Mona Lisa “twin” on display at Spain's Prado

PanARMENIAN.Net - Crowds gathered at Madrid’s Prado Museum to view a copy of the “Mona Lisa” for the first time since restoration revealed it was almost certainly painted by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s apprentices as he worked on the original, AP reported.

The painting is on display until March 13, after which it will move to Paris’ Louvre museum to hang alongside the original as part of an exhibition on da Vinci’s work.

Although the precise author of the copy has not been determined, both the Prado and Louvre believe it is probably the earliest known copy of “La Gioconda,” as the painting is also known since it is believed to depict Lisa, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

The copy has been part of Spain’s art collection for hundreds of years. It had previously been on display in the Prado but was given little attention as it was considered a mediocre copy.

But hours after opening, dozens of people packed the area around the work to try to get a closer look, triggering further comparisons with the original in the French capital.

For more than 200 years the background behind the Gioconda copy was black, not the pretty mountainous landscape of the “Mona Lisa’’. But when work began two years ago to get it ready for the da Vinci exhibit, X-ray tests revealed the landscape underneath and showed that changes made in the copy were similar to those made to the original as it evolved. Blackening backgrounds to highlight figures was not an unusual practice with paintings in the past.

The Prado hopes the work will help further studies into the “Mona Lisa,’’ and says it reveals details and sketch lines no longer immediately apparent in the original.

There are dozens of the surviving replicas of the masterpiece from the 16th and 17th centuries.