- arguments are needed for the Isleworth picture, the quality of which may speak for itself . . . the inimitable soft and lovely painting of the head and bust, the exquisite subtlety of the expression, the golden glow of the general colouring can be due only to Leonardo. The face shows none of the defects of the Louvre picture, which are probably due to clumsy repainting. . . . Need less to say, the acceptance of this work as a picture painted in part at least by Leonardo, does not in any way shake the authenticity of the Louvre Mona Lisa. But it is worth noting that the painting of two versions of the same subject would not be an isolated instance in the practice of Leonardo—witness The Virgin of the Rock, of which both the Louvre and the National Gallery in London own authentic versions.'
The emergence of this masterpiece from obscurity throws a searching ray of light upon the hitherto somewhat obscure history of Leonardo's great work, and suggests many interesting problems. Now we can in all honesty and sincerity ask: 'Is the Louvre picture Leonardo's first and original portrait of Madonna Lisa Giocondo to the order of her husband, Francesco del Giocondo, or, was more than one version of this portrait issued from Leonardo's studio?' In order to answer this question it will be necessary to review the whole history of the picture from its very inception.
There is very little direct contemporaneous evidence to go upon, but that which we have is extremely valuable. It consists of: (1) Two letters of Fra Nuvolaria written in 1501; (2) the drawing —now in the Louvre—made by Raphael before 1505 from the original picture; (3) the drafts of the two letters written by Leonardo himself in 1511; (4) and the visit paid to Leonardo at Cloux, near Amboise, by the Cardinal of Aragon, which the Cardinal's secretary described in writing, giving fully the conversation that took place.
Then there is the outside evidence deducible from history, and the several lives written of the master—unfortunately not always too reliable—besides the numerous articles and treatises upon the subject. I shall deal with all of these chronologically when practicable, so as to make the record as clear and as plain as possible.
That doubts have already been thrown upon the popular idea that the Louvre Mona Lisa is the only version of Leonardo's famous picture, is shown by the following lines from Browning's 'The Ring and the Book': —
- 'Oh! with a Lionard going cheap,
- If it should prove, as promised, that Jaconde
- Whereof a copy contents the Louvre!'
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