Meet Mona Lisa Through the Power of VR Tech

In July 2019, Paris' iconic art museum, the Louvre, descended into total disarray. The reason? Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece the Mona Lisa was relocated to a new, temporary gallery while its usual home, the Salle des états, underwent renovations.

Museum tours took twice as long. Multiple bottlenecks formed and lines snaked throughout the entire museum all the way back to the entrance hall. Security guards were even ordered to obstruct the view of visitors who spent too long looking at the work, making it a less than ideal environment in which to admire the world's most famous painting.

While viewing conditions aren't usually quite this bad, the Louvre attracts around 10 million visitors per year. That amounts to 30 to 50 thousand people per day, of which 80% come especially to see the Mona Lisa. It became clear that the Louvre would need to find a solution.
Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass
To provide museum visitors with a more immersive and intimate experience, the Louvre launched a new exhibition to commemorate the 500th anniversary of da Vinci's death. Up until the museum's COVID-19-related temporary closure, art lovers could enjoy not only the museum's collection of the artist's paintings but 120 other works lent to the Louvre by other art institutions.

The pièce de résistance of the exhibition was a seven-minute immersive experience entitled Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass, which provided an up-close look at the painting using virtual reality (VR) technology. The segment was designed in partnership with HTC VIVE Arts and Emissive VR and used imagery and sound to educate visitors about the painting's history, its creation, and insights into how its star, Lisa del Giocondo, might have looked and moved in 3D.

Those who were unable to attend the museum in person could experience the full exhibition from the comfort of their own homes through HTC VIVE Arts' VIVEPORT.
How Technology Helps Us Understand da Vinci's Art
Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass isn't the first time innovative technology has been leveraged to delve deeper into the painting's history and provide unique experiences for da Vinci enthusiasts.

In 2010 specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France employed a non-invasive technique, known as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, to study da Vinci's use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze. They discovered that the artist painted up to 30 layers of paint -- amounting to a width of fewer than 40 micrometers -- a technique known as sfumato, which gave da Vinci's outlines a hazy quality and added depth and shadow. Using spectroscopy, researchers could even identify the precise mix of pigments used for each layer of paint.

In 2019, Samsung AI Center published a paper from its Moscow-based researchers detailing the development of a system that can convincingly generate a video using a photo of someone's face that depicts them speaking, making certain facial expressions, and moving their head around. Ultimately this could be applied to famous works of art, including the Mona Lisa, which was given several "facial landmarks" that provide fascinating insights into her speech and mannerisms.

Some critics have probed the necessity for such technology, asking if the world really needs the Mona Lisa in 3D VR. However, in a world where museums are increasingly fearful of protecting their art from natural disasters and other black swan events, and as the industry strives trying to make art more accessible and inclusive for all, the intersection between technology and art will continue to expand.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Louvre has closed to the public, but you can still download Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass on VIVEPORT so you can watch at home.

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