Saturday, September 18, 2010

It took Leonardo da Vinci at least FOUR YEARS to finish the Mona Lisa. Why?

It took Leonardo da Vinci at least four years to finish the Mona Lisa.

Scientists have recently analyzed the painting with modern techniques such as X-ray florescence spectroscopy. Their conclusions show that Da Vinci applied over 40 different layers of glaze (each up to 50 times thinner than the width of a human hair!) to create Mona’s world famous smile.

Unfortunately, each of these layers required several weeks to dry – with 40 different layers, you can see why it took Leonardo a few years to finish her!

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