We may have found the body of the real Mona Lisa. Just not the most important part
Pass notesMona LisaItalian archaeologists believe they’ve found the skeleton of the model for Da Vinci’s La Gioconda. There’s only one small problem – they can’t find her headName: Mona Lisa.
Age: 510ish.
Appearance: Oil-on-poplar-y. Smiling enigmatically in the Louvre.
How’s she doing? Not been stolen again, I hope? No, she’s fine. In fact, there’s good news!
Dan Brown is writing a book revealing that the location of the inner sanctum of the lizard overlords of the Illuminati is encoded in the folds of her frock? No, good news. The bones of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo have been found!
Isn’t she in Celebrity Big Brother? That sounds like bad news. No, she was da Vinci’s sitter, the model for Mona Lisa. You know how the Italians call the Mona Lisa La Gioconda? That’s why. Agostino Vespucci identified her as the model in a note from 1503.
Oh, OK. Well, great then. Now the scientists can get to work with all their jiggery pokery and reconstruct what she really looked like and we can finally see whether da Vinci’s worth all the fuss people make about him. That could be a bit tricky.
Of course it’ll be a bit tricky, but you should see what they can do these days! I’ve seen them look at dinosaur fossils and know that the things had stripy skin! I mean, it’s tantamount to witchcraft, some of it. No, I mean, it’ll be tricky because her head is missing.
I’m sorry? The skeleton discovered in a tomb beneath a derelict convent in Florence is missing its head.
Then how do they know it’s her? She is known to have lived there until her death in 1542, and carbon dating of her remains suggests the dates fit.
But we don’t actually know? Chief researcher Silvano Vinceti says tests show it’s “very likely” that the grave is La Gioconda’s. “I’m speaking of historical, anthropological and archaeological analyses that have been carried out very rigorously.”
I think I’ll wait to hear what Robert Langdon, professor of symbology at Harvard, has to say before I get too excited. As you wish.
Do say: “Marvellous brushwork. The eyes really do follow you round the room, don’t they?”
Don’t say: “Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you. Even though it wasn’t your name. You’re so like the lady with the mystic smile. Possibly. We can’t tell. You haven’t got a head.”
This article was amended on 28 September 2015 to correct the Mona Lisa’s age, which was originally given as 310ish.
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