The 'Isleworth Mona Lisa' (ctd.)
December 7 2015
Picture: BBC
The BBC has a new programme on the Mona Lisa, called 'The Secrets of the Mona Lisa', and it'll be shown on BBC2 this Wednesday at 9pm. It's presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, and comes only four years after the last programme called 'Secret Life of the Mona Lisa', which was presented by Alan Yentob.
So, are there any more secrets for this much studied painting to give up?
Well, perhaps yes - for technology in this world moves quickly. And sharp-eyed readers will notice that in the above publicity still, Andrew Graham-Dixon poses not in front of the actual Mona Lisa in the Louvre, but the so-called 'Isleworth Mona Lisa', which is a copy not by Leonardo (on which, see AHN passim by putting 'Isleworth' into the search engine). Proponents of the 'Isleworth Mona Lisa' claim it to be not just by Leonardo, but an earlier work, done before the picture in Paris.
The owners of the 'Isleworthless Mona Lisa' are busy sparing no expense in trying to promote their picture as a work by Leonardo, including most recently a lavish exhibition in Singapore. A new page on their website claims to show that '100% of experts who have seen the painting' say the picture is by Leonardo or 'possibly by' Leonardo. In the latter category, remarkably, we see the name of Keneth Clark - and I'd like to see the evidence for that.
Quite why we need to give this unremarkable copy yet more publicity is unclear. Would you promote a programme on the Mona Lisa by using a photograph of a copy? AHN will be watching anxiously, and hoping the programme doesn't even come close to suggesting the picture is by Leonardo. Andrew Graham-Dixon's programmes are always excellent - I'm sure his Leonardo connoisseurship is too.
Update - the conclusions of the Mona Lisa programme are in the news. And it's pretty bold stuff. The Mona Lisa is indeed a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, but the finished picture on top is of someone else. At least I think that's what it is. It all depends on Pascal Cotte's whizzy imagery. And regular readers will know what I make of that. More here, including scepticism from Prof. Martin Kemp. The Louvre is saying rien.
