In the landscape of the Mona Lisa, in the mountainous portion located to our left, two mirabilissime inventions can be recognized. This area corresponds to Monte Pradegna and the underlying hills, as already analyzed in the fifth level of the page dedicated to the real landscape of Mona Lisa. For a full understanding of the geographical context in which these configurations are integrated, reference should therefore be made to that analysis.
The mirabilissime inventions are integrated into the painting according to the procedure described by Leonardo in the Treatise on Painting. For the meaning of the term mirabilissime inventions and for the methodological criteria adopted in their analysis, reference should be made to the page Methodology.
In this same portion of the painting two compositions of man can be recognized, closely concatenated with each other, sharing several parts of the landscape. One of them corresponds to the self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, while the other constitutes a distinct composition of man constructed through overlaps and continuity of tonal patches. From this latter composition, observation may usefully begin.
To observe this composition of man it is necessary to rotate the image by 90° clockwise. In the proposed elaboration the same portion of the painting is presented rotated and accompanied by a white oval that delimits the area in which the face is recognizable. The oval does not alter the original image, but has the sole function of visually circumscribing the area of interest.
The image shows the same portion of the painting
rotated 90° clockwise.
Within the oval
the face of the composition of man can be recognized,
integrated into the continuity of the landscape masses
through tonal variations and overlapping forms.
The oval has the sole function
of indicating the area in which the configuration
becomes recognizable.
(Original work preserved at the Musée du Louvre, Paris)
This composition of man represents the face of a man observed from the side. The right side of the face is recognizable, while the gaze is oriented toward our right. Considering the rotation of the image, the face actually appears arranged in a horizontal position, as if lying down, with the gaze directed upward.
In the painting the profile of the face appears separated from the rest of the mountainous area by a thin light zone, corresponding to a small plain in the hills beneath Monte Pradegna. A further light feature, curvilinear and descending toward the left in the lower part, helps to delimit the contour of the face, making the separation between the figure and the landscape masses more legible. The face appears characterized by a relatively light beard, which in the overall perception may appear almost blond, while the moustache appears darker.
The reading of the composition of man becomes clearer by progressively observing certain elements of the painting. In the sequence that follows, the same portion of the image is accompanied by three different supporting overlays, which help to recognize the structure of the face integrated into the landscape. The overlays do not introduce foreign elements, but visually isolate certain tonal variations already present in the painting.
The three images progressively show certain elements useful
for recognizing the composition of man
integrated into the landscape of Mona Lisa.
By moving the mouse over each image
(or pressing on touch screen),
an overlay is displayed
highlighting certain lines of light
and tonal variations already present in the painting.
These indications have the sole purpose
of facilitating the perception of the figure,
which emerges from the masses of the landscape
without the introduction of foreign elements.
(Original work preserved at the Musée du Louvre, Paris)
A few days before the publication of this page
dedicated to the self-portrait of Leonardo in Mona Lisa,
the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s autograph drawing
Three views of a bearded male head (c. 1502)
was announced at the Royal Museums of Turin,
scheduled from 20 March to 28 June 2026,
as part of the initiative “Face to face with Leonardo”.
The sheet presents three different views
of the same male head,
analyzed by Leonardo through progressive variations
of orientation and graphic synthesis.
For a long time it was believed that the face could represent
Cesare Borgia,
a hypothesis now debated but still present
in some critical interpretations.
This possibility is also consistent chronologically:
Leonardo worked for Cesare Borgia in 1502,
precisely in the years immediately preceding
the beginning of Mona Lisa (1503).
The sheet shows three views of the same male head,
rendered with a soft and progressively more synthetic line.
The study highlights
Leonardo’s attention
to the structure of the face,
particularly in the rendering of the beard,
articulated in curved and undulating lines.
(Royal Museums of Turin – Royal Library, Inv. 15573 D.C.)
The profile of the composition of man identified in Mona Lisa shows a significant affinity with the first head represented in the Turin sheet, characterized by a lateral view and a more marked facial structure. This similarity concerns in particular the shape of the nose, the setting of the forehead and the articulation of the beard.
The composition of man also presents a peculiar characteristic: the face appears arranged in a horizontal position, as if lying down, with the gaze directed upward. This configuration is not without parallels within the research. In the landscape of Saint Anne, in fact, Leonardo already uses a well-known natural form, the Omo Morto of the Apuan Alps, whose outline recalls that of a reclining man with his face turned toward the sky, transforming it into a mirabilissime invention through the intentional definition of the facial details.
