Prado Mona Lisa: The Twin Revealed

The Prado’s Mona Lisa is a painting by the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci and depicts the same subject and composition as Leonardo’s better known Mona Lisa at the Louvre, Paris. The Prado Mona Lisa has been in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain since 1819, but was considered for decades a relatively unimportant copy. Following its restoration in 2012, however, the Prado’s Mona Lisa has come to be understood as the earliest known studio copy of Leonardo’s masterpiece.

The Prado Mona Lisa was created around 1503–1516 (more precisely often dated 1507–1516) in Leonardo’s workshop, likely simultaneously with the original. It was painted on a walnut panel (common in the period) by an unknown pupil or assistant working alongside Leonardo. Possible candidates include apprentices like Francesco Melzi or Salaì (Gian Giacomo Caprotti), though the exact artist remains unidentified. Leonardo likely supervised or authorized it.

The painting entered the Prado collection in 1819 (from the Spanish royal collection) but was long dismissed as a later, less important copy. It had a dull black overpainted background (added in the 18th century), brighter but flatter colors, and lacked the subtle sfumato of the original.

The Mona Lisa by an apprentice of Leonardo da Vinci.

During preparations for a Louvre exhibition, Prado conservators examined the painting with infrared reflectography, radiography, and other techniques. They discovered under the black background lay a detailed Tuscan rocky landscape nearly identical to the Louvre version.

The underdrawing (preliminary sketch) matched the original, including the same pentimenti (artist’s changes/corrections) to hands, eyes, face contours, etc. This strongly indicates the two were painted in parallel in the same studio. Restoration removed the overpaint, revealing vibrant colors, visible eyebrows, and sharper details that the Louvre Mona Lisa has lost over time due to aging, varnishing, and cleaning.

The restored Prado version is often described as showing how Leonardo’s Mona Lisa likely looked when freshly painted—brighter, with more contrast and detail—making it a valuable “time capsule” for understanding the original.

The Prado’s Mona Lisa before its restoration, with the black repaint of the landscape background.

Near-identical composition, pose, size proportions, and landscape. Both share the same creative evolution in underdrawings. The Prado copy lacks Leonardo’s masterful sfumato (softer blending), has slightly different perspective/angle on the background (as if painted from a nearby spot), more vivid colors, and better-preserved details like eyebrows. The original has deeper atmospheric depth and Leonardo’s unique touch.

This is not just “another copy” among dozens from the 16th–17th centuries. Its contemporaneous creation makes it uniquely valuable for art history, shedding light on Leonardo’s teaching methods, workshop collaboration, and the evolution of his masterpiece. It has been featured in exhibitions alongside the original and continues to draw interest for how it lets us “see” the Mona Lisa more as Leonardo’s contemporaries did.

While the Louvre painting is the singular original by Leonardo’s hand, the Prado version is its closest historical companion, painted in the same room, under the master’s eye, and now restored to reveal lost details of one of art’s greatest icons.

Hans Holbein the Younger: One of the Greatest Portraitists of the Northern Renaissance

Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497–1543) was a German painter and printmaker who worked primarily in England and is regarded as one of the greatest portraitists of the Northern Renaissance. While he initially received training in Augsburg and Basel, his career reached its pinnacle in London, where he served as the King’s Painter to Henry VIII.

Holbein’s style is characterized by its extraordinary realism, precise detail, and a meticulous, almost photographic rendering of fabric, jewelry, and facial features. His most famous works include the portraits of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, and his striking depiction of the statesman Thomas Cromwell. His art transcended mere likeness, he often incorporated symbols and objects (anamorphosis or memento mori) into his compositions, as seen famously in The Ambassadors (1533), adding layers of intellectual depth to his masterful technique.

Holbein’s portraits remain our most vivid visual link to the powerful figures of the Tudor court.

Adam and Eve, 1517

Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, circa 1517

The Last Supper, 1524-25

Touch Me Not, 1524

Venus and Amor, 1524-25

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King Henry VIII’s Armor With an Exaggerated Codpiece

Henry VIII’s armor is famous not only for its sheer size (he was a large man, especially later in life) but also for one very particular detail: the codpiece.

In the 16th century, the codpiece—essentially a padded and often exaggerated covering for the groin—was a common part of men’s fashion. It began as a practical solution to cover the gap in hose (tight-fitting legwear) and evolved into a symbol of masculinity, virility, and power.

Henry VIII, always conscious of projecting dominance and strength, had several suits of armor made with highly pronounced codpieces, especially during the height of his reign in the 1540s. These armors were both ceremonial and functional, often displayed during tournaments or parades rather than strictly for battle.

