《蒙娜麗莎》“雙胞胎”版驚豔亮相
西班牙馬德里普拉多博物館日前發現了達芬奇名畫《蒙娜麗莎》的最早“雙胞胎”。相關專家斷定，從模特以及背景驚人的相似度來看，該畫作者當時應該是與師傅達芬奇在同一工作室面對蒙娜麗莎本人同時作畫。由於該畫作500年來一直覆蓋在層層油彩之下，罕與空氣和塵埃接觸，不曾發生過脫落與變色。與現收藏於盧浮宮略顯晦暗的《蒙娜麗莎》“本尊”相比，該畫作中的蒙娜麗莎面色清新紅潤，不沾歲月痕跡，活脫脫一個“凍容”版《蒙娜麗莎》。
這一發現將加深世界藝術愛好者對達芬奇“真跡”——《蒙娜麗莎》的理解，讓世人得以窺見這位世界上最美麗女人的真實容顏。普拉多博物館將於本月稍後將該畫作公之於衆。
The earliest known copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" -- thought to have been painted at the same time as the original masterpiece -- has been discovered at the Prado museum in Madrid, Spain.
The work offers art-lovers a tantalizing hint of what the model for the world's most famous painting really looked like.
Conservators found the portrait hidden beneath layers of black overpainting during restoration work on a picture initially thought to have been a later replica of the "Mona Lisa."
The restored version shows the same woman that Leonardo depicted, against a landscape similar to that shown in the background of the original, which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.
And while the features of Leonardo's subject have been dulled by centuries of dirt and layers of cracked varnish -- which are unlikely ever to be removed -- in the recently-rediscovered copy, she appears fresher faced and younger than her better-known "twin."
News of the find was revealed at a symposium at London's National Gallery, linked to its blockbuster "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan" exhibition, and reported in the Art Newspaper.
"This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world's most famous picture," the Art Newspaper reported, adding that the underdrawing found on the Madrid version "suggests that the original and the copy were begun at the same time and painted next to each other, as the work evolved."
Miguel Falomir, curator of Italian painting at the Prado, told a press conference at the museum expert analysis suggested a strong link between Leonardo and the artist who painted the copy.
"The painting was done in the painter's own workshop," he was quoted by AFP as saying.
"It is absolutely consistent with Leonardo's work," he said, but he added: "It is a work in which Leonardo himself did not intervene."
The painting is expected to be unveiled to the public at the Prado Museum later this month.
It will then go on display at the Louvre in March, as part of the "Leonardo's Final Masterpiece" exhibition, which focuses on his work, "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne."
