5. Conclusion

The major advantage of a multispectral camera lies in the hundreds of millions of spectra recorded during the course of a single shot on the site where the work of art is exhibited, lasting no more than 90 minutes. The processing of these spectra enables us to obtain a very high-definition digital image for archiving and comparison purposes, the discovery of details thanks to high magnification, the discovery of underlying drawings thanks to IR filters and the use of false colors, the virtual de-varnishing of the work and the identification of the pigments of which it is composed.

Its use in the study of the Mona Lisa made it possible to remove the influence of the aged varnish covering it, and to recover the original colors through this virtual de-varnishing. By analyzing the spectra of the skin tones, we were able to describe Leonardo's sfumato technique for the...