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Leo’s secret ‘Man’-a Lisa

ROME — A male apprentice and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was a model for the “Mona Lisa” painting, Italian researcher Silvano Vinceti said yesterday.

This is one of many theories that have circulated over the decades about the identity of “Mona Lisa” and the meaning of her famously enigmatic smile. Others have said the painting was a self-portrait in disguise, or the depiction of a Florentine merchant’s wife.

The apprentice, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai, worked with Leonardo for more than two decades starting in 1490. Vinceti described their relationship as “ambiguous,” and most art historians agree Salai was a Leonardo lover.

Several Leonardo works, including “St. John the Baptist,” were based on Salai, Vinceti said.