Workshop survey · Renaissance
The naked Mona Lisa or Monna Vanna
In Chantilly, a large stitched drawing takes up the smile, pose and hands of the Mona Lisa, but transforms the portrait into an ideal naked figure. Is it a drawing by Leonardo, an invention directed by him or the brilliant cardboard of a collaborator?
La Naked Mona Lisa, also called Monna Vanna, is kept at the Condé museum, at the Château de Chantilly, under number DE 32. On large brown paper, a seated figure turns his bust towards the viewer. Hands cross in the foreground, hair frames a smiling face and the framing immediately takes up the memory of the Mona Lisa of the Louvre.
But this object is not a painting and does not present itself as an improvised study. It's a report card : a scale drawing intended to convey a composition to a painted panel. Its contours have been stitched. By passing powder through these perforations - the technique of spolvero - workshop could reproduce mainlines on new media.
The study carried out at C2RMF in 2017 confirmed this function. The Condé museum specifies today that cardboard served as a cliché for paintings produced in Leonardo's workshop. This material function is the safest point of the file. The more delicate question is that of the hand: who designed, traced, took up and completed this sheet?
Read object before name
Four material clues tell the story of the life of cardboard
Every detail responds to a workshop function. We must therefore resist the romantic idea of autonomous drawing signed by a solitary genius.
A large assembled paper
The 72.4 × 54 cm format is close to that of a portrait panel. The scale is not that of a small sketch: it corresponds to an installation tool designed to transfer the composition.
Black stone, coal and light
The model is constructed by soft blacks and highlights of lead white. The face receives a more subtle finish than certain areas of the body, a difference which nourishes the hypothesis of successive interventions.
Really sharp contours
The perforations are not decorative. They prove that part of the lines were used for the transfer. The cardboard therefore circulated in a collective manufacturing line and probably produced several painted images.
A repeated formula, not a simple double
Kinship concerns pose, framing, hands and frontality of gaze. But the naked Mona Lisa replaces landscape, clothing and social identity with an ideal figure close to Venus.
Two Mona Lisa?
Same visual memory, different status
What brings together - and what separates
- LayoutFigure halfway through the body, arms folded and gaze turned towards the viewer.
- DimensionsAlmost identical width: 54 cm at Chantilly, 53.4 cm at the Louvre.
- FunctionThe Louvre painting is a portrait on poplar; the Chantilly leaf is an instrument of transfer.
- IdentityLisa Gherardini is solidly documented for the Mona Lisa. The naked figure is rather ideally beautiful.
- AttributionThe painting is by Leonardo. Cardboard certainly belongs to its orbit, but the division of hands remains debated.
Interactive attribution folder
What is established, probable or even open
Filter the eight arguments. A serious attribution never relies on a single "family resemblance": it combines materials, technique, chronology, provenance and quality of the drawing.
8 arguments displayed.
Established
1. It's a carryover card
Stitched contours and laboratory analysis demonstrate use by cliché. The work is therefore neither a simple late copy nor an isolated amateur sheet.
Limit: the function is not enough to identify the person who held the charcoal.Established
2. It was used for studio paintings
The Condé museum materially connects the cardboard to paintings created in Leonardo's workshop. The object is a matrix in a family of versions, not a graphic cul-de-sac.
This link establishes the production context more surely than an absent signature.Strong index
3. The composition depends on Leonardo
The hand system, the rotation of the bust and the relationship with the spectator take up a very recognizable Leonardian invention. The neighboring dimensions reinforce this connection.
Design parentage does not automatically mean fully autograph execution.Strong index
4. The face achieves remarkable quality
Transitions, restrained smile and atmospheric unity of the face have often been invoked in favor of intervention by the master, at least in revivals.
The body appears more uneven: the cardboard can keep several campaigns or several hands.
Strong index
5. An image famous from the 16th century
Several old painted versions testify to the rapid diffusion of the motif. Salaigh's inventory mentions a "naked Mona Lisa", probably a painting by his hand.
The work inventoried at Salaikh cannot be identified with certainty in the Chantilly box.
Open question
6. Rome, around 1513 -1516?
The dating 1514 -1516 and the proposed Roman context place the image among research on the mid-body nude and ancient beauty, in Raphael's intellectual neighborhood.
The place of execution is probable, not documented by a contemporary archive.
Open question
7. Where is the original painting?
Versions of Salaikh, Joos van Cleve and other followers suggest a prestigious prototype. It may have been lost, remained unfinished or never existed other than as a shared box.
