Jul 11
6
An archaeology team lead by Professor Silvano Vinceti in Florence, Italy, are searching for the remains of a woman thought to be the model who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. This mystery woman is believed to be Lisa Gherardini.
After 2 weeks of surveying the Ground Penetrating Radar crew found the location of what may be the mystery crypt of Mona Lisa’s model. The crypt was found under the floor of the St Ursula convent after a foot of modern concrete was removed and unearthed a layer of ancient, 35 inch wide bricks.
Researchers dig into underground tombs inside the Convent of St. Ursula, in Florence, Italy. Researchers are looking for the remains of Renaissance woman Lisa Gherardini, believed to have posed for Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa". Picture: AP / Fabrizio Giovannozzi
Professor Vinceti said: “We are roughly where the altar stood and we have found not one crypt but two, one is older than the other and we believe that one of them is that of Lisa Gherardini. The excavation team revealed that it had unearthed a female-sized skull in a crypt under the floor of the convent.
The aim of the dig is to find Mona Lisa’s remains and compare her DNA with that of two her children buried in Florence’s Santissima Annunziata church. If the scientists can confirm the skull belongs to the model, forensic artists will then attempt to reconstruct her face to see how it compares to the 500-year-old version painted by da Vinci and perhaps solve the riddle of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile in the process.