Speculations about Mona Lisa he had had no access to the actual painting, said that after "every laboratory test possible" in 2004 and 2009 that "no inscriptions, letters or numbers, were discovered during the tests." and that "The ageing of the painting on wood has caused a great number of cracks to appear in the paint, which have caused a number of shapes to appear that have often been subject to over-interpretation". Speculations about Mona Lisa The 16th-century portrait Mona Lisa, or "La Gioconda" ("La Joconde"), painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci, has been the subject of a considerable
Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind is a 2004 biography of Leonardo da Vinci by Charles Nicholl. The book researches the life of Leonardo da Vinci in Tuscane and explores the reasons of his historic success. The author's main observation is that most of da Vinci's work was unfinished. Through a thorough research, the author dismisses most of the romanticized facts about da Vinci and concludes that a lot is unknown about the genius inventor. Da Vinci is described as an engineer obsessed with natural designs. "Washington Post" writer Alexander Nagel