Contribution of mechanical engineering to the conservation of panel paintings : the case of Mona Lisa

The mechanical response of the wooden support of Mona Lisa to the action of the frame has been modeled using finite elements and compared to observations by optical techniques. The risk of propagation of the existing crack, estimated through the calculation of an elastic energy release rate, was found negligible. Introduction The application of wood science and engineering principle to improve the conservation of high-value paintings is a challenging task. A study on the wooden support of the world-famous painting of Mona Lisa, partly published in a book (Mohen et al. 2006), has initiated a cooperative research among French and Italian teams. Mona Lisa painting has been well preserved although it has been subjected to a few accidents during its 500 years of history. It is made of a single wood piece, inserted in a frame applying few constraints, and has been damaged by an ancient and seemingly wellstabilised crack (Figure 1). It can serve as a typical case for this category of wooden painting and, more essentially, as the starting point of a wider project concerning various types of wooden painted panels of cultural value. The mechanical analysis was started in 2004 to answer two questions raised by curators of the Louvre museum: (i) evaluation of degradation risk, especially in relation * Laboratory of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, CNRS, University Montpellier 2, France ha l-0 07 96 48 3, v er si on 1 4 M ar 2 01 3 Author manuscript, published in "French-Japanese Workshop on Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage, France (2010)"