Is this ‘topless Mona Lisa’ a long-lost sketch by Leonardo?
ART experts believe a nude sketch which bears a striking resemblance to the Mona Lisa may be a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci.
It had previously been thought that the Monna Vanna sketch, held at France’s Conde Museum in Chantilly, had been pencilled by students.
But scientists at the Louvre in Paris, where the Mona Lisa is displayed, have been examining the charcoal drawing for several months and now believe it may have been produced by the great Italian.
After a month of extensive testing, experts believe the sketch is at least in part by Leonardo.
Curator Mathieu Deldicque explained: “The drawing has a quality in the way the face and hands are rendered that is truly remarkable. It is not a pale copy.
“We are looking at something which was worked on in parallel with the Mona Lisa at the end of Leonardo’s life. It is almost certainly a preparatory work for an oil painting.”
Experts say the hands and body in the sketch were almost identical to that of the Mona Lisa.
The drawing is almost the same size as the Mona Lisa and small holes pierced around the figure suggest it may have been used to trace its form on to a canvas.
A Louvre conservation expert confirmed the drawing was created during Leonardo’s lifetime at the turn of the 16th century.
Bruno Mottin said tests had revealed the high-quality work was not a copy of a lost original. But he warned that “we must remain prudent” about definitively attributing the sketch to Leonardo, who died in Amboise, France, in 1519.
Mr Mottin added: “The hatching on the top of the drawing near the head was done by a right-handed person. Leonardo drew with his left hand. It is a job that is going to take some time. It is a very difficult drawing to work on because it is particularly fragile.”
About 20 paintings and drawings of a nude Mona Lisa exist in collections across the world but most have proved very difficult to date.