World Paintings

It’s impossible to quantify the copies of the Mona Lisa in the world. The number may range from 10 to 15 as some say.
Madrid’s Prado Museum unveiled a restored version of the so-called Mona Lisa Of The Prado, in which the woman the Italian artist painted, with her enigmatic smile, sat previously against a background of black paint. At the Prado they are convinced that the version of Leonardo’s masterpiece in the museum is the oldest of all. It was presented today after a period of restoration. According to scholars, the masterpiece was painted by a pupil of the genius, and it is contemporary to the original. It is a work “created in the workshop of Leonardo, although without the direct intervention of the teacher,” said the curator for the Italian Art Department of the Museum, Miguel Falomir.
The restoration of recent months have made it possible to reveal the landscape, highlighting the similarity between the two frameworks, beginning from the enigmatic smile. The “Mona Lisa del Prado” will be exhibited next to the original in the Louvre starting March 26.

source