Leonardo da Vinci was a man with many talents. a few of his talents include being an anatomist, a painter, and an inventor. A new talent you could add to this list, would be the skills of an innovative chemist, the reason being the famous artist was a lot more experimental with one of his most famous pieces “Mona Lisa” and was most likely the creator of a technique being used in projects created even a century later, suggests a new study. Using X-rays to get a better look at the renowned piece gives a better look at the chemical structure. Scientists have obtained a better understanding of the techniques used by the famous Leonardo da Vinci to paint his groundbreaking work of art of a woman with a unique and well-known smile. This research, published last week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, suggests that the famous Leonardo da Vinci was in a very experimental and curious mood while taking his time, creating one of the most-known pieces of art in history in the early 16th century. Leonardo used an oil paint recipe for his base layer to prepare his panel of poplar wood which was different from the “Mona Lisa”, which had its distinctive chemical signature. “He was someone who loved to experiment, and each of his paintings is completely different technically,” said Victor Gonzalez, the study’s lead author and a chemist at France’s top research body. This isn’t the first time Gonzalez has studied the chemical structure of one of Leonardo’s works. One of the more specific compounds found in the famous artist’s piece of work is a very rare compound known as plumbonacrite; This compound was found in the first layer of the piece. The shocking discovery of plumbonacrite in Leonardo’s work adds to how creative and experimental he was in his pieces of art.
