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00:00the Mona Lisa bewitching seductive world-famous in the minds of millions
00:12she is the ultimate work of art endlessly photographed and admired yet behind the
00:19enigmatic smile she remains a mystery who was she why was she painted and what
00:26has made her the world's most famous painting after 500 years in the spotlight the Mona Lisa
00:34is finally giving up her secrets centuries-old documents are at last revealing long-forgotten
00:41truths this is wonderful I've got a shiver down my spine state-of-the-art technology is taking us
00:49beneath the painted surface to decode astonishing new evidence that's extraordinary wow that's quite
00:59a big discovery isn't it this investigation the first full forensic examination of the latest
01:07discoveries takes me round the world in the hunt for the truth about Leonardo da Vinci's
01:14masterpiece with exclusive access and some extraordinary encounters the first impression
01:22when I came in was I did well not to jump backwards in in shock these revelations will change everything
01:30we thought we knew about history's most enigmatic work of art that's great so we just made a new
01:37discovery and unlocked the secrets of the Mona Lisa all of this together marks an extraordinary moment in
01:46the history of art but more than that this is quite simply one of the stories of the century
02:07five hundred years ago a man painted a woman the man was Leonardo da Vinci artist inventor genius and
02:26the result of his work was the inscrutable portrait we now know as the Mona Lisa it's a masterpiece and one
02:34of the few works he actually finished so what draws us to the Mona Lisa she's not a famous monarch or a
02:44legendary historical figure we know hardly anything about her so what is it about this picture that's
02:50grips the human imagination for so many centuries I want to begin my investigation by comparing notes
02:59with the detective who's been on the case for more than 30 years one of the world's leading experts on
03:06Leonardo da Vinci Oxford professor Martin Kemp has spent much of his life obsessed by the mystery of
03:12the Mona Lisa what do you think is that the key to the Mona Lisa's extraordinary stature as without doubt the
03:23world's most famous painting well there has to be something inherent in the picture some things are
03:29famous for being famous and we live in an age of celebrity and lots of celebrities are famous for
03:34being famous but they're not going to last this has gone on for ages it is just extraordinary you've got
03:42this sense of a something which is beyond pigment and beyond the good likeness and being beyond the face and
03:48it it it just has that totally uncanny living presence it's very daring at the time for a woman in a
03:56portrait to look at you you know women's portraits simply didn't do that and I think the ambiguity the
04:02the the tease the visual tease is something that Leonardo absolutely cultivated
04:09look at the Mona Lisa and you can't help feeling there's more going on than meets the eye
04:18if her teasing smiles a question mark the paintings a riddle what makes a human being live and breathe
04:26what forces govern the world we live in Leonardo thought about these questions as deeply as anyone
04:33and behind this breathtakingly lifelike image lay years of investigation into spheres of knowledge like
04:41geology and anatomy some of which were forbidden by the church tantalizing evidence for the
04:48research that went into the Mona Lisa lies hidden in Windsor Castle amongst the gems of the royal
04:55collection is an intriguing clue to the genesis of the portrait a page from what might be called the
05:02real da Vinci code if you want to see or have some sense of just how much work there was behind the
05:13surface of the picture then this is a great place to start it's sheet of drawings by Leonardo's own hand
05:19and what does it contain in faint outline look here it's a bit like the Cheshire Cat it's the Mona Lisa's
05:30smile without the Mona Lisa attached it may well have been Leonardo's first gropings towards his idea for the
05:40painting it's a series of studies of the human mouth the motions of the mouth how the mouth puckers how the
05:49mouth bears its teeth you have a very strong sense that for Leonardo every picture is a kind of
05:56encyclopedia entry and this is just that part of it dealing with the mouth it's just the tip of the iceberg
06:08the Mona Lisa is the work into which Leonardo poured everything he knew about humanity and the world that
06:21surrounds us with its ceaseless play of light and shade but there's a mystery there too and it's staring
06:29us in the face who is the woman with the enigmatic smile it's a question that has fueled all kinds of
06:40speculation ranging from the ingenious to the crackpot she's a pregnant mother-to-be she's a
06:48prostitute she's even a man in drag but if you look beyond the theories there are clues to her true identity
06:57Florence 1500 after many years away Leonardo da Vinci has returned to the city of his youth he's come
07:14back to work on ambitious military projects for powerful men he says he's too busy to paint portraits
07:21of wealthy aristocrats who clamor after him yet according to one writer Leonardo somehow finds
07:29time to paint the portrait not of a noble woman but of a humble merchant's wife called Lisa it was
07:37here that Leonardo da Vinci began the most famous painting in the world and it was here that Giorgio
