Why Doesn’t the “Mona Lisa” Have Eyebrows?

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is arguably the world’s most famous painting, but that doesn’t mean we’ve unraveled all of its mysteries. Art experts still have questions about this iconic portrait, and thanks to high-tech innovations, they’re constantly discovering new information about da Vinci’s masterpiece.

For example, in 2007, French engineer and inventor Pascal Cotte announced that he had found evidence that the Mona Lisa had originally been painted with eyebrows and eyelashes, despite them being notably absent from the painting we see today.

Cotte designed his own high-resolution camera to study the Mona Lisa up close and spent thousands of hours looking at 240-megapixel scans of the painting, using sensors that could detect visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. He identified a single eyebrow hair, which he considered proof that the Mona Lisa once had a full set. It’s unclear why her brows and lashes have disappeared, though Cotte has suggested that the pigment has faded or, more likely, that they were accidentally removed at some point during cleaning and restoration efforts.

Some of Cotte’s other findings are even more surprising. Apparently, the painting's subject was originally holding a lap blanket that has almost completely faded, which explains her unique arm position. He also said that her famous smile was originally wider and more expressive than the slight, enigmatic smile we know today.

Perhaps most notably, Cotte produced a restoration of what he says the painting’s original colors would have looked like when new. According to Cotte, the painting is full of grey, green, yellow, and brown hues that are simply the result of age. Back in Leonardo da Vinci's day, the Mona Lisa would have had a much bluer sky and brighter whites, and the subject’s skin would have appeared a warmer pink.

Mysteries of the Mona Lisa: