Beauty in the Eyes of the Beholder - Mona Lisa Revealed?

Silvano Vinceti, the chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage, has laid claim that the true identity of the model who sat for Leonardo da Vinci whilst he was painting the Mona Lisa, may be revealed.

According to Vinceti, who scrutinised the famous face's eyes by using high resolution images, initials can be seen in both the left and right pupils of the painting. Vinceti states that;

"Invisible to the naked eye and painted in black on green-brown are the letters LV in her right pupil, obviously Leonardo's initials, but it is what is in her left pupil that is far more interesting."

Vinceti seems to claim that the letters B, S or possibly CE are discernible in the Mona Lisa's left eye,

"A vital clue to identifying the model who sat for the Renaissance artist."

"Leonardo was keen on symbols and codes to get messages across, and he wanted us to know the identity of the model using the eyes, which he believed were the door to the soul and a means for communication."

He add's that;

"Under the right-hand arch of the bridge seen in the background, Leonardo also painted 72, or L2, another possible clue...Two expert painters we consulted on this tell us that all these marks, painted using a tiny brush and a magnifying glass, cannot be an error."

Jobathan Jones of the Guardian however, remains skeptical.

Jonathan Jones is somewhat of a modern scholar on Leonardo da Vinci. His book 'The Lost Battles' is about Leonardo, Michelangelo and the Renaissance and details the dual between the two artists in their competition to win a commission in 16thC Florence. So his knowledge of Leonardo is to be noted.

In the Guardian article 'Mona Lisa's eyes: should we believe those Da Vinci stories?' he discusses recent news worthy Leonardo da Vinci finds, one of the more reliable discoveries for instance, being the unearthing of 'new' manuscripts of Leonardo's mirror-writing which have been found in a library in Nantes and which still need to be de-coded. Happening upon such a find as these never before seen notes from the artist is credible due to the artists sheer volume of work however, reading about the unveiled identity of the model for the Mona Lisa, Mr Jones raises some justified questions:

"Mona Lisa's identity is no longer mysterious – it is known from a solid piece of textual evidence found in Heidelberg University's library in 2007. This note records that Leonardo was working in 1503 on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. No other theories are needed – and anyway the chief theories down the years have all seen this as a 16th-century work. It would take a lot more than some arcane codes to make this high Renaissance masterpiece look like a work of the 1490s"

It seems we will have to wait for Signore Silvano Vinceti to look a little closer through his high resolution images to see what this most recent 'discovery' will reveal when he announces his conclusions next month.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/dec/12/mona-lisa-eyes-model-identity?intcmp=239