07:45Vasari the inventor of the very idea of the renaissance the author of the very first book about
07:52the renaissance produced exhibit a in the case of the Mona Lisa the very first account of the painting
08:00who was she she was the wife of Francesco del Giacondo a rich merchant he commissioned Leonardo to
08:09create her portrait and Leonardo responded with a picture says Vasari so miraculously lifelike that
08:16it seems to be made of flesh not paint Leonardo he says wanted to avoid the melancholy that
08:24dominates so many other portraits so he employed musicians entertainers buffoons to keep her amused so
08:33there you have it the wife of Francesco del Giacondo and the smile caused by entertainers hired by the
08:41artist an open and shut case or is it how can we be sure that Vasari was right and that Leonardo did indeed
08:51paint Lisa del Giacondo after all Vasari wrote his account 30 years after Leonardo's death and although he did his
09:01homework here in Florence he never disclosed his sources so could it just be hearsay some inaccurate
09:10local legend for centuries there was no way of telling then suddenly new evidence emerged from a
09:19completely unexpected source in 2006 a research scholar working in the University Library of Heidelberg turned up
09:30this what it is is a page from a copy of Cicero the ancient Roman author a book that was once owned here in Florence by a man called Agostino Vespucci and not only does it have Cicero's text but it's got Vespucci's commentaries and this particular passage
09:53is crucial because it's crucial because in it Cicero is discussing Apelles the ancient Greek artist
10:00and his remarks prompt Vespucci to make his own note his marginal note and what he writes it's a kind of bombshell in the history of Leonardo's studies he says Apelles
10:12he did just the same thing as Leonardo in his portrait of Lisa del Giacondo and best of all there's a date October 1503 so this was written almost immediately after Vespucci must have seen the portrait of Lisa del Giacondo in Leonardo da Vinci's workshop this is gold dust and it proves that
10:37Vasari was definitely was definitely right in at least one sense all along Leonardo definitely did paint a portrait of Lisa del Giacondo
10:44there you have it independent testimony from a man in Florence in 1503 who probably saw the picture still wet on the artist's easel
10:51but now there's another question why did Leonardo paint Lisa when the great and powerful couldn't coax a picture from him
10:59why agree to paint this obscure
11:17one man has made it his life's work to uncover forgotten secrets about Lisa
11:21Giuseppe Palanti has found new details in the City Archive
11:26in the city archive, historical dynamite,
11:30beginning with the house where Lisa,
11:32daughter of the Garrardinis, was born.
11:39On this street, this is the street where the Mona Lisa once lived.
11:42Yes, Lisa lived in the dark and narrow street of Florence.
11:48What was her family background?
11:56So they were small workers, as it were, laborers.
11:59So, you're not a big woman?
12:03No, where Lisa was born.
12:06It was an old shop for the wood processing,
12:12which was transformed into a house.
12:15It gives an idea of a family that doesn't have great riches,
12:20because the Garrardinis never had a house in Florence.
12:24And they never had their own house in Florence.
12:26No.
12:28Giuseppe's discoveries have deepened the mystery.
12:32If Lisa's origins were so humble,
12:34why did the notoriously choosy Leonardo consent to paint her?
12:40In another part of town, Giuseppe believes he's found the answer.
12:45We are here to see the house,
12:50the place where Lisa has met Francesco del Giocondo
12:56and has married Francesco del Giocondo.
12:58The place is there.
13:00It is important for another reason,
13:03because in front of this building lived Sir Piero, Leonardo's father.
13:09Hang on, say that again.
13:10Lisa Gherardini was living here at the time.
13:15Yes.
13:16Leonardo da Vinci's father was living there.
13:19Yes.
13:20I think that Leonardo was from the father to find the father,
13:24so the family of Leonardo da Vinci
13:28lived almost in front of the house of Mona Lisa.
13:31Oh, incredible!
13:33There's another connection, another connection.
13:36Francesco del Giocondo era cliente di Ser Piero.
13:41Ser Piero era uno dei più influenti e importanti notai di Firenze.
13:45So he was a...
13:47You're saying that Francesco del Giocondo, the merchant,
13:49he was actually a client of Leonardo's father?
13:51Yes.
13:52Well, this is all new.
13:53Yes.
13:54This is all new.
13:56For the first time, we have a concrete connection
13:59between Leonardo and Lisa.
14:02Not only were they neighbours,
14:04their families did business together.
14:07And there's more.
14:09Giuseppe tells me that according to police records of the time,
14:13Francesco had a bit of a reputation.
14:16Described as garoso, meaning swaggering,
14:20he wasn't just a merchant on the rise,
14:22but an aggressive dealmaker who'd stop at almost nothing
14:26to get his way.
14:28Maybe this is the real reason Leonardo agreed to paint his wife.
14:33Maybe Francesco made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
14:42In the parish church of San Lorenzo,
14:44there's another crucial piece of evidence,
14:47something that had slipped through the net of history
14:50until just a few years ago, when Giuseppe found it,
14:54the record of Mona Lisa's death.
