painting currently touring cities across Asia exemplifies what. It used to be known as the “Isleworth Mona Lisa”, but its current owners have rebranded it the “Earlier Mona Lisa” because they believe that Leonardo himself painted parts of it a decade or so before beginning arguably the most famous picture in the world.

At first glance, it is remarkably similar to the Louvre’s Mona Lisa. A woman with dark hair and an enigmatic smile sits at a slight angle to the viewer on a loggia opening onto a panoramic landscape. Except this woman is obviously much younger than the subject of the Louvre painting. If Mona Lisa had been painted a decade earlier, then this is how she would appear.

Source: BBC

N.H.Khider