Rome - QNA Â
Leonardo\'s Mona Lisa
Rome - QNA
Archaeologists searching in the Italian city of Florence for the remains of Leonardo\'s Mona Lisa found a skeleton belonging to a woman, Italian news agency ANSA reported today. \"Based
on preliminary analyses of the cranium and the pelvis we\'\'re tending towards the hypothesis that this was a female,\" said Bologna University anthropologist, Giorgio Gruppioni.
He said that the skeleton was whole and connected, but had partially collapsed under the weight of the earth, the news site reported.
Archaeologists have been searching for the remains of Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, who died in Florence in 1542. She was believed to have been the subject of da Vinci\'\'s most celebrated portrait, which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris. Experts conducting the dig were aiming to find Mona Lisa\'\'s remains, with the intention of reconstructing her face to compare it to the painting.
DNA testing of samples from the skeleton would be matched with two of Mona Lisa\'\'s children, who are buried in Florence\'\'s Santissima Annunziata church.