15:01Wonderful thing.
15:04The handwriting isn't very easy to follow,
15:07because the entries in these books weren't actually made by notaries
15:11like Leonardo da Vinci's father.
15:12They were actually made by the priests in the church,
15:16but I think I have found her.
15:19Here she is.
15:23This is wonderful.
15:24Ooh, I've got a shiver down my spine.
15:26Lisa, Donna, who the Francesco del Giocondo.
15:34So, Lisa, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo,
15:40Mori died on the 15th of July, 1542.
15:48Just, I think what I love about this is this is truth.
15:55You know, what could be more true than the record of somebody's death?
15:58She was a real person.
16:02She was a real person.
16:05And there's one other sentence in this entry,
16:09which my friend Palanti didn't mention.
16:14It says that she was buried in Santa Ursula.
16:17He told me that.
16:18But what he didn't say is this last sentence,
16:20tolsa tutto il capitolo.
16:23Four words.
16:26She took with her the whole capitolo.
16:31What that means is that her body was followed by the whole body of the church of San Lorenzo.
16:38So, what is conjured up by this is a very, very grand funeral.
16:44And for this brief moment in July, 1542,
16:49she was a very, very important person in the life of the city.
16:53Everybody in Florence would have known that Mona Lisa had passed away.
17:05A spectacular funeral.
17:08Dozens of cannons, chaplains, and clerics.
17:11The whole del Giacondo clan walking with Lisa's coffin.
17:15Francesco had died five years earlier.
17:18But he made sure he provided for all this pomp and ceremony in his will.
17:23Where she's described as his beloved, faithful wife.
17:29Lisa del Giacondo was laid to rest in the now ruined convent of Santa Ursula.
17:34Beyond here, we can't follow her.
17:37Though we've learned a lot.
17:39Leonardo definitely knew Lisa.
17:42Definitely painted her portrait.
17:46But if one riddle's been answered, there's still another mystery to solve.
17:51How can we be certain that Leonardo's portrait of Lisa and the portrait in the Louvre are one and the same?
18:00So what are the facts?
18:12According to Vasari, Leonardo painted Lisa smiling in Florence.
18:17Vespucci's marginal notes confirm that it happened in 1503.
18:22The picture in the Louvre shows a woman smiling.
18:26So far, so good.
18:29But other things don't add up.
18:32Vasari describes eyebrows.
18:35But the Louvre portrait doesn't have eyebrows.
18:39Vasari tells us Leonardo painted Lisa for Francesco del Giacondo.
18:45But Francesco never owned the portrait we now call the Mona Lisa.
18:50Leonardo had it with him when he died.
18:53Most troubling of all is an eyewitness account written by a man called Antonio de Beatis.
18:59He was actually shown the picture that's now in the Louvre by Leonardo himself at the end of his life.
19:06Leonardo said he'd been asked to paint this portrait not by Francesco del Giacondo,
19:12but by someone completely different.
19:15A noble patron, Giuliano de' Medici.
19:20It simply doesn't make sense.
19:22It's almost as if we might be talking about different paintings.
19:29So I'm beginning to wonder whether it's not possible.
19:33Leonardo did paint two versions of the same painting on several occasions.
19:39I'm beginning to wonder if it's not possible that he did indeed finish his portrait of the Mona Lisa here in Florence.
19:45That he did indeed give it to Francesco del Giacondo.
19:49And that the portrait of Mona Lisa in Paris is a second version.
19:52Is it possible that there might be more than one Mona Lisa?
19:57The idea is not as strange as you might think.
20:03Leonardo did habitually revisit the same subject more than once.
20:08I've come to Singapore to see for the first time a picture that might actually be Leonardo's first version of the painting.
20:24It's owned by an anonymous consortium of businessmen and is currently locked away deep in the bowels of a state-of-the-art high-security storage facility.
20:38So could this be the first Mona Lisa?
20:58I've come 7,000 miles to see you.
21:05Blimey.
21:08Blimey.
21:22The backgrounds, you might almost say, are kind of roughing in.
21:24But the face, huh?
21:27The face is really something.
21:29She's younger. She's smiling.
21:33There's a lot to be said for first impressions and, er...
21:35to be said for first impressions and the first impression when I came in was I did well not to
21:43jump backwards in shock. It's too good in my opinion for any of the other school of Leonardo
21:51painters. Very dangerous things like this, very dangerous to say this is definitely painted by
21:58Leonardo da Vinci. Well I can't say that but I think it's not beyond the realms of possibility
22:04that this is the picture that Francesco del Giocondo took and then the Leonardo goes off paints another
22:10picture based on the memory of this picture and that's the Mona Lisa we know in the Louvre.
