|
Do bones belong to Vinci's model?:
The dig that may have unearthed Leonardo's muse
There's no trace of that celebrated, knowing expression, but
archaeologists hope that one of two skeletons unearthed in a Tuscan
convent will be shown to be that of the model who became Leonardo da
Vinci's Mona Lisa.
In their hunt for the remains of the most famous portrait-sitter in
history, experts have been digging in the former convent of St Ursula in
Florence since April. They have previously found and disregarded the
bones of five other people.
 |
|
Mona Lisa |
But the team, led by Silvano Vinceti, head of the National Committee
for the Promotion of Historic and Cultural Heritage, is convinced that
remains of Mona Lisa, or Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, are buried in the
basement of the building..He said that armed with the skull of
Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Renaissance silk merchant, he would be
able to make an accurate reconstruction of the sitter's face.
"If everything goes as planned, we will find Gherardini and with her
skull we will be able to reconstruct her face thanks to some
sophisticated technology," Vinceti said.
"After that we will be able to compare the face to that of Mona Lisa
and maybe for the first time will get an answer that will be based on
highly sophisticated technology that does not make errors," he told Sky
TV. "With this reconstruction of the face there is a margin of error
between four and eight per cent so we will know whether Leonardo used
Gherardini or we will be able to draw other conclusions."
The latest two skeletons, one of which was in fragments, were
discovered in the same grave in the convent's basement. Researchers say
that Gherardini spent the last years of her life at the convent, looked
after by her two daughters who were nuns, and was buried there when she
died in 1542, aged 63.
One of his colleagues, anthropologist Irene Baldi, said the project
would provide useful information about the all the people buried there.
"Whether the bodies were moved here from another place or buried in a
container, if there was a coffin or not, or a cushion under the head,
this is the information that we are searching for," she said.
But not all experts are convinced by the claims of Dr Vinceti and his
team. Dr Kristina Killgrove, an anthropologist at University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, said on her blog: "Although the
excavation is being carried out in a professional manner, Vinceti's
quest to dig up the 'real' Mona Lisa is not grounded in scientific
research methodology." She added: "The news media's breathless coverage
of it threatens to signal to the public that archaeologists are
frivolous with their time, energy, and research money." And one of
Gherardini's descendants, the Italian aristocrat Natalia Guicciadini
Strozzi, has described the researchers' grave-digging project as a
"sacrilegious act".
"What difference would finding her remains make to the allure of
Leonardo's painting?" she said recently.
But Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, which the Renaissance genius
began painting in 1503 before taking it with him to France, appears to
be almost an obsession for Vinceti. Last month it emerged he had handed
over 150,000 Italian signatures to the French Minister of Culture,
Aurelie Filippetti, calling on the Louvre to hand over the painting to
its "home city" of Florence.
But the Louvre has already said it has no intention of returning the
masterpiece.
-The Independent
|
