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| Mona Lisa with Mysterious Smile |
Mona Lisa to be brought out of grave
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| Saint Orsola Convent. In it's grave yard the model of Mona Lisa lies |
The true identity of Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile have intrigued art lovers around the world and still it is prompting lots of people to think and work to find out the fact behind disposition of her mind at the time of painting.
Recently a group of archaeologists have begun their hunt for the remains of the woman believed to have been the model for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Their intention is to unearth the secret and mystery still undiscovered by the historians. An special radar device has been introduced on a old decaying Saint Orsola convent in Florence by a team of expert where they hope will find the body of the woman who modeled for da Vinci back in the 16th century is buried. They hope to gather enough skull fragments to be able to reconstruct her face to determine if she was the inspiration for the portrait. Natalia Guicciardini Strozzi, called princess who is an actress and winemaker and also a member of one of Florence's oldest noble families, said that she should be left in peace and searching for and exhuming the remains of Lisa Gherardini was "a sacrilegious act". "Let her rest in peace. What could finding her remains change to the charm of Leonardo's painting? To look for her bones seems a sacrilege to me," she added. "What difference would finding her remains make to the allure of Leonardo's painting?
But despite all these opposition the researchers go on their expedition and if they find the scull, they will be able to reconstruct her face and compare it with the painting. The real Mona Lisa, Italian art historians say, was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich Florentine silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo who is thought to have commissioned the portrait. According to Louvre museum the portrait was likely to be painted between 1503 and 1506 in Florence marking an important family event.
Researchers say Gherardini spent the last years of her life at the convent, looked after by her two daughters who were nuns, and was buried there. If the researchers find the remains of a woman of about Gherardini's age - she was 63 when she died in 1542 - they plan to extract DNA from the bones and compare it with that of her children.
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| The Famous Eyes of Mona Lisa |