22:18It's very teasing that smile isn't it? Very teasing.
22:28This version of the Mona Lisa first hit the headlines in 1914.
22:33British art dealer Hugh Blaker bought it from a private family collection and was convinced he'd
22:39stumbled across an early Leonardo. He kept it in his Isleworth studios and it became known as the
22:47Isleworth Mona Lisa. One thing in its favour was its similarity to this pencil sketch copy of the Mona Lisa
22:57done in Florence in 1504 by Leonardo's contemporary Raphael which seems to show how the painting looked in its
23:05original state. Yet after a century of supporters detractors and different owners opinion on the
23:14Isleworth painting is still divided. One man who is convinced that Leonardo painted two Mona Lisas is
23:23Jean-Pierre Isbauts. He was so impressed by the Isleworth portrait he wrote a book about it.
23:29So what would lead you to think that the Isleworth picture
23:38was indeed painted in 1503? What is to say that it wasn't painted in 1553?
23:44Well I don't know about you but when you talk about a copy usually a copy tries to imitate the
23:49original. This is not a copy. There are so many different things about this particular Isleworth
23:56version that do not appear in the Louvre version. Let's take one example. The columns.
24:02The portrait is framed by two robust Doric columns. Why do we know that those columns existed in 1503
24:12and not later on? Because there is Raphael. He makes a sketch. And what do we have on both sides?
24:18We have the columns that appear in the Isleworth. They do not appear in the Louvre version. Let's talk
24:26about the record written by De Beatis, the secretary to Cardinal Daragon who visited Leonardo in 1516.
24:33Which is seriously puzzling. Which is seriously puzzling. But here is, here we have an eyewitness account.
24:39Here they are in the room with Leonardo. And he says, yeah this this was done at the request of
24:47Giuliano. Instigazione. Instigazione. I think what he was doing at this time is give Giuliano credit.
24:54Giuliano bailed Leonardo out when Leonardo was without a mentor, panelists. And that's when Leonardo,
25:02because of the patronage and the financial support of Giuliano, finds the time to create this new
25:08meditation, if you will, the Louvre version. So your explanation would be, well, here we are.
25:13Two different explanations, but then that's not so weird if you think there are two different pictures.
25:17Exactly.
25:20Jean-Pierre firmly believes this could be Leonardo's first Mona Lisa, done for husband Francesco.
25:26But if so, why would it be unfinished? Well, we know Leonardo was slow and Francesco was impatient.
25:37So perhaps he just snatched it away from Leonardo, once his beloved Lisa's face was complete.
25:43A barrage of scientific tests have been carried out on this tantalising picture.
25:50The canvas was carbon dated to around the right period. Multiple tiny paint samples are consistent
25:57with the paints Leonardo used. X-ray, infrared and ultraviolet scans have found nothing to disprove it
26:07as an early Mona Lisa. But that's the problem. All that conventional tests can do is rule out a possible
26:15Leonardo. What about positive confirmation? An eminent scientist based in San Diego, California,
26:24has been looking for a solution. Hello. Good to see you, Andrew.
26:31Dr. John Asmus is a well-respected nuclear physicist and a pioneer in the analysis of historic paintings.
26:40He's one of very few who've been allowed to examine the Louvre Mona Lisa. And that's why the owners of
26:47the Isleworth Mona Lisa tracked him down. I started receiving phone calls from a series of
26:56attorneys in Switzerland. And they wanted me to look at a painting. And finally, we found that I was
27:04going to be on a train from Milan to Geneva. And they asked me to get off the train in Lausanne
27:12and take a look at their painting. And so they met me at the train station and they popped the bonnet of
27:19an automobile. And there was a Mona Lisa in the trunk. And the attorney asked me,
27:29do you think this Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo? And my exact words were, how would I know?
27:36So I got out my Instamatic camera and took a photograph of the painting in the trunk. And it
27:43was that image that I then compared with the Louvre Mona Lisa.
27:51A few years ago, Dr. Asmus developed a new test to authenticate paintings by Rembrandt.
27:57It compares the subtle distribution of light and shadow, measured as histograms,
28:02to isolate an artist's unique way of painting.
28:05I think it's a way of trying to quantify the artist's eye. Every artist has certain
28:14effects that he's trying to accomplish. And we used Rembrandt as a test case. And the results were
28:20rather encouraging. We came up with some general rules as to how Rembrandt did his blending and his
28:27selection of pigments. So I tried that same technique on the Eisenworth Mona Lisa, comparing it with the
28:34Louvre Mona Lisa. And I was stunned. The correlation between those two histograms was 99%, stronger than
28:45it was between any histograms of any of the Rembrandt self-portraits that we'd looked at.
28:51How amazing!
28:54This demonstrates that the technique for blending light and shade in each face appears uncannily similar.
