Hunt on for Mona Lisa
A WORKER hands objects to archeologist Valeria d’Aquino during excavations in underground tombs in Florence, Italy, in the search for the remains of a woman who is thought to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, Mona Lisa. Researchers are looking for the remains of Renaissance woman Lisa Gherardini, believed to have posed for da Vinci’s masterpiece, at the Convent of St Ursula.
They hope to locate and identify bones compatible with Gherardini’s, carbon-date them and ultimately extract DNA to compare it with that of Gherardini’s descendants. Finally, if skull fragments are found, depending on how well-preserved they are, the group might attempt a facial reconstruction – and see if the features match those of the woman with the enigmatic smile in da Vinci’s painting.