Who provided the inspiration for the world’s most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa? There have been different theories, none confirmed. One says that the woman to sit for the portrait was Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, the wife of wealthy Florentine merchant Francesco Del Giocondo.
Today, forensic anthropologists will be taking DNA samples from the remains of Lisa’s family members, namely her husband and the couple’s children, from the family tomb inside Florence’s Santissima Annunziata church to determine whether she indeed was the woman with the enigmatic smile portrayed in the Mona Lisa.
The DNA samples will be compared with that of the bones exhumed in 2012 from a convent in Florence where Lisa died to determine if there is a match, in which case the Mona Lisa could finally be identified.
