With her wry smile and androgynous looks it is a mystery that has baffled scholars for centuries.
But now one art detective believes he has solved the mystery of the Mona Lisa's inspiration for good.
Silvano Vinceti says the portrait, which hangs in the Louvre in Paris, is an amalgamation of a Florentine merchant's wife and Leonardo Da Vinci's possible gay lover.
Gian Giacomo Caprotti, better known by his nickname Salai was Da Vinci's apprentice and is used in a number of other paintings as a model.
Mr Vinceti, the head of a research group called the National Committee of Cultural Heritage, based his findings on an infra-red examination of the famous painting.
It was previously thought that the picture was based on Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a merchant from Tuscany.
But Mr Vinceti says that the Mona Lisa's smile is strikingly similar to ones which used Salai as a model which included an erotic drawing which depicts a young man with an erection.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3551054/Was-Mona-Lisa-Leonardo-s-GAY-LOVER-Shock-new-theory-claims-model-enigmatic-masterpiece-Little-Devil-assisted-possibly-romanced-artist.html#ixzz46S9wLsmj
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Mona's Smile
For centuries many have wondered about the smile
on Leonardo's Mona Lisa
and to see it close-up have traveled for many a mile
after obtaining passport and visa.
Yet, after so much necessary maneuver
only to be disappointed at the Louvre
by long lines of tourists
and the over-security
diluting the painting's meaning in mists
and robbing it of purity.
But at last, using infra-red inspection,
an art expert has made a detection
of the real reason for Mona Lisa 's smile;
for underneath the painting, by Leonardo's guile,
is another of a young man, possibly with an erection.
So while Mona's greatness may always remain immutable
perhaps she should no longer be considered inscrutable.
HzL
4/21/16
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