Where did the “Mona Lisa” smile?
Look over her shoulders for clues
For centuries, two of the most intriguing questions about Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” were “Who?” and “When?” A discovery made at Heidelberg University in 2005 pretty much answered both. A note written in a manuscript in the library confirmed the account of da Vinci’s first biographer, Giorgio Vasari: that the sitter was a merchant’s wife, Lisa Gherardini. The note also helped date the masterpiece to between 1503 and 1506.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The other da Vinci code”
Culture June 18th 2022
From the June 18th 2022 edition
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