La Gioconda by Bob Shepherd

We call her Mona Lisa. The rest of the world calls her La Gioconda. Since my goal was to recreate her and not copy her I’m calling her the latter.

No painting had been more studied by scientists and I relied on their high resolution photos and analysis of paint pigment to recreate her. Luckily a version of all the paint Leonardo da Vinci used are still available today. Colors I used are: Flake White, Cold Black, Lamp Black, Ivory Black, Yellow and Orange Ochre, Transparent Yellow Orange Red and Brown Oxide, Vermillion, Burnt Sienna and Umber, Earth Green, a touch of Lapis Lazuli and a lot of the beautiful and almost forgotten Blue Smalt. Smalt is made by Windsor & Newton from finely crushed Cobalt glass and only one company still makes this pigment.

All the paint was applied using the technique Leonardo called Sfumato. I applied the paint and removed and smoothed the paint until one color vanished into another. I glazed many times using Earth Green, Vermillion, Lamp Black, Cold Black, Transparent Red and Brown Oxide, and lots of Smalt. It’s said that Leonardo had up to 73 layers of paint. I’m sure I did also. But that’s not the type thing you count. You just paint it until it’s right. I started the painting October 9, 2024 so she took 6 months to paint. If she was in my studio I could still be working on her, as did da Vinci. It’s said he still had her in his possession when he died. I understand.

As you look at “La Gioconda by Shep after da Vinci” you aren’t seeing the Mona Lisa as she looks today. I’ve seen her and taken my own pictures. You are seeing La Gioconda as she looked when The Master Leonardo da Vinci stopped painting her over 500 years ago.