The
Earlier Mona Lisa depicts a woman in her 20s
A
portrait of a younger Mona Lisa, which its owners claim was painted by Leonardo
Da Vinci before his more famous version, has gone on display. The
painting is being exhibited in public for the first time in Singapore.
Its
owners say expert tests and analysis confirm Da Vinci painted it 10 years
before the better-known version. But
its authenticity is disputed. Da Vinci expert Martin Kemp said it was
"just another copy of the Mona Lisa, an unfinished one, and no more than
that".
Prof
Kemp, emeritus professor of the history of art at Oxford University and the
author of several books on Da Vinci, said: "The fact it's being shown in
Singapore and is not getting an outing in a serious art museum [or] gallery is
significant in itself.
The
painting, he said, was "routine in handling". He continued:
"Leonardo's landscapes always seethed with a sense of life. It's inert.
"The drapery is inert, and what Leonardo did was he could always give the sense that even something static like drapery had a life to it, a vitality and an inherent movement in it, and this is a heavy-handed, static picture."
But
the Switzerland-based Mona Lisa Foundation, which manages the painting, says
historical evidence, other expert opinions and carbon dating and further
scientific tests point to its authenticity.
"We feel these latest discoveries and new scientific analysis just carried out leave little doubt that it is Leonardo's work," auctioneer and Mona Lisa Foundation vice-president David Feldman told the Reuters news agency.
"The
vast majority of experts now either agree with us or accept that there is a
strong case for our thesis."
The
'earlier' Mona Lisa (right) is said to have been painted 10 years before Da
Vinci's most famous painting
The
foundation says Da Vinci created the work in 1503, 10 years ahead of the Mona
Lisa, but left it unfinished. It was
later acquired by an English aristocrat in the late 1770s.
The
earlier Mona Lisa was discovered in 1913 by an art collector while visiting a
British aristocrat in Somerset. Taking
it back to his studio in Isleworth, south west London, for restoration, it was
the dubbed the Isleworth Mona Lisa for its close resemblance to Da Vinci's most
famous painting, which hangs in The Louvre gallery in Paris.
The
artwork will be on show until February at the Arts House in Singapore's Old
Chambers of Parliament, before touring Hong Kong, China, South Korea and
Australia.
Credit;
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