Description
Her enigmatic smile and timeless charm have inspired academic study and artistic emulation for more than five centuries. But the story of Leonardo da Vinci’s enigmatic portrait is even richer than it seems.
Da Vinci’s 15th-century masterpiece is one of the world’s most recognizable works of art, but there is more to see here than this sublime smile.
First, it has been speculated that the woman in the portrait is pregnant, given the way her arms are placed over her abdomen and the veil around her shoulders, which pregnant women often wore during the Italian Renaissance.
But the most recent discoveries are in her eyes. In 2011, Italian researcher Silvano Vinceti claimed to have found microscopic letters and numbers painted in them. The researcher told the Associated Press that the “L” above her right eye probably represents the artist’s name.
But the meaning of the letter “S” he sees in her left eye and the number “72” beneath the arched bridge in the background is less clear. Vinceti believes the “S” could refer to a woman from the Sforza dynasty, which ruled Milan, meaning that the woman in the painting may not be Lisa Gherardini, as has long been believed.
As for the “72,” Vinceti argues that it may be due to the significance of numbers in both Christianity and Judaism. For example, “7” refers to the creation of the world, and the number “2” could refer to the duality of men and women.
The Mona Lisa ranks No. 1 on the list of famous paintings