29:04John plans to build a much bigger database of Leonardo works with which to compare them.
29:12His results are impressive.
29:16But there's something still troubling me.
29:21I would love to believe that that softly emerging face coming out of darkness really is
29:27young Mona Lisa. I'd love to believe that. But at the moment for me it's that too good to be true
29:37syndrome. It's a little bit too good. It's troubling when I look at that chart that they've done of where
29:45they've taken the paint samples from. They've taken the paint samples from everywhere except that
29:50beguiling face. Which is the most compelling part of the whole picture. It's the part that makes you think,
29:57yes, this could be the young Mona Lisa. I'm just wondering whether it's possible that some very
30:06skilful, careful restorer, sometime before John Asmus saw it in the boots of that car,
30:16didn't just bring that face up. Didn't just make whatever ghost or trace of possibly a Mona Lisa copy
30:28into something so much more compelling to the modern eye. To me, not to test that. It's like a detective
30:39and his team coming to investigate the scene of a crime, the scene of a murder, and fingerprinting
30:46every square inch of it, but forgetting to take fingerprints from the knife on the bed covered with blood.
30:53I could be wrong. Maybe Leonardo did paint this face in 1503 while Lisa sat in front of him. But until
31:04the face is tested, doubt remains. And to me, she just looks a bit too 20th century.
31:13But I'm still convinced that Leonardo did paint two Mona Lisas. If the Isleworth painting isn't the earlier
31:21version, then it's either lost or still out there somewhere. And believe it or not,
31:29now there's a new lead. The reported discovery of another Mona Lisa in St. Petersburg, Russia.
31:51This really is a plunge into the unknown. All we've been told is that a wealthy Russian art
32:02collector, identity a secret, recently acquired a painting that might be the missing link to the
32:09mystery. We haven't yet been told where it is. And then, at the last minute, we're given an address.
32:16A place with a dubious past.
32:33Certainly strange. This building was created in the 19th century.
32:40This room is a recreation of an old Russian hunting lodge.
32:48It survives because the KGB made it their headquarters during the communist years.
32:52Here she is.
33:01So what is this? What is this?
33:06All I know about this picture is that it was purchased by a Russian art collector from a very
33:13old and established American family who'd had it since the end of the 18th century and has hardly been
33:21seen since. And what's the status of this picture?
33:29Smaller. The columns are more complete than they are in the version in the Louvre.
33:38You see, they've got me going. I'm saying the version in the Louvre. The version in the Louvre.
33:45The Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
33:50She's enigmatic. She's removed. She's distant. Is she a copy? Not sure.
33:56This picture looks tantalizingly close to the picture in the Louvre.
34:05So many details are the same. But is this Leonardo's lost earlier version?
34:11As with the Isleworth picture, scientific tests have been done
34:16by Dr Chiara Mateucci of the University of Bologna, who's flown to Russia to share her results.
34:23So, if we only look at science, we'd say that we can start from the support.
34:32This is the radiocarbon dating of the canvas, which shows a 95.4% probability that the canvas
34:40is between 1490 and 1670. So, the canvas could well be correct.
34:48Yes. Okay.
34:49In fact, the data that shows us the possible, the probable period is not so much the canvas,
34:56but the preparatory frame of the painting.
35:03At the top of the canvas, there is the presence of a ground, of a red preparation.
35:12The presence of a red ground, the very first layer of paint, seems to discount Leonardo's hand.
35:39But it's Chiara's next discovery that really changes the picture.
35:44A chemical not used before 1600.
35:48What's interesting is to have realized in the preparation of the sulfate of baritina.
35:59It can lead us to a very restricted period.
36:04In the period between 1620 and 1680, the use of baritina in these preparations was very common.
36:18In France, just in France.
36:20Just in France?
36:21Yes.
36:22Yes.
36:23Yes.
36:24So, this is a physical finding, a chemical finding.
36:26Yes.
36:27In the Parisian area, in the period in which we have talked about, a market of pigments had
36:37put in place a specific product for the preparations, where the baritina was added.
36:49I think Chiara's done all the research we need to know.
36:51So, the barium allows us to place this canvas very precisely, 1620 to 1680, and probably
36:59in Paris.
37:00So, all the painters around Paris got this ground from this one guy and put it on their canvas.
37:05So, more and more that I talk to you, I feel that we speak Italian, and I think that I
37:12can speak French and speak French.
37:15I am delighted to make your knowledge of Mona Lisa, but you are, without a doubt, French.
37:30So, this Mona Lisa isn't a Leonardo, but a mid-17th century French copy.
37:35In fact, there are dozens of copies.
37:40It's a real problem if you believe, as I think you have to, given the conflicting evidence,
37:45that Leonardo did paint two Mona Lisas.
