Mona Lisa, the mysterious woman immortalized(1) in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece, had just given birth to her second son when she sat for the painting, a French art expert said on Tuesday.



The discovery was made by a team of Canadian scientists who used special infrared and three-dimensional(2) technology to peer through hitherto impenetrable(3) paint layers on the work, which now sits in the Louvre museum in Paris.



Bruno Mottin of the French Museums' Centre for Research and Restoration said that on very close examination of the painting it became clear that the Mona Lisa's dress was covered in a thin transparent gauze(4) veil.



"This type of gauze dress ... was typical of the kind worn in early 16th century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth. This is something that had never been seen up to now because the painting was always judged to be dark and difficult to examine," he told a news conference.







"We can now say that this painting by Leonardo da Vinci was painted to commemorate(5) the birth of the second son of the Mona Lisa, which helps us to date it more precisely to around 1503."



The young woman with the ambiguous(6) half smile has been identified as Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco de Giocondo. She had five children.



Mottin also said that, contrary to popular belief, the subject had not let her hair hang freely but in fact wore a bonnet(7) from which only a few curls managed to escape.



"People always wrote that the Mona Lisa had allowed her hair to hang freely over her shoulders. This greatly surprised historians because letting your hair hang freely during the Renaissance(8) was typical of young girls and women of poor virtue(9)," he said.



The team had hoped to discover more details about Leonardo's "sfumato(10)" technique of subtly blending one tone into another, which the artist used to create a hazy(11) effect. But scientist John Taylor said the team had been frustrated by the lack of brush stroke detail on the painting.



"It's extremely thinly painted and extremely flat, and yet the details of the curls of hair, for example are extremely distinct. So the technique is unlike anything we've ever seen before. Leonardo was in a league of his own," he said.








周二，法国艺术专家说，16世纪达芬奇不朽之作中的蒙娜丽莎被画时刚刚生下第二个宝宝。



加拿大科学家们利用特殊的红外和三维技术窥测《蒙娜丽莎》中最难洞察的图层，并有了这一发现。目前这幅画挂在巴黎卢浮宫中。



法国博物馆研究修复中心的布鲁诺莫丁说，在非常近距离观察下，我们发现蒙娜丽莎裙子上还盖有一层薄薄的轻纱。



他在记者会上说："这类纱裙在16世纪早期的意大利十分普遍，是专门给孕妇或者刚刚产下宝宝的妇女穿的。由于此画一直被置于暗处，很难对它检测，所以一直没有发现这层纱。"



"现在，我们可以说这幅由达芬奇完成的油画是为了纪念蒙娜丽莎次子的诞生。这样我们便能更加精确地确定油画的完成时间1503。"



这位半戴神秘微笑的年轻女子已被确定为佛罗伦萨商人弗朗西斯科戴尔吉奥亢多的妻子丽莎格拉迪尼。她共有五个孩子。



莫丁还说，和普遍流传的说法相反，蒙娜丽莎的头发并非散披在肩上，而是头戴一个无边女帽，几缕卷发从帽边溢出。



他说："人们总是这样写：蒙娜丽莎散发披肩。这让历史学家们深感惊讶，因为在文艺复兴时期，只有年轻和放荡的女子才留那样的发式。"



专家们还希望能发现有关达芬奇"图层渲染"技术的更多细节。他利用这种技术巧妙地将一种色调与另一种色调相融合，产生朦胧的效果。但是科学家约翰泰勒说所有的队员都要崩溃了，因为无法看清笔触细节。



他说："颜料十分薄，表面也十分平，连卷发的细节也都极其不凡。因此这项技术是我们从未见过的。达芬奇自成一派。"



中国国际广播电台 译








1. immortalize：使不朽，使名垂千古



2. dimensional：空间的



3. impenetrable：不能穿过的



4. gauze：薄纱



5. commemorate：纪念



6. ambiguous：不明确的



7. bonnet：无边帽



8. renaissance：文艺复兴时期，大约从14世纪到16世纪



9. virtue：德行，贞操



10. sfumato：渲染层次，通过细致地把一个色调调和到另一个色调而使油画中生硬的轮廓变模糊或变柔和



11. hazy：朦胧的






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