‘Possible skull of Mona Lisa model found in Italy’
Archaeologists in Florence have uncovered at skeleton they believe could be the 500-year-old remains of the noblewoman who allegedly posed for Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa masterpiece.
An excavation started early this month of what once was the convent of Saint Orsola, where Lisa Gherardini — the wife of wealthy silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo — was buried following her death in July, 1542 at 63 years old.
The grave containing a skeleton of an adult woman with a parts of the skull and pelvis was unearthed, said Giorgio Gruppioni, an archaeology professor from the University of Bologna and coordinator of the excavation.
“The skull and pelvis have been crushed by the weight of the ground,” he said. Other pieces of the skull and pelvis must first be recovered before the archaeologists can definitively determine the skeleton’s sex, he said. Once they locate the skull, the team will attempt to recreate a likeness of what the woman would have looked like, compare her the world-famous portrait and unlock the centuries-old mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa’s identity.
The historians will compare the DNA with that of two her children buried in Florence’s Santissima Annunziata church to prove her identity, although some experts says Leonardo’s final portrait may be a composite of other faces.
Da Vinci’s masterpiece hangs behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre museum in Paris. Most modern historians agree that the lady with the famously enigmatic smile depicted in the Mona Lisa was del Giocondo, who became a nun after her husband’s death.
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