At 09:08 AM 7/23/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I hope that the members of the list can help me with this question. I need
>this information for my dissertation on the virtual museum.
>
>I have noticed an imperfection, or mark, on the digital reproduction of
>the "Mona Lisa" at the "official" Louvre museum web site that is sponsored
>by the Paris institution.
>(http://mistral.culture.fr/louvre/anglais/magazine/jocon.htm) There is a
>gray green vertical line in the upper left quadrant of the image. This
>mark extends from the frame to the beginning of the "Mona Lisa's" hair. I
>originally thought this line was a "mistake" in the digitalization
>process. Since then, I have discovered that this line appears even more
>prominently on the WebMuseum site.
>(http://sunsite.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/vinci/joconde/joconde.jpg) Here the
>line appears  as a mint green raised scar.
>
>The same imperfection appears in Gardner's "Art Through the Ages" and
>Janson's "History of Art."
>
>My question is:
>
>Are these sources using the same damaged negative (or positive) or does
>this line reproduce some mark on the "real" painting? Is this imperfection
>part of a crack or other damage?
>
>I would greatly appreciate the group's insight.
>
>Thank you,
>M. White
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>
>Dear M. White,

The imperfection that you see in the WWW reproduction of the Mona Lisa is
not from a
damaged negative but is a crack in the panel which had been badly
overpainted at some time probably in the 19th-century.  An X-ray of that
particular section of the painting is published in "Mona Lisa, The Picture
and The Myth," by Roy McMullen.  It clearly shows the damage to the painting
support.  In older B/W pictures published, the crack is
not as evident, ostensibly due to even more overpaint that has since been
removed.

Michael Allen Rooks
Circulation Manager
John M. Flaxman Library
37 S. Wabash
Chicago Il 60603
(312) 899-5097 [x2023]
(312) 899-1465 fax