Was the Mona Lisa really painted on wood?
In the process of photographing and scanning the images, Pascal Cotte discovered that the “Mona Lisa’s” eyebrows and eyelashes were originally painted on the piece. They disappeared either because of a botched attempt to clean the painting or because the paint’s oil and pigment faded over time. Through the photographs, Pascal Cotte also spotted drawings underneath the paint that show a change in the position of her fingers. The Mona Lisa was incorrectly identified as having been painted on canvas. It is in fact painted on wood. Sorry it is a long answer but I believe the information is very interesting.
The Mona Lisa is painted on a one-piece poplar panel measuring about 21″Wx31″Hx1/2″D. The panel was likely bought from a local carpentry shop that supplied the panels for painters They were usually pre-framed. It was common practice at that time in the Italian renaissance for painters to use wood panels for their paintings, and even though Leonardo preferred to paint on walnut, the Mona Lisa is painted on Italian poplar.
