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The Mona Lisa, also referred to as La Gioconda (or La Joconde), has endured centuries of fascination by artists, researchers, medical professionals, and even thieves. (snip) The Mona Lisa attracted medical attention in 2004 when a team of rheumatologists and endocrinologists suggested that skin lesions and hand swellings visible in the portrait may be indicative of a lipid disorder and heart disease.Specifically, they asserted that familial hyperlipidemia and premature atherosclerosis could have caused Lisa Gherardini’s death. They also proposed that Mona Lisa’s famous smile may have been the result of Bell’s palsy.After examining the painting, Dr. Mehra and Campbell found...

From Mona Lisa’s Secret Number to Duchamp’s Hidden Face: 5 Conspiracy Theories That Will Blow Up Your Art WorldDid Duchamp lie about finding his readymades? Did Anthony Quinn's painting predict 9/11? The truth is art there.\ In a lot of ways, this was the Year of the Conspiracy Theory. Fabulations and connect-the-dots conjectures of all sorts found their way from the margins to the center. The phenomenon very much affects art—which makes some sense, in that art is designed as fodder for fantasizing. Most of the time, such speculation is as consequential as the latest theory about Game of Thrones,...

Experts at the Louvre museum in Paris on Thursday revealed that Leonardo da Vinci may have also painted a topless version — called Joconde Nue, or Monna Vanna — of the famed masterpiece. A scientific study of the charcoal work found that it could be Da Vinci’s preparatory drawing for a naked version of La Gioconda. The Monna Vanna — which has been held since 1862 at the Condé museum in Chantilly — had previously been attributed to the Florentine master’s studio.

A GERMAN art historian claims to have solved one of the greatest mysteries of the Renaissance by discovering the identity of Mona Lisa. Magdalena Soest, 56, from Leverkusen in Germany, believes that Leonardo da Vinci based his famous portrait on a young, adventurous beauty called Caterina Sforza. Frau Soest believes that Leonardo based his painting, produced between 1500 and 1506, on a portrait of Sforza, the Duchess of Forlì and Imola, that was painted by the Italian master Lorenzo di Credi. “I wholeheartedly believe that she is one and the same person,” Frau Soest, a respected artist and consultant to...

Since its 2003 publication, "The Da Vinci Code" has caused quite a stir. Since its debut to glowing reviews, it has sold more than 40 million copies in at least 44 languages [ref]. In addition to being a bestseller, it's sparked a lot of controversy. It's a work of fiction, but it presents itself as based in fact, and many critics have raised questions about whether those facts are accurate. It's no secret that the HowStuffWorks staff likes to take things apart and see what makes them tick. Some of us are also the kind of sticklers who point out...

Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks (about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8) originally had a very different composition, new research by the National Gallery in London revealed. Analysis of the artwork showed that two distinct drawings depicting the same figures in different poses lie beneath the painting, which is one of the most popular in the museum's collection. In the first composition, the angel holds the infant Christ much more tightly, and both figures are positioned higher. The Virgin also looks toward the pair, instead of staring downward. A second composition aligns much more closely to the final version, but...

For curators of a blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition which is opening today, it's been a nerve-racking few days. A total of 140 works by the greatest artist — who perhaps also possessed the greatest mind — in history were being brought together to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death in 1519. Da Vinci was the ultimate Renaissance man. By the time of his death, aged 67, he had become an expert in countless areas: drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, palaeontology and cartography. And the centrepiece of the Louvre show in...

Item OverviewDescription: A unique, 21st Century bronze figure cast from a 16th Century beeswax model authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The Original Bee’s Wax Mold by Leonardo’s Own Hand 28 cm x 23.5 cm x 13.35 cm On October 30th, a unique bronze sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci, will be auctioned at New York's prestigious Pierre Hotel. It is titled simply ''Horse and Rider" (Cavallo e Cavaliere). The work is cast from a beeswax model hand-carved by Leonardo himself, circa 1508 according to Dr. Carlo Pedretti. Author of over sixty books on the life and work of...

Leonardo’s dragon (How did he draw a dinosaur so accurately?) by Philip Robinson Published: 7 May 2019 (GMT+10) The month of May 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo Da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519). The polymath was well known for his contributions to science, history, engineering, architecture, drawing and especially painting, with his most famous painting being the Mona Lisa. For this anniversary the UK’s Royal Collection Trust is displaying some of its collection of Leonardo drawings in 12 different locations. One particular drawing is causing a stir.

Half a millennium after Leonardo da Vinci's death, his influence is alive and well in many of the modern machines we see and use every day. An inventor, engineer, scientist, and artist, da Vinci was the quintessential Renaissance Man, and one of history's brightest minds. Not only did he have the vision to create early versions of game-changing modern gadgets, but he was also the extremely gifted painter who birthed the world's most famous work of art, the Mona Lisa, and the equally iconic Last Supper. "He was the first to insist that mechanical devices should be designed in keeping...

