The blotchiness and "noise" you're seeing is mostly physical, not digital. da Vinci decided not to use the traditional fresco techniques where dry-powder pigments are mixed into freshly-laid lime plaster that's still wet (hence the "fresco" name, meaning "fresh" in both Italian and Spanish... fresh plaster), and instead painted this image "dry" onto the wall using oil paints and other materials. Why he did so is not known.
Over the next 522 years, the painting has deteriorated significantly. After the latest restoration effort in the late 90's, the room was hermetically sealed and the air filtered to keep pollution and contamination off the artwork, the light levels in the room were cut down to avoid UV damage to the paint, and the number of concurrent visitors in each batch was reduced. Still, the image quality has been heavily degraded. I'll post a shot that's zoomed in closer in a day or two.
Jul 27, 2018 at 10:24 AM
Previous versions of Rodolfo Paiz's message #14542383 « Mustang Air to Air: The Sequel »
