A group of art historians wants to uncover the remains of the woman believed to have been the model for Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. They hope that finding the bones will help establish once and for all who modeled for the mysterious portrait.
A team of researchers recently made the bold claim that they believed the model for Mona Lisa was actually Da Vinci’s young male lover. However, the woman depicted in the masterpiece is more widely accepted to be Lisa Gherardini.
Lisa Gherardini was born in 1479 and later became the wife of a silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. A supposed death certificate records her date of passing as July 15, 1542. It is believed she is buried in Florence at the Convent of St. Ursula.
The team hopes to begin the excavation soon using radar technology to locate the remains. Their plan is to recover enough skull fragments to reconstruct Mona Lisa’s face.
Silvano Vinceti, who announced last year that he had found the remains of Caravaggio, is leading the project. However, his supposed unearthing of the Renaissance master has been widely challenged.