37:52What we're looking for, then, is Leonardo's image of young Lisa, as described by Vasari,
37:59as sketched by Raphael, which must predate the famous picture in the Louvre.
38:06So, where can it be?
38:08I still believe that I can get to the bottom of the mystery, because there's one very strong lead
38:14I haven't yet followed up.
38:17One more destination.
38:19Paris.
38:20A scientist turned art detective claims he can finally explain the discrepancies.
38:37He believes the secrets of the Mona Lisa lie not in other versions of the portrait,
38:42but inside the Mona Lisa itself.
38:46And he reckons he can prove it.
38:49Pascal.
38:50Welcome.
38:51Pascal Cott is one of the world's leading experts in the analysis of paintings.
38:57He's a man in Leonardo's own image.
39:00A self-taught physicist, the brilliant inventor of a new technique that's unlocked the secrets
39:06of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Picasso, and many others.
39:11His work on another Leonardo painting, The Lady with an Ermine, revealed earlier versions of the composition,
39:19hidden beneath its surface, that rewrote art history.
39:24But his great obsession is the Mona Lisa, faithfully reproduced here in his studio.
39:32In 2004, Pascal was invited by the Louvre to scan the painting.
39:37His task, simply to identify the picture's original colours, hidden beneath the discolourations of time.
39:45But Pascal's technique also revealed that there was far more going on beneath the surface.
39:51For the last decade, he's worked in secret decoding those discoveries.
39:56And now, he's ready to share them.
39:59Our goal is to peel like an onion all the layers of paint,
40:04to reconstruct the chronology of the construction of the painting.
40:09So is this new? Is this a new...?
40:11This is a new technique, absolutely.
40:13Pascal's secret weapon is his groundbreaking multi-spectral camera, an invention truly worthy of Leonardo.
40:27Thirteen different wavelengths of colour are projected onto the picture, each penetrating the paint surface to a different depth.
40:36The camera captures the reflections, generating over three billion bits of data and thousands of images.
40:46By analysing each image, shown in black and white, Pascal can reveal a painting's secret, layer by layer.
40:59His first discovery in the Mona Lisa is buried deep within the painting.
41:04What we discovered, we discovered that the head was bigger.
41:14So you see a shadow of a bigger head.
41:17Yes, I can see it.
41:19You can see also that the nose is double here.
41:25Oh.
41:26Oh.
41:28Wow.
41:30So once she had a larger head.
41:32And I discovered this hand, much more bigger.
41:36Wow.
41:43Pascal has pieced together several previously unknown details that lie beneath the Louvre portrait as we know it.
41:50Marked in red, they seem to be elements of a larger first portrait that never got beyond a draft stage.
42:00But that's just the beginning of Pascal's discoveries.
42:05So now we continue with one other layer.
42:11Voila, here we are.
42:13What on earth is that?
42:15What is it?
42:16This is a hairpin.
42:19Like this one.
42:22So you found...
42:23Something like this.
42:24You found...
42:26With that little bit of your magic light camera, you found a missing hairpin.
42:33Now you know there is a hairpin.
42:36You can see it.
42:37Ah.
42:40Because you know.
42:42But yes, know exactly.
42:43How fascinating.
42:44And more than that, if you look around the head, you discover 12 hairpins.
42:58The hairpins with pearls make no sense on the first large portrait.
43:03But Pascal has found something else that appears to be connected to them.
43:07Tiny rows of dots known as spolveri.
43:11They seem to suggest an elaborate headdress.
43:16Intriguingly, a type of headdress that as far as we know was only ever shown on the heads of saints or Madonnas.
43:23This is a painting of headdress that have nothing to do with Mona Lisa.
43:30Nothing to do with Mona Lisa?
43:31Nothing to do with Mona Lisa?
43:32Nothing to do with Mona Lisa.
43:33The spolveri hidden inside the Mona Lisa have never been seen before.
43:38They are concrete proof of the way Leonardo constructed a picture.
43:44He would have begun with a preparatory drawing.
43:47Marked the lines on tracing paper with a sharp point.
43:51Then transferred those outlines onto the wood with coal dust.
43:56But what happened to the headdress?
43:59Pascal's next piece of evidence suggests it was deliberately removed.
44:04So now I discovered this hatching.
44:09This is another layer of your...
44:12Of the onion.
44:14This is Leonardo with his rubber.
44:16You see it's totally different from the cracks.
44:19It's not crackleur, no.
44:20You see this is clearly to erase what is behind.
44:26It's very important because that explains how Leonardo from one stage go to another stage.
44:36Pascal scans a crucial evidence of the way Leonardo worked.
44:41Building up a painting stage by stage.
44:44Above the scratchings, Pascal reveals the first impression of yet another layer.
44:50The ghostly imprint of a face.