Leonardo da Vinci died 500 years ago today at the age of 67. He was a universal genius driven by insatiable curiosity that led him to explore ideas in science, math, architecture, design, engineering, geology, cartography, sculpting, drawing and, of course, painting. His surviving body of work as a painter is remarkably slim: Fewer than 20 artworks can be comfortably attributed to him, although two of them -- the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper" -- are easily among the most famous in the world. Such scarcity led to the record-breaking auction of "Salvator Mundi," believed to be a long-lost...

They say the best things in life are free, but try telling that to the art-lover who owns a Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent van Gogh masterpiece. World-renowned auction house Christie's has revealed its top 10 most expensive lots sold in 2017 including da Vinci's 500-year-old mystical masterpiece, Salvator Mundi, which was bought for an eye-watering $450,312,500(£342,182,751). An Andy Warhol painting, two pieces of work by Cy Twombly, Max Beckmann’s Hölle der Vögel and Fernand Léger’s Contraste de Formes all made it into the top 10 list after buyers battled it out in the auction room.

An Oxford University researcher... an art historian at Britain's Oxford University has claimed that the full name of Leonardo da Vinci's mother was Caterina di Meo Lippi. Professor Martin Kemp said Caterina was a poor peasant, probably an orphan, living with her grandmother in a decrepit farmhouse about a mile from Vinci in the Italian Tuscan hills, The Times reported. The name emerged from previously overlooked archives in Florence and Vinci, including property tax records, Mr Kemp said. Caterina's father disappeared when she was young, leaving her to be brought up by her grandmother. In 1451, when Caterina was 15,...

Leonardo Da Vinci: Son of a Slave? By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News normalize font   |   increase font Sep. 26 — Leonardo Da Vinci may have been the son of a Middle Eastern slave, according to the director of an Italian museum located near the Renaissance master's birthplace in Tuscany. Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo Da Vinci, announced last week at the museum that, after over 25 years of research, he has concluded that Da Vinci's father was a minor nobleman or craftsman named Ser Piero Da Vinci, while the artist's mother was a Middle...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the actual buyer of a painting by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci that sold for a record-breaking $450 million at auction last month, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The young crown prince, known by his initials MBS, used an intermediary to buy the much-sought-after painting of Christ, 'Salvator Mundi', the newspaper reported, citing US intelligence and other unnamed sources. The son of Saudi King Salman is seen to be progressively consolidating his power, and is the architect of a wide-ranging plan dubbed Vision 2030 to bring social and economic change to his...

After the hammer went down on the staggering Leonardo da Vinci sale Wednesday night — $450.3 million dollars for a painting of disputed quality — it was difficult for the auctioneer and potential bidders to turn their attention to the other lots. “The air sucked out of the room after that,” said Paul Gray, a partner at Richard Gray Gallery. “It was kind of hard to move on.” And even into the next day, the art world continued to grapple with what seemed like a new landscape, with auction traditions upended and the ceiling suddenly limitless. Would this sale push...

You can’t put a price on beauty; you can put a price on a name. When the National Gallery in London exhibited a painting of Christ in 2011 as a heretofore lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, the surprise in art historical circles was exceeded only by the salivating of dealers and auctioneers. The painting, “Salvator Mundi,” is the only Leonardo in private hands, and was brought to market by the family trust of Dmitry E. Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire entangled in an epic multinational lawsuit with his former dealer, Yves Bouvier. On Wednesday night, at Christie’s postwar and contemporary...

A painting by Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci that depicts Jesus Christ holding an orb sold for a world record $450.3 million at Christie’s auction house in New York Wednesday night. The painting, called "Salvator Mundi," Italian for "Savior of the World," is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo known to exist and the only one in private hands. The buyer was not immediately identified. The highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction had been $179.4 million, for Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" in May 2015....

It’s the passion of the painting. Leonardo da Vinci’s haunting last work, depicting Jesus Christ, is coming to New York this month and is expected to fetch an estimated $100 million at a November Christie’s auction, a spokesperson said. “Salvator Mundi is a painting of the most iconic figure in the world by the most important artist of all time,” Loic Gouzer, chairman of post-war and contemporary art for Christie’s New York, said in a statement released by the auction house.

It watched as its then-owner, King Charles I, was beheaded in 1649. It was hanging in Buckingham Palace back when it was still called Buckingham House in 1703. It survived the Nazis’ 1940 London Blitz when its keepers abandoned it in their basement. By 1958, its origins had become so lost in time that it was sold for a paltry $90 to a collector from Louisiana. The long, strange journey of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork “Salvator Mundi” takes its next turn Wednesday at Christie’s, when it goes under the hammer for a hoped-for $100 million. It is the first Leonardo...