The search for the real Mona Lisa in Florence

Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is possibly the most iconic portrait in the world and hangs in the Louvre Gallery in Paris. The woman who sat for the world’s most famous painting was said to be a merchant’s wife called, Lisa Gheradini del Giocondo who lived over the street from Leonardo in Florence.

Lisa Ghradini became a nun after her husband died and it is believed that was buried in the basement of a former Ursuline convent. Last year excavator’s uncovered eight skeletons there. Carbon dating is the first step in the process to identify the real Mona Lisa because it is known that she sat for Leonardo around 1500 A.D.

The leader of Italy’s committee for cultural heritage, Silvano Vincenti told reporters:

“Right now we are carrying out carbon-4 tests on three of the eight skeletons found in St. Ursula, which could show the age of Lisa Gheradini when she died. The carbon-14 test will tell us which of the skeletons date back to the 1500’s. Only then will we know which skeleton to do the final DNA tests on.”

Vincenti and his crew need to confirm that the DNA taken from the St. Ursula skeleton matches that of Lisa’s two sons and father who are at rest in the Gheradini family tomb in the Basilica. The tomb was opened for the first time in three hundred years on Friday 9 August, 2013.

Samples taken are to be crossed referenced with the St. Ursula skeleton and if a match is confirmed the skeleton of the Mona Lisa will be used to reconstruct the face with the added advantage of a very famous portrait to cross reference against. The British didn’t have it that easy when they reconstructed the faces of ‘Lindow Man’ and King Richard!

The city of Florence, home of the renaissance and steeped in history, art and culture, seems to be still actively bringing up its glorious past – But would Lisa and her family have approved of this modern day intrusion?