--- title: Scientist Reveals Secrets From 500-Year-Old Da Vinci Painting description: A French scientist has revealed that one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous paintings originally did not look as it does today canonical: https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-30T06:35:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:28:57.075Z article:section: Science og:title: Secrets Behind 500-Year-Old Da Vinci Painting Revealed og:description: A French scientist has revealed that one of the master's most famous paintings had two earlier versions. og:url: https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3029ebd29de1ccf6/6986a61aadae442e3d5453c1/rtxhu0t.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1512 og:image:height: 851 og:image:alt: The painting by Leonardo Da Vinci called "The Lady with Ermine", that goes on exhibit later this mo.. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Secrets Behind 500-Year-Old Da Vinci Painting Revealed twitter:description: A French scientist has revealed that one of the master's most famous paintings had two earlier versions. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3029ebd29de1ccf6/6986a61aadae442e3d5453c1/rtxhu0t.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientist Reveals Secrets Behind 500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8b4d720b-0a90-4d0e-8fa5-9d951065fd91&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Sep 30, 2014 6:35 AM UTC  The Lady with Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci photographed on Nov. 18, 1998. The Lady with Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci photographed on Nov. 18, 1998. Stefano Rellandini—Reuters by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Sep 30, 2014 6:35 AM UTC Using a new light technique, a French scientist has [revealed](http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29407093) that one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous paintings did not originally look as it does today. _The Lady With an Ermine_ is believed to have been painted in 1489 or 1490, and depicts Cecilia Gallerani, a young woman from the Milanese court in Italy who was the mistress of the Duke of Milan, holding a white ermine. It was thought the painting had always depicted the ceremonial animal, but Pascal Cotte has just discovered that Da Vinci actually painted two previous versions, the BBC reports. After three years of examining the work using a new reflective-light technique called Layer Amplification Method, or LAM, he learned that the first iteration was without the ermine and a second had changes to the lady’s dress. Experts described the revelation as “thrilling.” Cotte’s technique works by projecting a series of intense lights onto the canvas while a camera measures the reflections. From the measurements Cotte can analyze what was painted beneath. “The LAM technique gives us the capability to peel the painting like an onion, removing the surface to see what’s happening inside and behind the different layers of paint,” he told the BBC. The painting is usually housed at the National Museum in Krakow, Poland. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29407093)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/"},"headline":"Scientist Reveals Secrets Behind 500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece","datePublished":"2014-09-30T06:35:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:28:57.075Z","description":"The Lady With an Ermine is believed to have been painted in 1489 or 1490","url":"https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/","keywords":["Fine Art"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3029ebd29de1ccf6/6986a61aadae442e3d5453c1/rtxhu0t.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3029ebd29de1ccf6/6986a61aadae442e3d5453c1/rtxhu0t.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The painting by Leonardo Da Vinci called \"The Lady with Ermine\", that goes on exhibit later this mo..","caption":"The painting by Leonardo Da Vinci called \"The Lady with Ermine\", that goes on exhibit later this mo..","creditText":"Stefano Rellandini—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fine-art/","name":"Fine Art"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3447660/scientist-secrets-from-leonardo-da-vinci-painting-lady-with-an-ermine/","name":"Scientist Reveals Secrets Behind 500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Masterpiece"}}]}] ```