Have they found the Mona Lisa’s bones?
Her enigmatic smile has baffled art lovers for centuries – but now the mystery of the Mona Lisa seems to have finally been solved.
Historical experts believe they have found the tomb of Leonardo’s model buried under the altar of a derelict Florence convent.
Carbon testing on the bones of three women exhumed in Florence’s Sant’Orsola convent have been dated to the time of death of Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo.
Most historians now agree that Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, a noblewoman who was the third wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, was the sitter for the Renaissance masterpiece.
In an investigation worthy of the Da Vinci Code, archaeologists led by art detective Silvano Vinceti exhumed several skeletons stacked on top of each other under the chapel.
And scientists have now completed carbon dating work on one of the fragments which indicated the remains were compatible with the period.
Gherardini died at age 63 in 1542, where, by then a widow, she had gone to live with her daughter, Marietta, a nun.
Head researcher Silvano Vinceti said it is ‘very likely’ the remains belong to Gherardini.
The art investigator, who has previously made ground-breaking discoveries based on the artist Caravaggio’s remains claimed: ‘There are converging elements, above and beyond the results of the carbon-14 tests, that say we may well have found Lisa’s grave.’
‘I’m speaking of historical, anthropological and archeological analyses that have been carried”.
Source: Daily Mail
N.H.Khider