The codpiece on Henry’s Greenwich-made armor (now in the Royal Armouries, Leeds, and the Tower of London) is so large and prominent that historians often remark it was less about practicality and more about political theater—broadcasting his vigor, fertility, and authority as king. This was particularly important after his multiple marriages and struggles to produce a male heir.

Some key details about Henry’s codpiece armor:

• Crafted in steel, richly etched and gilded, with the codpiece seamlessly integrated.
• Exaggerated to the point of being almost comical by modern standards, though deadly serious in symbolism at the time.
• Reflects the Tudor obsession with display, masculinity, and power.

The 16th Century Optical Illusion of Florence Cathedral’s Marble Tiles on Flat Floor

This floor is entirely flat. The remarkable 16th-century optical illusion of Florence Cathedral’s marble tiles. When seen from above, the intricate geometry creates the illusion of a giant abyss that people might stumble into.

The majestic floor of the Cathedral, in geometric motifs of white, black and red marbles, was made to designs by various Florentine masters between 1500 and 1660. The total surface is near 8,200 square metres. Until the end of the 15th century, the cathedral floor was in terracotta. In May 1500, the master builder of the Opera, Simone del Pollaiolo, known as “Il Cronaca,” received directions to carry out maintenance of the ancient, worn flooring: this was the origin of the proposal to rework all of the floors in marble.

In 1504 the Consuls of the Wool Guild and the masters of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore agreed on renovating the floor, beginning from the area around the choir octagon. In the four years left to him, Cronaca (d. 1508) oversaw the large part of this first task, as well as completing the floors of some radial chapels, among which the Chapel of San Tommaso. After resuming in 1520, the works continued without interruption under Baccio d'Agnolo, completing floor after floor: in 1524, around the choir; in 1525 in the Tribune of San Zanobi; in 1526 the Tribune of the Cross and in 1528 that of Sant'Antonio. 

For these chapels, Baccio drew inspiration from the geometries of Turcoman carpets. In the grand ducal era, the design and construction of the main cathedral pavements were entirely entrusted to Baccio d'Agnolo, flanked by Francesco da Sangallo, Baccio Bandinelli and by Bandinelli’s son, Giuliano. The job of the new flooring was gigantic in costs, materials, manpower and time: the works were finally completed exactly 160 years after beginning, in 1660.

The appearance is that of an enormous unity of geometric carpets, aligned within the naves and intersecting accessory spaces. A succession of highly elaborate, kaleidoscopic wheels, of circular and hexagonal outline, generate illusionary games of perspective, scattered here and there with insertions of floor-tombs and memorials, themselves enriched with coats of arms. For their colors and textures, the masters of these works chose specific marbles: Colonnata black; Prato green; Monterantoli red; Apuan white; the brecciato marbles, with their effects of color chips; Thessaly green; African marbles, in shades of pink, yellow, grey-blue; also Impruneta granite and the so-called Misio marble, technically a granite.  The techniques used derive from those of Romanesque marble “carpets,” but the designs draw more explicitly on drawings by Baccio d'Agnolo and Sangallo.

The aim was to equal and surpass the refined tastes and splendor of Roman imperial floors, above all those of the Pantheon. The triple colors of white, green and pink also evoke the glories of republican Florence, specifically in the constructions of Giotto's bell tower and the facing of the Cathedral. Although there are references to Florentine Romanesque, this tradition is projected into the “modern” in terms of dimension and meanings: just as the floor extends over all parts of this religious centre, Florentine dominance extends over all Tuscany and the city has emerged as the capital of a modern state: a dominion ruled by a duke.

The Great Bed of Ware, One of the Most Beautiful Works of Furniture Ever Produced

The Great Bed of Ware is not only a beautifully carved piece of historical furniture, but the giant four-poster sleeper was a symbol of bawdiness that became so popular, both Shakespeare and Byron used it in their writing.

The Great Bed of Ware was created in 1590 by a Hertfordshire carpenter named Jonas Fosbrooke. Not a lot information is provided on the background on the creator, but many believe that the bed was created as a “gimmick” to attract customers at the Inns at Ware. This is a result of a decrease in visitors since many Catholics could not travel to the shrine at Walsingham, Norfolk.

While the Great Bed of Ware remained in Ware, it was circulated between 5 inns: The White Hart, The George, The Crown, The Bull and the Saracen’s Head before being sold in 1870 to be used as a visitor’s attraction at the Rye House hotel.   

At a staggering 118 square feet of space, this bed is capable to house four couples comfortably. Made entirely out of oak, Fosbrooke created cravings that resembled “anglicized Renaissance patterns, acanthus leaves and strapwork.” There are even human figures carved into the headboard, which show traces of paint that could have been brightly colored.