The comparison with the Omo Morto therefore reinforces the reading of this image in Mona Lisa: here too the arrangement of the face does not appear as a simple formal accident, but as a figurative choice consistent with a procedure that Leonardo uses elsewhere. In common language, the figure of a man lying with his face turned toward the sky naturally recalls the image of a dead man; in this case, this association is further supported by the position of the body and its overall structure.
This particular arrangement, together with the strong affinity with the profile of the head represented in the Turin sheet, can be related to the figure of Cesare Borgia. In light of his death in 1507, in Viana in Spain, and of his direct relationship with Leonardo in previous years, it cannot be excluded that this image constitutes a symbolic reworking, integrated into the limbs of the landscape, referable to a possible testimony of the link between Cesare Borgia, Leonardo and the territory of Bobbio.
In the same portion of the landscape in which the previous composition of man was identified, a second figurative configuration is located, closely concatenated with the first and constructed through the same forms of the territory.
This second configuration
corresponds to the self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.
The figure emerges from the same forms of Monte Pradegna
and from the hills below,
but organizes these masses according to a more complex structure,
in which the fundamental features of the face
can be recognized.
To recognize it more clearly,
it is useful to rotate this portion of the landscape
by about 18° clockwise.
The area involved corresponds
to the hilly group on the left side of the painting,
referable in the real landscape
to Monte Pradegna
and to the underlying hills
that descend toward the bend of the Trebbia River.
The rotation does not modify the landscape,
but changes the way in which we observe it.
The underlying hills in fact show
a recurring morphological element:
curvilinear vegetation lines
that follow the natural slope of the terrain
and descend toward the valley floor,
as already analyzed in the
real landscape of Mona Lisa.
These patterns are consistent
with the real articulation of the terrain,
in particular with the impluvia
that channel toward the course of the Trebbia.
Observed in the rotated position,
these same morphological elements take on
the appearance of a lock of hair
and of the beard of the self-portrait.
The oval delimits a portion of the landscape of the painting
rotated by about 18° clockwise,
in which
Leonardo da Vinci’s self-portrait can be recognized.
This configuration occupies the same pictorial space
as the previous composition of man,
partly using the same areas of the landscape,
organized through overlaps of tonal patches
and shared details.
The area corresponds to the hilly group on the left side of the painting,
referable in the real landscape
to Monte Pradegna
and to the hills descending toward the bend
of the Trebbia River.
(Original work preserved at the Musée du Louvre, Paris)
In the course of the analysis of the The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, in the upper left part of the painting, what at first glance appears to be a simple group of hills reveals itself instead as a system of concatenated images sharing the same forms and masses of the landscape. In that area, several compositions of man and a composition of battles can be recognized, constructed through the same structure of the territory. Among these configurations, the self-portrait of Leonardo is also present.
When, in the analysis of Mona Lisa, the first composition of man was recognized in the hills to the left of the figure, a new question therefore arose: if in Saint Anne the same area of the landscape hosts multiple concatenated images, was it possible that in Mona Lisa that same sector also contained a system of images constructed through the same masses of the territory?
The answer emerged during the direct observation of Mona Lisa at the Musée du Louvre. Observing the painting from a distance of about four to five meters, in the hills to the left of the figure a face became immediately recognizable. The perception was instantaneous: it was without any doubt the self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.
The face, which in the painting measures less than twenty centimeters, emerges from the same masses of the landscape that form the previous composition of man. The two images therefore appear almost concatenated and constructed through the same forms of the territory, which are reorganized to generate a new figurative configuration.
From a distance, the image appears surprisingly sharp, and certain areas of the face take on an almost three-dimensional perception. However, when approaching the painting, the phenomenon changes: the same forms that at a distance compose the face separate and return to functioning as simple elements of the landscape— profiles of hills, variations of light, and transitions of sfumato. The face thus seems to dissolve within the painting.
This visual behavior does not depend on an arbitrary interpretation, but on a precise perceptual effect. Forms very similar in color and intensity, placed close to each other, when observed from a distance tend to merge visually. The eye thus constructs a new continuity of forms, from which the structure of the face emerges.
