The steady gaze and beatific smile are reminiscent of the world's best known painting, the Mona Lisa.
Those clues, along with carbon dating and other scientific tests, have led Italian experts to claim that they have found the holy of holies of the art world: a previously unknown Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.

Experts believe that the newly discovered painting is the full-blown, oil version of a pencil sketch drawn by Leonardo of a Renaissance noblewoman, Isabella d'Este, which now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Leonardo completed the sketch when he was staying in the city of Mantua, in the northern Lombardy region, in 1499 or 1500.

Pleased with her portrait, the Marquesa d'Este then sent letters asking him to produce a new, more elaborate version in colored oils. According to historical records, she never received a reply.

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Source: http://www.csmonitor.com