Madrid’s Other Mona Lisa

Most visitors enter the Prado expecting Velázquez, Goya or Bosch. Very few expect to find another Mona Lisa looking back at them.

For many years, the painting was considered simply one of the numerous copies made after Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece. Its background had been covered with black paint, making the portrait appear flatter and far less interesting than the famous original in Paris.

Everything changed during its restoration in 2011.

Technical examinations revealed that the drawing beneath the surface contained the same alterations Leonardo had made while painting the original. When Leonardo changed a detail, the painter of the Prado version changed it too.

This was not someone copying the finished Mona Lisa years later. It was a member of Leonardo’s workshop painting alongside him and following the creation of the masterpiece as it evolved.

When restorers removed the later black background, the same landscape found in the Louvre’s painting appeared underneath. The brighter colours and remarkable state of preservation also revealed details that are now more difficult to appreciate in the original.

The Prado’s Mona Lisa was not painted by Leonardo and does not possess the same extraordinary subtlety. Its importance lies somewhere else: it is the closest surviving witness to how one of history’s most famous paintings was created.

The Mona Lisa in Paris gives us the masterpiece. The one in Madrid allows us to look over Leonardo’s shoulder while he was painting it.

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Written by Abraham Izquierdo, licensed Madrid guide.