that it is the painter cross or nonspecialists

Definitely, the works of Leonardo da Vinci have not yet delivered all their secrets. In the systematic review of his works kept in the Louvre, it was, after "The Mona Lisa", the turn of "The Virgin with the child Jesus and Saint Anne" to be subject to the investigations of the Centre for research and restoration of the museums of France (C2 MWA-CNRS). But, before even that he join the laboratory located at the bottom of the Court of the Louvre, one of the conservatives in the Department of paintings, present at the stall of the table, believed discern on the back of the traces of drawings. It was not needed to pique the curiosity of the purposes the C2RMF-CNRS bloodhounds, who decided to submit the table back to the infrared réflectographie. Result: three drawings novel a horse's head, a skull and a Jesus to the naked eye almost indistinguishable lamb, enrich and complement what is already known genius of the Renaissance and its way of working.

When attempting to discern under a work painted any pentimenti or compositions that could previously be painted on a same media, x-ray radiography is a reference techniques. C2 MWA applied successfully to the canvases of Courbet met on the occasion of the great exhibition of the fall of 2007 (see "Les Echos" of October 15, 2007), but also to "Mona Lisa" in 2005 (see "Les Echos" on April 6, 2005) and it currently uses it to study "The Virgin with the child Jesus and Saint Anne," side "face".

In contrast, when it comes to show rather than an underlying paint, but an underlying design or too wiped out to be visible to the naked eye, it is in the infrared réflectographie that is called. This technology used by surveillance cameras makes visible a part of the spectrum not detectable by the human eye, between 800 and 1700 nanometers (the human eye perceives between 380 and 780 nanometers). This part of the spectrum has the particularity to cross most pigments, except those made of carbon and copper. However, before painting, it typically begins with a sketch of carbon based charcoal, dry stone...

The drawings are very deleted

Here, the surface is not painted, as it comes to the back of the table, but the designs are very erased, which explains that they are gone unnoticed until now. "Leonardo da Vinci had ordered this Panel of poplar of 1.67 m by 1.12 m to achieve"The Virgin with the child Jesus and Saint Anne", explains Bruno Mottin, conservative Heritage, head of the sector works painted C2RMF-CNRS study.". My hypothesis, he says, is that the Panel had to remain some time in his Studio until da Vinci begins painting and that he used as for a kind of book of sketches, to note the ideas he had in mind at this time there. "These designs, that can still give some way to the"Grand Leonardo", were therefore not intended to be kept; They provide not less interesting clues about the concerns of the time of the master and his workshop.

At this level, in addition to the design of the child Jesus with the Lamb that can be developed in relation to clear with the subject of the table itself as well as a drawing on the same subject, held by the Museum Paul Getty in Los Angeles, it is the head of horse which is the most interesting for art historians. "The Florentines, who were very proud of their artists, had ordered from Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci two large compositions which had to be faced in the room of Cinq-Cents of Palazzo Vecchio, at tells Bruno Mottin." Michelangelo was painting the battle of Cascina but it was at this time mobilized by la Chapelle Sixtine and Leonardo da Vinci was ordering a representation of the battle of Anghiari, which had opposed the Milanese to the Florentines. "This work or only remains a partial copy by Rubens. It shows horses are to entredéchirer, mouths open and écumantes, as that of the horse whose head appears on the back of "The Virgin with the child Jesus and Saint Anne". From there to think that it is a da Vinci drawing and that it was in this fresco, there was nothing... that it is the painter cross or non-specialists.