44:53Like a Leonardo Turin shroud.
44:57Is that another head?
44:59Yes.
45:00How many heads is that so far?
45:02This is the number three.
45:05So the big head.
45:06The big head.
45:07The pearl head.
45:08The pearl head.
45:09And then there's another head.
45:10Yes.
45:12Now the...the height.
45:13So it's...
45:15A wonderful proof.
45:16I discovered two crosses just here.
45:21Oh my...
45:23That's extraordinary.
45:26And these crosses do not match with Mona Lisa glands.
45:31No?
45:32No.
45:35The crosses clearly mark a different set of pupils, looking in a different direction.
45:42The face behind Mona Lisa, the face is turned 14 degrees in the right direction.
45:51So there she is.
45:53She's looking like that, so she should be like that.
45:55Yeah.
45:56More like that.
45:58Also eyebrows.
45:59Yes.
46:00Can I just see...
46:01Yes, because this is an important point.
46:02Because Vasari says, specifically, you know, that the eyebrows are beautifully painted.
46:09Yes, these eyebrows.
46:10And Mona Lisa, as we see her, doesn't have eyebrows.
46:13So have you found...
46:14You can see it?
46:15Yeah, they are here.
46:17So there are the eyebrows.
46:23And here you have another mouse.
46:26Look at this mouse.
46:27Nothing to do with Mona Lisa.
46:29Absolutely amazing.
46:31She's barely smiling.
46:33Do you see?
46:34Because she turns the head on the left, the mouth is a little smaller.
46:40Quite a lot smaller.
46:41Yeah.
46:48So, Pascal, you found a complete face.
46:52Yes.
46:53Inside?
46:54Inside.
46:55Yes.
46:57Wow.
46:58That's quite a big discovery, isn't it?
47:00Yes, it is.
47:01Yes, it is.
47:02Yes, it is.
47:06Pascal's work has revealed, for the first time in 500 years, a detailed earlier portrait by Leonardo da Vinci.
47:16It's the same size as the face we see now, but turned by 14 degrees.
47:22There's clear evidence of a different, swept-back hairstyle.
47:27Elaborate ties at the top of an earlier sleeve are clearly visible.
47:32There's even a suggestion that she once held a blanket in her lap.
47:41Is this the portrait of Lisa I've been looking for?
47:44So, throughout my journey, I thought, well, it seems as though they're talking about two different pictures.
47:56You seem to be saying to me that, yes, there are two Mona Lisas, but they happen to be on the same piece of wood.
48:01Yes.
48:03So, this must surely be Lisa del Giocondo.
48:10Of course.
48:11Francesca's wife.
48:12I agree with you.
48:14This is a real portrait of Mrs. Lisa Gardini.
48:18Pascal's pioneering work marks an extraordinary moment in the history of art.
48:29By piecing together all the details, then decoding the data to identify the original pigments used by Leonardo,
48:37Pascal has been able to construct a digital photo fit of the image.
48:43It's a perfect match with the historical record.
48:46But if this computer image represents the original portrait of Mona Lisa, it's a portrait her husband never received.
48:57Instead, Leonardo went on to paint the world's most famous picture over the top.
49:06So there were two Mona Lisas all along.
49:10But how do we make sense of these discoveries?
49:13And what are we now to make of Leonardo's masterpiece?
49:22In search of the final piece to the puzzle, I'm meeting a woman who spent years reconstructing the scene on that day, back in 1503, when Leonardo started to paint Lisa.
49:34Leading expert on Renaissance hairstyles and costumes, Elisabetta Niñera has based her work closely on Pascal's findings.
49:47Every Renaissance fashion can be precisely pinpointed, whether to Rome in 1512 or Florence in 1503.
49:57So by recreating the costume Pascal found in the painting beneath the painting, Elisabetta can place and date it very precisely.
50:06Her results are a revelation.
50:09Looking at the fashions shown in these other contemporary portraits, this lady perfectly fits with the historical image of a wealthy Florentine lady of the early years of 16th century.
50:28I cannot see any inconsistencies.
50:35So this must be Lisa del Draconda, as Raphael painted her.
50:40Yes, this is very close, the closest version we know to the Raphael sketch.
50:45It's like a Polaroid.
50:47It's like a Polaroid?
50:48Yeah.
50:49Raphael had actually seen Leonardo's portrait of Lisa when he drew this copy in 1504.
50:57Apart from one slight difference, the veil over the bodice, it's identical to Elisabetta's reconstruction and Pascal's photo fit.
51:07It's compelling evidence that Pascal has indeed found the first version, Leonardo's original Lisa, lurking beneath the finished work.
51:17But where does all this leave the picture we see today?
51:25So Elisabetta, when you look at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, as she is now, from the point of view of costume, what do you see?
