Clues about the remains of Mona Lisa


A team of Italian scientists has found that the skeleton most likely belonged to Lisa Gherardini, who is said to be the prototype of the famous Mono Lisa painting.

Decode the portrait of the 'second Mona Lisa'

The painting of the Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Renaissance. Photo: USA Today.

Italian researchers have come closer to identifying a woman's identity as a model for a Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Renaissance (14th-17th centuries). Mona Lisa is among the most famous paintings in the world while the woman who modeled him became one of the greatest secrets of the history of painting.

After four years of unearthing the remains of a long-standing monastery in Florence, Italy, researchers found a small, likely part of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a silk merchant, who was educated by scholars arguably the prototype of the masterpiece picture.

According to the results of the research team published yesterday, radiocarbon dating shows that the skeleton was dated to the same age as Gherardini, who died in July 1542 at the age of 63.

Historical records show that Gherardini lived in seclusion for the last years of his life at St Ursala Monastery in Florence, and rested there.


Excavation area is located under the monastery of Ur Ursula, Florence, Italy. Photo: New York Post.

"I firmly believe the skeleton belongs to Lisa Gherardini. Our archaeological and historical research results are very consistent with the results from the radiocarbon method," said Silvano Vinceti, an art historian at the head of the research team. , share with The Telegraph.

The next step in the study was to take DNA samples from the thigh bone segments in the skeleton and compare them with DNA from Gherardini's two-child remains. However, the bones of the children, found in a tomb in the church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence, were severely damaged after years of flooding from the Arno River.

According to Professor Giorgio Gruppioni, head of the anthropological assessment laboratory at the University of Bologna, Italy, the wet conditions destroyed the remains so irreversible and they did not provide enough DNA for compare.


A researcher observes skeletons in an excavated area. Photo: The Huffington Post.

"We hope that sophisticated techniques will allow the extraction, analysis and comparison of DNA to determine which skeleton belongs to Lisa Gherardini," Gruppioni said.

Some controversial opinions point out that dozens of people were buried under the monastery for decades. Even if the skeleton dates back to the time Gherardini died, they could belong to another woman.

Vinceti hopes to find Gherardini's skull and then use expertise to reconstruct her face, then compare the reconstruction with the Mona Lisa. However, the team has yet to find the skull.

In the case that the skeleton proved to belong to Gherardini, scholars were still unable to agree whether she was the prototype of the Mona Lisa. Many people believe that this masterpiece is a self-portrait of Leonardo, painting a Spanish aristocrat or Salai, an apprentice at his home.



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