The portrait on display in Geneva

The Mona Lisa, also known as La Giaconda or La Joconde in Italy and France, is arguably the most famous painting in the world. However, it may lose that title due to an earlier version which recently went on display in Geneva, Switzerland.

The unveiling was organised by the Swiss-based Mona Lisa Foundation and is the result of over 30 years worth of research and fact checking. The work depicts a woman, believed to be in her early 20’s, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Louvre counterpart, in which the women depicted is estimated to be in her 30’s. The pose, stare and mouth of the woman in the newly unveiled portrait are also eerily similar to the Mona Lisa we are all more familiar with.

“We have investigated this painting from every relevant angle and the accumulated information all points to it being an earlier version of the Giaconda in the Louvre,” said foundation member and art historian Stanley Feldman

Feldman, and his brother David, say their view on what the painting really is, is supported by “historical evidence, critical comparison and scientific examination using the most modern techniques”.

Alessandro Vezzosi, a leading Italian Da Vinci specialist and director of the Da Vinci museum in the artist’s home town, and Carlo Pedretti, a US-based expert, are both open to the concept that a previous version exists, and are cautiously backing the “two versions” theory. Vezzosi has called on critics to keep an open mind in his 300-page, illustrated book about the Mona Lisa, which, in his words, “willl permit an unbiased judgement of the claim of this painting to be the earlier portrait, incomplete, of a young Mona Lisa, much younger than that of the Louvre.”

Of course the theory is not without its critics and several experts have come forward voicing skepticism.

So much is wrong.

Those are the words of Martin Kemp, an Oxford University professor and world-recognised authority on Da Vinci. He argues that the newly unveiled portrait is most likely a copy of the more famous painting. He also pointed to the fact that the portrait is painted on canvas and not wood, which was Da Vinci’s preferred medium.

[Source: Sky News]