PARIS.- How did Leonardo Da Vinci manage
to paint
such perfect faces? For the first time a quantitative chemical analysis
has been
done on seven paintings from the Louvre Museum (including the Mona Lisa)
without
extracting any samples. This shows the composition and thickness of each
layer
of material laid down by the painter. The results reveal that, in the
case of
glazes(1), thin layers of 1 to 2 micrometers have been applied. The
study, led
by the team of Philippe Walter, of the “Laboratoire du Centre de
Recherche et de
Restauration des Musées de France” (LC2RMF, CNRS/Ministère de la culture
et de
la communication), with the collaboration of the European Synchrotron
Radiation
Facility (ESRF) and the support of the Louvre Museum, is published the
15 of
July 2010 in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.