《蒙娜丽莎》“双胞胎”版惊艳亮相

西班牙马德里普拉多博物馆日前发现了达芬奇名画《蒙娜丽莎》的最早“双胞胎”。相关专家断定，从模特以及背景惊人的相似度来看，该画作者当时应该是与师傅达芬奇在同一工作室面对蒙娜丽莎本人同时作画。由于该画作500年来一直覆盖在层层油彩之下，罕与空气和尘埃接触，不曾发生过脱落与变色。与现收藏于卢浮宫略显晦暗的《蒙娜丽莎》“本尊”相比，该画作中的蒙娜丽莎面色清新红润，不沾岁月痕迹，活脱脱一个“冻容”版《蒙娜丽莎》。

这一发现将加深世界艺术爱好者对达芬奇“真迹”——《蒙娜丽莎》的理解，让世人得以窥见这位世界上最美丽女人的真实容颜。普拉多博物馆将于本月稍后将该画作公之于众。

The earliest known copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" -- thought to have been painted at the same time as the original masterpiece -- has been discovered at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.

The work offers art-lovers a tantalizing hint of what the model for the world's most famous painting really looked like.

Conservators found the portrait hidden beneath layers of black overpainting during restoration work on a picture initially thought to have been a later replica of the "Mona Lisa."

The restored version shows the same woman that Leonardo depicted, against a landscape similar to that shown in the background of the original, which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

And while the features of Leonardo's subject have been dulled by centuries of dirt and layers of cracked varnish -- which are unlikely ever to be removed -- in the recently-rediscovered copy, she appears fresher faced and younger than her better-known "twin."

News of the find was revealed at a symposium at London's National Gallery, linked to its blockbuster "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan" exhibition, and reported in the Art Newspaper.

"This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world's most famous picture," the Art Newspaper reported, adding that the underdrawing found on the Madrid version "suggests that the original and the copy were begun at the same time and painted next to each other, as the work evolved."

Miguel Falomir, curator of Italian painting at the Prado, told a press conference at the museum expert analysis suggested a strong link between Leonardo and the artist who painted the copy.

"The painting was done in the painter's own workshop," he was quoted by AFP as saying.

"It is absolutely consistent with Leonardo's work," he said, but he added: "It is a work in which Leonardo himself did not intervene."

The painting is expected to be unveiled to the public at the Prado Museum later this month.

It will then go on display at the Louvre in March, as part of the "Leonardo's Final Masterpiece" exhibition, which focuses on his work, "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne."