The Grave of Mona Lisa: Discovered?

A team of archaeologists searching the Convent of St. Ursula in Florence for the remains of Lisa del Giocondo believe they have them. Lisa, the model for Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, became a nun after the death of her husband, and lived in the convent until her death in 1542. The bones were found under the floor of the convent.

The female skull, along with various bone fragments, will be subjected to DNA testing and facial reconstruction. The claim seems a bit premature given the evidence (how many other nuns were buried in the same area?), so we’ll have to wait and see.

When I first posted on this story, there was some question of the propriety of disturbing a grave to satisfy our own curiosity. I think this is misplaced. Exhumation of remains is not at all uncommon, and indeed ancient cultures tended to keep remains near at hand. Some were buried in the floors of home, partly as one aspect of ancestor worship. Others were allowed to decay, and then the bones were moved to ossuaries after a year. This was common in the culture of ancient Israel, and persists in eastern cultures. Indeed, you don’t need to look very far to see the exposure of human remains in Catholic culture. Exhumation and display of remains is part of the process of declaring saints.

So this squeamishness about “disturbing graves” is rather a modern attitude, and rooted more in European superstition and prudishness than ancient Judeo-Christian culture and practice.

Source

 

Dig for Mona Lisa’s Bones to Begin

Historians are resorting to grave-digging in an effort to learn the true identity of the woman in the iconic painting.

Discovery News:

The woman believed to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa may be exhumed in a bid to recreate her face, Italian researchers announced this week.

Most scholars believe that the Mona Lisa, known as La Gioconda in Italian or La Joconde in French, is the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, a member of a minor noble family of rural origins who married the wealthy merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

“Her life is no longer a mystery,” said Giuseppe Pallanti, who carried out extensive research on the Renaissance woman.

Pallanti, who is not involved in the project, traced back Lisa’s life from her birth on June 15, 1479 to her death at the age of 63. He discovered that Lisa died in the convent of Sant’Orsola, a now derelict building in the heart of Florence.

The hunt for her bones will start there later this month…

More here.

Oh Dear, Oh Dear! What’s next?