‘MEN HAVE NAMED YOU’: Researchers examine the remains of what may be the genuine “Mona Lisa.” (
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Italian art researchers are grinning from ear to ear — they believe they might solve the centuries-old mystery of who was behind “Mona Lisa’s’’ legendary smile.
A team is exhuming and identifying remains in the ruins of a former convent in Florence where it is believed that Lisa Gherardini, who posed for the painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is buried.
The remains will be sent for DNA testing at several universities and checked against the DNA of people who are known to be Gheradini’s relatives, said Silvano Vinceti, who is leading the team.
“Once we identify the remains,’’ he told CNN, “we can reconstruct the face, with a margin of error of 2 to 8 percent.
“By doing this, we will finally be able to answer the question the art historians can’t: Who was the model for Leonardo?’’ he told CNN.
Vinceti said he’s not sure if the painting, also known as “La Gioconda,’’ that Leonardo painted around 1503, is totally of Gherardini, or just incorporates some of her features.
He’s convinced the mysterious smile that has made the painting that hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris one of the most famous in the world, was added later — and was not Gherardini’s.
Vinceti, a former TV producer, said that analysis of the painting shows that “when Leonardo began painting the model in front of him, he did not draw that metaphysical, ironic, poignant, elusive smile, but rather he painted a person who was dark and depressed.’’
He believes the smile probably was that of da Vinci’s assistant and purported lover, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, Vincenti told CNN.
There’s also conjecture by other art historians that da Vinci simply did a self-portrait.