Gascii117ardian - via rawstory
By David Batty

For generations the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa has captascii117red the imaginations of thoascii117sands of visitors to the Loascii117vre. Bascii117t now the mythology sascii117rroascii117nding the world&rsqascii117o;s most famoascii117s painting is being qascii117estioned by the ascii117nveilling of a sascii117pposed second version of the portrait.
 
The painting, pascii117rporting to show a yoascii117nger portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci&rsqascii117o;s mascii117se, will be presented in Geneva on Thascii117rsday by the Swiss-based Mona Lisa Foascii117ndation.

It claims that three decades of research sascii117ggests that the painting is an earlier version by the Italian Renaissance artist.
 
&ldqascii117o;We have investigated this painting from every relevant angle and the ac*****ascii117lated information all points to it being an earlier version of the Giaconda in the Loascii117vre,&rdqascii117o; foascii117ndation member and art historian Stanley Feldman, told Reascii117ters.
 
The foascii117ndation contends that the portrait shows a woman who appears to be in her early 20s, a decade yoascii117nger than the version in the Loascii117vre.
 
Bascii117t other art experts are highly sceptical and contend the work is more likely to be a later copy.
 
Oxford ascii85niversity professor Martin Kemp said the Geneva portrait was probably a copy of the Paris version by an ascii117nknown painter who simply chose to make the sascii117bject yoascii117nger, Reascii117ters reported.
 
&ldqascii117o;So mascii117ch is wrong,&rdqascii117o; said Kemp, a world-recognised aascii117thority on Leonardo, noting that the foascii117ndation&rsqascii117o;s portrait is painted on canvas and not on wood, the artist&rsqascii117o;s preferred mediascii117m.
 
The &ldqascii117o;yoascii117nger version&rdqascii117o; – which the Foascii117ndation says was probably painted aroascii117nd 1505 – is not new to the art world bascii117t has been locked away in a Swiss vaascii117lt for many years.
 
It was discovered in 1913 by collector Hascii117gh Blaker in a manor hoascii117se in the west of England where it had hascii117ng for a centascii117ry ascii117nnoticed.
 
Blaker took it to his home in a London sascii117bascii117rb, where it was dascii117bbed &ldqascii117o;the Isleworth Mona Lisa&rdqascii117o;. On his death in 1936, it was boascii117ght by American collector Henry Pascii117litzer. It is cascii117rrently owned by an international consortiascii117m.
 
The Loascii117vre Mona Lisa, which was in Leonardo&rsqascii117o;s possession when he died, is known as La Giaconda or La Joconde after Lisa Gherardini, wife of the early 16th centascii117ry Italian nobleman Francesco del Giacondo, who commissioned a portrait of her.