Two faced: French scientist discovers second portrait under Mona Lisa

A French scientist claimed that he found a second painting under the Mona Lisa, a painting by renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, at a press conference in Shanghai on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Pascal Cotte has had access to the Mona Lisa for over ten years and as spent the time using technology to study it. Doing so yielded results as big as finding another painting under the current Mona Lisa.

This earlier portrait featured a woman sitting in a similar position as the subject of the Mona Lisa, but with subtle differences, like a missing smile, different proportions, the placement of the hair and the direction of the subject’s gaze.

The BBC said in an article that Cotte was able to reconstruct this second portrait by exposing it to intense light and using a camera that measures the light's reflection.

According to the BBC, Cotte believes that the two paintings are of different women. However, Will Gompertz, Arts Editor for the BBC, is “skeptical” of Cotte’s claim, stating that underpaintings are common and that Cotte’s data should be further studied by an academic community.

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