It should be noted that this masterpiece was featured in one of William Shakespeare’s plays, Twelfth Night. Within his play, Shakespeare’s character Toby Belch delivers the line “...and as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England...,” emphasizing how famous this creation was during the time.

​The Great Bed of Ware was finally placed in the V&A museum in 1931, where it has stayed since. However, it was loaned to the Ware Museum between April 2012 to April 2013. During its time at this museum, it grabbed the attention of 34,000 people while they were in Ware.

This creation can be found in the “Furniture” section of the V&A museum, where many other artifacts and furnitures are found that hold significant importance.

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Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk by Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1510

The drawing is estimated to have been drawn c. 1510, possibly as a self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. In 1839, it was acquired by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy. The assumption that the drawing is a self-portrait of Leonardo was made in the 19th century, based on the similarity of the sitter to the possible portrait of Leonardo as Plato in Raphael’s The School of Athens and on the high quality of the drawing, consistent with others by Leonardo. It was also decreed to be a self-portrait based on its likeness to the frontispiece portrait of Leonardo in Vasari’s second edition of The Lives of the Artists (1568). During World War II, the presumed self-portrait was temporarily moved from Turin to Rome to avoid being taken by the Nazis, becoming somewhat damaged in the process. In 2000, German art historian Frank Zöllner reflected that “This red chalk drawing has largely determined our idea of Leonardo’s appearance for it was long taken to be his only authentic self-portrait.”

The inscription at the bottom of the portrait, added by a later hand, reads: “Leonardo da Vinci, portrait of himself as an old man”.

Since the mid-to-late 20th century, the identification of the drawing as a self-portrait has been questioned. The claim that it represents Leonardo has been criticized by a number of Leonardo scholars and experts. A frequent criticism made in the late 20th century is that the drawing depicts a man of a greater age than Leonardo himself achieved, as he died at the age of 67 and allegedly made the drawing between the age of 58 and 60. It has been suggested that the sitter represents Leonardo’s father Piero da Vinci or his uncle Francesco, based on the fact they both had a long life and lived until the age of 80.

Da Vinci would learn most of his skills as a draughtsman whilst studying under Andrea del Verrocchio. It was here that he worked his way up, from apprentice to fully fledged artist over a period of several years. He would be introduced to many different disciplines during his time here, with drawing being considered a fundamental skill which was essential to most other art forms.

The 1510s were significant within Da Vinci’s life as a draughtsman. It was then that he tried out a greater variety of mediums for his sketches. Often there would be tinted paper, which would roughly match the tones of his chalk. He continually looked for new challenges too, once he felt that he had mastered a particular genre.

Leonardo da Vinci’s self portrait would hold a considerable value, but any figure given by experts would have to be quite a wide range. It is highly unlikely that its present owners would ever choose to part with this important artwork, but also any price realized at auction would depend on the interested parties bidding on it.

Some have claimed that the piece might be worth as much as $100M, possibly more, when considering that it holds the image of the artist himself, and also is one of the most famous drawings that he ever produced, but ours is only an loose estimation and experts in the field would be much more qualified to value the piece themselves.

An Italian Art Historian Has Claimed to Have Identified the Bridge in the Background of the Mona Lisa

Italian art historian Silvano Vinceti has claimed to have identified the bridge in the background of the Mona Lisa, the iconic painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Vinceti says the bridge in question is the Romito di Laterina bridge in the province of Arezzo, based on historical documents, drone images, and photographs of the area, which show the same number of arches in both the painting and the Romito.

The bridge depicted in the backdrop of the Mona Lisa has been a subject of debate for many years.

Previous theories about the background of the 16th-century oil painting have identified the bridge as the Ponte Bobbio, in the northern city of Piacenza, as well as the Ponte Buriano, which is also in the Tuscan province of Arezzo. However, both of these bridges have six arches, compared to the Romito’s four.

“It is the Romito Etruscan-Roman bridge, also known as Ponte di Valle, located in the municipality of Laterina in the province of Arezzo,” explained Vinceti. “Only one arch remains of the bridge today, but in the period between 1501 and 1503 the bridge was functioning and it was very busy, as shown by a document on the state of assets on Medici family properties, found in the State archives of Florence.”

All that remains of the Romito bridge today is a single arch, after it was badly damaged, probably by flooding, in the 18th century.

It was precisely at that time that Leonardo was in the Val d’Arno area, first at the service of Cesare Borgia, known as the Valentino, and then for the gonfalonier of the Republic of Florence, Pier Soderini.