Why doesn’t the Mona Lisa have eyebrows?

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one of the most enigmatic paintings in the history of art. From Mona Lisa’s smile to her identity, everything has been the subject of various theories.

Does the Mona Lisa smile because she is happy? Or rather, is it a gesture of bitterness or melancholy?

Is the model Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco Bartolomeo de Giocondo, an Italian merchant? Is it the portrait of Da Vinci’s mother, Caterina Buti del Vacca? Or is it the artist’s lover, a young man dressed as a woman?

Although there are many theories about her identity, the most accepted is that she is Lisa Gherardini, who was called ‘Mona Lisa’, which means ‘Mrs  Lisa ‘.

His face in particular has aroused great interest for years.

However, many people have not realized that the Mona Lisa does not have any eyebrows or eyelashes. Why?

Why doesn’t the Mona Lisa have eyebrows?

One explanation could be that at that time Italian women plucked or shaved their eyebrows for aesthetic reasons. It was the beauty canon of the 16th century. Maybe that’s why Lisa Gherardini didn’t have eyebrows.

But, not content with that explanation, Pascal Cotte, a French photographer and engineer, made an in-depth study of the 500-year-old painting.

In 2007, Pascal Cotte obtained an image of 240 million pixels with the help of a proprietary camera. In that image he could see a faint representation of what would be an eyebrow hair on his face. This would prove that perhaps Da Vinci wanted to represent his model with eyebrows.

Would a single hair be proof that the Mona Lisa had eyebrows? Apparently yes, according to Cotte.

As Cotte explains, da Vinci painted an enamel over most of the piece, then added more details on top, leaving these last details vulnerable.

With the restoration work that was carried out some time later, his follicular features, including his eyelashes, may have been inadvertently erased.

“If you look closely at the Mona Lisa’s eye, you will clearly notice that the cracks around the eye have disappeared slightly, that may be explained by a curator or restorer cleaning the eye one day. And by cleaning the eye, he probably removed the eyelashes and eyebrows,” Cotte told the Telegraph in 2007.

More finds hidden under layers of paint

Among the discoveries, which Cotte made after spending more than 3,000 hours analyzing the data, we found the following:

• Da Vinci changed his mind about the position of two fingers on his model’s left hand.
• His face was originally wider and the smile more expressive than what Da Vinci finally painted.
• He is holding a blanket that has almost disappeared.

While Cotte has enthusiastically revealed her discovery, some art historians have been skeptical of Cotte’s findings.

For his part, Pascal Cotte has used his camera to search for more information in other ancient art treasures.

As we can see, the Mona Lisa will continue to be one of the most enigmatic paintings in the art world.

And you, are you satisfied with Cotte’s explanation of the absence of eyebrows and eyelashes on the Mona Lisa’s face? Let us know in the comments.

Something else on our curious planet

Speaking of which, a man recently threw a cake at the Mona Lisa . As the painting is behind armored glass, it did not suffer any damage. The man wanted to draw world attention to global warming affecting our planet. And he got it.

We have also published the 10 most unusual museums in the world. You may be interested. If you are a history lover you can read the 23 curiosities of history that perhaps you did not know.