An Italian art history sleuth and his researchers tells media that he and his team will be identifying the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the woman widely believed to be Leanardo Da Vinci's model for the infamous portrait Mona Lisa, soon. Silvano Vinceti went to Santissima Annunziata basilica to identify Gherardini's remains.
The mystery of Leonardo Da Vinci's muse has been speculated on for centuries. However, speculations will be given a rest soon through DNA testing, sources say.
The team of researchers led by Vinceti opened the Gherardini family tomb located in Florence, Italy Friday cutting a hole in the crypt. Reports say that Lisa Gherardini's silk merchant husband and her sons were buried there.
The team got a hold of skeletons in 2012 from Sant'Orsola in Florence -the place originally thought to be the resting place of DaVinci's muse. Three of the skeletons are undergoing tests, reports say. If the experts from the University of Bologna date the bones to the 1500s then it would mean that the speculations can stay for years to come. Since it would hardly be conclusive evidence if the bones were of the same time-period, Vinceti told reporters that opening the other crypt is important to put speculations to rest.
Vinceti said that after the DNA testing is done, the project will then move to reconstructing Gherardini's face.
The project is not the first quest of Vinceti. In artistic and history circles, Vinceti is as popular as la Giaconda herself.
Vinceti however is getting criticism left and right. Tomaso Montanari, an art historian, told the media there are "hundreds, if not thousands" of women whose resting place is Sant'Orsola so looking for la Giaconda is impossible. Montanari added that Vinceti is "not a researcher".
Three years ago, Vinceti told reporters that he has found Caravaggio's skeletons in Tuscany. Montanari said to the media then that the group just wanted to attract more visitors for the 400th death anniversary of Caravaggio to which Vinceti replied: "I don't know Tomaso Montanari personally, but I would say this: it would be good if, instead of giving out sentences in the manner of Robespierre or Danton, he were to read all the documentation, follow all the research ... and only at the end of it make up his mind."
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