Anupama Shrestha

Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is examined with a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the thickness of paint layers and their chemical composition.

PARIS — The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the “Mona Lisa.”

French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum’s Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the “Mona Lisa,” to analyze the master’s use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze — a technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.

The technique, called “sfumato,” allowed Leonardo to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings. Read more

Trip to East Sea (2008-6-4)

Time flows like a river, never to be returned, who knows what life has stored for us. Trip to east-sea as I can describe; journey of eternity, felt like pursuit of happiness longed was fulfilled. I always wished to walk along sea beaches by bare foots. This dream of mine finally came to be real there. I walked along the seashore (beaches) of east-sea. I could feel the smoothness of the brilliant sands all along the shores. It was extra ordinarily amazing, refreshing and cool. When sea waves touched my feet, kind of energy revived to start again to fight back all the hurdles of life, raise high and fly all along the blue sky. New vibes and rhythm ran all along my veins. I wonder how beautiful is nature? How true? How flawless? I wish I could be as silent and flawless as nature and hope didn’t have hurt anyone. Moreover, I could also enjoy the cool breezes coming through blue Ocean and took lots of photographs as memoirs of my trip to east-sea. Truly, travelling holds a lot and beauty of nature could be explored. However, beauty lies in the eye of beholder.