51:36To me, she's not a real person because there are so many details which go in this sense.
51:42Hmm. Can you give me an example?
51:45Yeah. The long hair worn on her shoulder. This wouldn't be conceivable unless you had the very high ranks or it was a posthumous portrait.
51:57What about this sort of sash of drapery that comes over her shoulder?
52:01The twist.
52:02Yeah. The twist.
52:03Yeah. This is the most interesting element in Louvre's Draconda because a Greco-Roman's classical art devoted such detail only on one shoulder only to Venus, Venus, and virtues like purity, chastity, faith.
52:23So that beautiful strand of drapery that seems to continue the flow of the river and the landscape behind, that is not something that a real woman would have worn.
52:34Not at all. Even because...
52:35So it's more like an attribute of a goddess?
52:37Yes.
52:38Yes.
52:39So the Louvre painting shows an idealised woman, maybe a posthumous portrait.
52:44Surely then, she can no longer be Mona Lisa, because Mona Lisa outlived Leonardo.
52:51Wow.
52:53Now, for Elisabetta, the moment of truth. As the results of years of research and hard work finally come together, we can at last see how Lisa del Giacondo, the original Mona Lisa, might have looked.
53:09So, Elisabetta, you have made the sleeves that Pascal found, and this is the line. You've recreated the line there.
53:30Yeah, exactly.
53:32It's been an elaborate process, but it leads to a genuine insight into Leonardo's obsessive relationship with this painting.
53:43The key is in the colours, which have been exactly matched to Pascal's calculations.
53:49The dress for the bodice, he found a greenish-grey pigment, and also the sleeves.
53:58We know how Leonardo would call this colour, which was called Leonardo. That is, the colours of the lion's fall. Leonardo colour.
54:09I never knew that. I never knew that. But you know what it makes me think? It makes me think, when you say that, that this is Leonardo, because, of course, he didn't sign pictures, but this is Leonardo's way of signing the painting.
54:22Exactly. He loved to play games with words. Exactly.
54:25So, the colour, that's great. The colour, Leonardo, and the knot pattern, vincere. Yeah. Leonardo da Vinci.
54:33Yeah. It could be, no, we're not joking. I agree with you totally. You agree with me? Yeah, exactly. Because...
54:39For me, the presence of a hidden signature would answer a nagging question. Why didn't he finish his first version and give it to Francesca?
54:50Notting his name into her bodice. It's like an act of possession. As if Leonardo knew this was always destined to be more than a portrait. No one's painting, but his own.
55:03If we go one, two, three. Quando dico tre, you look at me. Uno, due, tre.
55:14Our investigation has revealed for the first time what Leonardo's hidden earlier portrait might have looked like.
55:21The portrait, surely, of the Florentine merchant's wife, Lisa del Giacondo.
55:28We've found a solution to the historic inconsistencies that have long baffled experts.
55:35And, it seems, we've discovered that the portrait in the Louvre may not be the Mona Lisa after all.
55:42So, we're left with the million-dollar question. Who is she?
55:52The one piece of evidence that still stands out is the eyewitness account of De Beatis, who had it from Leonardo himself, that the woman we now see was painted at the behest of Giuliano de' Medici.
56:05So, who replaced Mona Lisa in Leonardo's painting? Did Giuliano commission a posthumous portrait? Perhaps of a lost love, idealized, like a goddess?
56:20For me, there's only one candidate. A woman with whom Giuliano had a brief, passionate affair. A woman who tragically died giving birth to their son. A little boy who was still calling for her when Giuliano commissioned the picture.
56:37Her name was Pacifica Brandano. Could this be her?
56:44It's a romantic notion.
56:52But just as Leonardo never gave the picture to Francesco, he never gave it to Giuliano, either.
56:59Instead, he kept the image of the woman he'd signed in code and made her more his own than ever.
57:08At the end of Leonardo's life, the Mona Lisa, this shape-shifting picture that had begun as the portrait of one woman and then metamorphosed into another, became something else again.
57:24Namely, a work of art that transcended portraiture and turned into an expression of all his knowledge, all his philosophy.
57:33The painting's like a shimmering mosaic in which Leonardo has pieced together all that he knows about nature and about human nature.
57:44And I think the key to it is that famous smile.
57:48Leonardo's way of saying that while we might strive to understand this vast cosmos that surrounds us,
57:54in the end it's our destiny to pass through life as swiftly as the smile that flickers across a human face.
58:04So the Mona Lisa really isn't Mona Lisa after all, but something much more than that.
58:10It's a painting of life itself, as Leonardo had come to think of it.
58:15His way of painting us all.
58:18We're continuing the Great Interior Design Challenge next on BBC Two,
58:32and it's taking the three remaining designers to a smart Georgian terrace in Bath.
58:37Thank you very much.
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