Mona Lisa from Prado

Authorship attributed to Francesco Melzi

The world famous Museum of Madrid "Prado" found in its storerooms a copy of the great painting, and, most importantly, it was painted at the same time as the original, and not later than at least 10 years, as previously read. The similarity was revealed during a planned restoration, when the same landscape began to appear under a layer of varnish as on the original painting. It was his absence and a dull black background that caused the painting to not have been studied in the most thorough way. It was only considered a good copy of the Italian masterpiece, in which the artist abandoned the background altogether. A lot of coincidences with the original have now been proven - the size of the painting, the oak board as the base, and not the walnut, as was previously thought. All this testifies in favor of the Italian origin of the Prado Mona Lisa. In the world there are about ten well-executed fairly old copies of the painting, made in the XVI-XVII centuries. Experts believe that the discovered copy was made in the 16th century, that is, perhaps it is the very first one.
Moreover, they believe that the picture was created directly in Leonardo's workshop, perhaps on a nearby easel, as if someone was standing nearby and step by step repeated all the actions of the master teacher! The edits were made almost simultaneously, in the same sequence. This artist could well have been Francesco Melzi, one of Da Vinci's favorite students, or Andrea Salai. It is possible that the smile of the Mona Lisa on this canvas was addressed not only to the one who painted it, but also to Leonardo Da Vinci himself, who worked nearby! Or maybe the two twin sisters were smiling at each other?