Second Mona Lisa Painting Released After 40 Years

It looks like Leonardo da Vinci may have called Mona Lisa back for a follow-up.

According to ABC News, a second Mona Lisa painting was mysteriously released after 40 years of lockdown in a Swiss bank vault. The painting called the Isleworth Mona Lisa is being studied closely to determine whether da Vinci painted an earlier version of the woman with a slight smile.

The “original” Mona Lisa painting is featured in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France (seen above on the left) as “La Giaconda” but shows eye-catching differences. The Isleworth painting depicts a seemingly younger Mona Lisa than depicted in the Louvre painting. Given the facial features in the two paintings, both inspired by a woman named Lisa del Giocondo, researchers are beginning to think that the Mona Lisa may have been composed earlier than art historians thought.

Another difference is the type of material used. The Louvre painting was done on wood while the Isleworth painting was done on canvas. As told to the Sunday Times, professor Martin Kemp at Oxford University said da Vinci rarely painted on canvas.

Others are not so quick to doubt the work’s original composer. Art historian and Mona Lisa Foundation founder Stanley Feldman told The Associated Press that the rudiments of the bodies match to a tee. "The two people, the two sitters – are in exactly the same place,” Feldman notes. He also says the “that in order for [the paintings] to be so accurate, so meticulously exact, only the person who did one did the other.”

Guess this is a da Vinci code researchers will have to crack with time.