The reading of Leonardo’s self-portrait may initially appear less immediate than that of the previous composition of man, since the face emerges almost entirely from the same tonal gradations of the landscape. In the sequence that follows, the same portion of the image is accompanied by three different supporting overlays, which help to progressively recognize the configuration of the face. The indications introduced do not add foreign elements to the painting, but make more legible certain relationships of light and form already present in Leonardo’s painting.
The three images show the same portion of the landscape to the left of the figure in Mona Lisa. By moving the cursor over each of them (or pressing on a touch screen), supporting indications are progressively displayed. In the first image, the area that should not be considered is attenuated by a light white veil. In the second, maintaining the same veil, some forms of the landscape are made slightly more legible through a very slight increase in contrast. In the third, orientative color indications are also introduced.
The same light area, corresponding to a small plain in the hills beneath Monte Pradegna, which in the previous composition of man separated the profile of the face from the mountainous background, facilitating its perception, in the self-portrait instead performs an opposite function. Here it separates the part of the face just below the mouth from the underlying beard and from a lock of hair descending downward, thus interrupting the visual continuity of the face and making its overall reading less immediate.
A similar phenomenon can also be observed in Saint Anne, where in the self-portrait a thin light area descends from the center of the forehead toward the left side of the nose and mouth, partially interrupting the continuity of the facial forms and making their perception less immediate.
One of the most evident elements of the facial configuration
is the lock of hair descending along the left side
down to the course of the Trebbia.
As already analyzed in the page on the
real landscape of Mona Lisa,
this is a curvilinear vegetation line
following the natural slope of the terrain
and ending in the lower part
with a curling development.
In the painting this structure is rendered
through a continuous line,
darker than the surrounding hills,
which at the level of the Trebbia
takes on a curling form
comparable to a ringlet.
Observed in the rotated configuration,
this same landscape structure
takes on the appearance of the lock of hair of the self-portrait.
The characteristic features of Leonardo’s face are recognizable both in this configuration of Mona Lisa, and in the Turin self-portrait and in the self-portrait identified in Saint Anne. The comparison between these images makes it possible to observe the persistence of the same formal structure of the face, which remains constant despite variations linked to age and to different representational contexts.
The three images show, from left to right,
the configurations of Leonardo’s face
in chronological and age order:
the self-portrait identified in Mona Lisa
(c. 1503–1519),
the red chalk self-portrait preserved in Turin
(c. 1515–1516),
and the self-portrait identified in Saint Anne
(c. 1508–1519).
The overlays highlight the main structural elements of the face
– hair, beard and profile –
making the three configurations comparable
not as isolated images,
but as coherent expressions of a single formal construction.
(Turin self-portrait: Royal Library, Royal Museums of Turin;
the other configurations are integrated in the painting preserved at the Musée du Louvre, Paris)
In these three images the structure of the face is organized according to certain recurring features:
Relationships between the self-portrait of Saint Anne and that of Mona Lisa:
The arrangement of these forms is not random, but integrates coherently within the territorial construction of the landscape. The face is not superimposed onto the landscape, but emerges from its own structural lines, which are reorganized to generate the figurative configuration.
The visual comparison between these configurations makes it possible to verify the correspondence of the main facial features between the self-portrait in Mona Lisa, the one identified in Saint Anne, and the self-portrait preserved in Turin.
Observed in its relation to the female figure of the painting, the self-portrait configuration does not appear isolated, but oriented toward her. The face is in fact turned in the direction of the woman and presents a slightly smiling expression, establishing an internal visual relationship within the composition.
Extending the observation, at the level of the mouth a further perceptual effect may also emerge. Next to the line of closure of the lips, a small central configuration, darker in tone, can be distinguished, which together with the surrounding margins may take on the appearance of lips shaped for whistling. This too is an optical effect intentionally constructed through the reorganization of the forms of the landscape.
The identified images do not constitute simple visual resemblances, but intentional configurations emerging from the limbs of the landscape, in which natural forms are reorganized to accommodate the mirabilissime inventions and make fully recognizable the conscious intervention of the artist.
The oval delimits a portion of the landscape in which two compositions of man can be recognized, closely concatenated. The two images occupy the same area of the painting and partly use the same zones of the landscape, organized through overlaps of tonal patches and continuity of details. Among these configurations emerges the self-portrait of Leonardo. The area corresponds to the hilly group on the left side of the painting, referable in the real landscape to Monte Pradegna and to the underlying hilly system that descends toward the bend of the Trebbia River.
(Original work preserved at the Musée du Louvre, Paris)