Leonardo da Vinci used poisonous pigments when he painted the Mona Lisa
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When Leonardo da Vinci was creating his masterpiece Mona LisaHe could have experimented with lead oxide within the substrate, leading to hint quantities of a compound referred to as Bluebonacrete. It’s shaped when lead oxides mix with oil, and is a typical combination to assist dry paint, and has been utilized by later artists Like Rembrandt. However the presence of plumponacre in Mona Lisa That is the primary time the compound has been found in an Italian Renaissance portray, suggesting that da Vinci may have pioneered the approach, in accordance with the examine’s authors. Recent paper Revealed within the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Fewer than 20 of Da Vinci’s work have survived, and their quantity continues to be in existence Mona Lisa It’s Nat King Cole’s most well-known and provoking Nineteen Fifties tune and was featured prominently on final 12 months’s album. Glass Onions: A Knives Thriller, amongst different popular culture references. The portray is in remarkably good situation given its age, however artwork conservators and da Vinci students alike are eager to study as a lot as doable in regards to the supplies the Renaissance grasp used to create his works.
There have been some Modern scientific investigations Of Da Vinci’s works, which revealed that he diverse within the supplies utilized in his work, particularly with regard to the bottom layers utilized between the floor of the wooden panel and subsequent layers of paint. For instance, for him Virgin and Youngster with Saint Anne (c. 1503–1519), used a typical Italian Renaissance model Jisoo For the bottom layer, adopted by a white lead priming layer. However for La belle veronier (c. 1495–1497), da Vinci used an oil floor coat made from white and crimson lead.
For his giant murals, Last Supper– His second most well-known work – he used a white, oil-based lead primer as a substitute of the normal one Fresco Approach. As for Mona LisaVaried X-ray analyzes of the portray confirmed the presence of heavy parts inside the poplar wooden panel, which can imply that da Vinci used a lead-based pigment or a lead-treated oil medium throughout milling. The bottom layer seems to be a single layer of white lead with no Jisoo.
in. Gonzalez et al., 2023
In different phrases, da Vinci was continually experimenting together with his inventive supplies. “From 1485 to 1490, each recognized portray by Leonardo presents a distinct sort of floor layer,” Victor Gonzalez of the College of Paris-Salcay and his colleagues wrote of their paper. “Their solely widespread options are that they’re oil-based and include a white lead pigment referred to as White lead Leonardo in his writings.
Gonzalez et al. I made a decision to take a better look Mona LisaThe bottom layer was mixed with In later work. These embody a part of a portray by Vincent van Gogh – almost definitely as a result of Deterioration From the crimson pigment of lead because of publicity to mild, and in thick white lead dough Used by Rembrandt in many of His most notable work Evening surveillance.