No surviving painting is unanimously accepted today as Leonardo's original.
Open question
8. Real portrait or ideal Venus?
Despite the name Mona Lisa, the Louvre considers it unlikely to see another portrait of Lisa Gherardini. The motif is closer to a humanized Venus, then fruitful in French art.
Historical titles can maintain a formal comparison without guaranteeing the identity of the model.A family of images
Cardboard does not prove a single painting: it reveals a workshop
The motif travels, changes material and adapts to other visual cultures. These works are not interchangeable: they show how an invention could become a collective repertoire.
Colorful version available
In the Leonardo da Vinci collection
Monna Vanna Nuda - Joos van Cleve
This painted version colors the formula of the naked Mona Lisa: luminous skin tones, transparent veil and dark background give the model a very different presence from Chantilly cardboard.
Joos van Cleve and the North
The Leonardian pose circulates beyond Italy. At Joos van Cleve, the pattern becomes more frontal, more colorful and more precious.
Painted version · 16th centuryItalian variants
Gestures, veil, landscape or jewelry vary from one painting to another. The persistence of the framework confirms the role of a common matrix.
Workshop and followers · 16th centuryRaphael: the Roman comparison
La Fornarina is not a copy, but it sheds light on the contemporary success of the female nude in mid-body, between portrait, ideal and sensual presence.
Visual context · RomeClouet: a French posterity
In France, the naked portrait unfolds in a more narrative vein of the court. The relationship lies in the ambiguous power of a figure who looks at the spectator.
Posterity · around 1571Critical chronology
From the Roman workshop to the laboratory
Leonardo stayed in Rome in the service of Julian de Medici. The sheet is generally dated 1514 -1516.
A "naked Mona Lisa" appears among the student’s belongings, presumably a painting.
The prince acquired the cardboard, then attributed to Leonardo, at a very high price, and compared it to a painting from Saint Petersburg.
The Condé museum receives the Aumale collection, subject to usufruct and with strict conservation rules.
Imaging and material analyzes re-evaluate paper, highlights, stitching and cardboard usage.
A monographic exhibition places the work among copies, Renaissance nudes and studio practices.
Verdict, word by word
What attribution can be written today?
The different formulations do not say the same thing. The table below distinguishes invention, production and execution.
| Formulation | What she says | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| "From Leonardo da Vinci" | The essential totality of the drawing would be in the hand of the master. | Possible, but not demonstrated |
| "Leonardo’s Workshop" | The work was produced in his working environment, according to an invention directly related to him. | Strongest formulation |
| "Leonardo and workshop" | The master would have designed or taken over certain areas, with shared execution. | Reasonable assumption |
| "Late copy" | The sheet would be a posterior imitation without function in the workshop. | Contradicted by stitching and analyses |
| "Portrait of Lisa Gherardini" | The figure would represent the same woman as the Louvre painting. | Unsupported; more likely type of Venus |
Sources and method
Instructions to consult to go further
The conclusions of this article favor museum catalogs, technical study and publications from the Chantilly exhibition.
Visual credits: carton de Chantilly, photography Shonagon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Joos van Cleve, Raphaël and François Clouet, reproductions of works in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons. The hero is an original editorial illustration and does not reproduce the sheet kept at the Condé museum.
Frequently asked questions
The naked Mona Lisa in six answers
Brief answers, without transforming hypotheses into certainties.
Is the Naked Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci?
She firmly belongs to her workshop and takes up an invention linked to it. Direct intervention by Leonardo is possible, especially in the finest areas, but the entirely autograph execution is not demonstrated.
Why is it called Monna Vanna?
Monna Vanna is a usage title attached to the "Naked Mona Lisa" family. He brings the image of Monna Lisa closer by his pose and his smile, without proving that she represents Lisa Gherardini.
What's a carryover card?
It is a full-scale drawing used to transfer a composition. The contours could be stitched, then powdered in order to deposit the lines on the panel intended to be painted.
What do the C2RMF analyzes show?
They confirm the materiality of the cardboard, its highlights, its perforations and its use as a cliché for paintings produced in the master's workshop.
Is there a matching original painting?
No surviving painting is unanimously recognized as Leonardo's original. Several old versions, however, testify to a common prototype and the diffusion of the motif.
Where to see the naked Mona Lisa?
The cardboard belongs to the Condé museum at the Château de Chantilly. Its fragility and conservation rules can influence its presentation conditions: the museum's programming must be checked before the visit.
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