New light on Leonardo Da Vinci's faces

Friday, July 16, 2010 - 07:56 in Paleontology & Archaeology

How did Leonardo Da Vinci manage to paint such perfect faces? For the first time a quantitative chemical analysis has been done on seven paintings from the Louvre Museum (including the Mona Lisa) without extracting any samples. This shows the composition and thickness of each layer of material laid down by the painter. The results reveal that, in the case of glazes, thin layers of 1 to 2 micrometres have been applied. The study, led by the team of Philippe Walter, of the Laboratoire du Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musees de France (LC2RMF, CNRS/Ministere de la culture et de la communication), with the collaboration of the ESRF and the support of the Louvre Museum, is published today in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition...

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