Carbon-14 results on the
remains of three people exhumed from Florence's Sant'Orsola
convent will soon reveal whether they include those of a woman
thought to have sat for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting,
researcher Silvano Vinceti said Thursday.
Vinceti, who chairs Italy's National Committee for the
valorisation of historic, cultural and environmental heritage,
said the tests will be ready in 15 days to a month, at the
latest.
He also told reporters that the tests will determine
whether the bones exhumed in the central Florence convent date
back to the estimated time of death of Lisa Gherardini, the
woman currently believed to have sat for the famous portrait,
which is housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Gherardini, wife to merchant Francesco Del Giocondo, died
in the convent on July 15, 1542.
However, Vinceti added that comparison of DNA from the
remains found in the convent to that of Gherardini's children,
who are buried in a family tomb in Santissima Annunziata, will
not be possible, as previously thought.
He said that "extracting DNA from Gherardini's family was
impossible".
If the carbon-14 test results will confirm "that the three
human remains date back to the 16th century" and that one of
three is likely to have died during a period coinciding with
Gherardini's demise, "then it will be possible to confirm, with
a very high probability, that we have found the Gioconda".
He added that DNA tests will also enable to establish the
colour of eyes, hair and skin of the remains of the people
found, perhaps solving a centuries-old mystery of the art world
over the identity of the woman with the enigmatic half-smile
known as 'La Gioconda'.
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