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Archaeologists say they have found a complete skeleton buried beneath the floor of an abandoned nunnery in Florence, Italy, which might belong to Lisa Gherardini, the woman believed to have inspired Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The bones were found beneath the remains of an altar in the church of the now derelict Convent of St. Orsola. "That altar was certainly in use at Lisa Gherardini's time," said Valeria D'Aquino, an archaeologist at the Tuscan Superintendency

MADRID—Spain’s Prado art museum said Wednesday it had discovered an unusual copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “La Gioconda,” painted by one of the master’s pupils at the same time that the original was being completed. The copy had been on display at the Madrid art museum for years without experts being aware of its importance. A routine restoration led experts to discover that the dark background behind the female figure popularly known as Mona Lisa had been added afterward and that it covered an Italian landscape similar to that in da Vinci’s original.

A New York artist believes he's "cracked the code" of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting. Ron Piccirillo stated on his blog that the painting is an optical illusion with one painting hidden within another. He refers to a "secret that has been hiding for five hundred years" as he claims to have found a lion's head, an ape head and a buffalo head in the painting while turning it around. "I had first Googled this, but could not find anything on it," he stated. "How could something like this have gone unnoticed for five hundred years?" The key to...

For centuries, people have been speculating about who modeled for Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa." Was it Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant? Was it Isabella of Aragon? Was it the artist himself, as some experts believe? Or was it, as new research suggests, none of the above? An Italian art historian, Silvano Vinceti, believes the model for the "Mona Lisa" was a man named Gian Giacomo Caprotti, better known as Salai, a male apprentice (and possible lover) of da Vinci...

Queen’s University Classics professor emeritus Ross Kilpatrick believes the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, incorporates images inspired by the Roman poet Horace and Florentine poet Petrarch. The technique of taking a passage from literature and incorporating it into a work of art is known as ‘invention’ and was used by many Renaissance artists. “The composition of the Mona Lisa is striking. Why does Leonardo have an attractive woman sitting on a balcony, while in the background there is an entirely different world that is vast and barren?” says Dr. Kilpatrick. “What is the artist trying to say?”

Art historians are probing a real life Da Vinci Code style mystery after discovering tiny numbers and letters painted into the eyes of the artist's enigmatic Mona Lisa painting. The numbers and letters are not visible to the human eye but have to be viewed under a microscope Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery, and even today the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain. Now members of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa's eyes letters...

BBC reports that Dr. Vito Franco from Palermo University believes that Mona Lisa has a build-up of fatty acids under the skin of her eyes. That is supposed to be a sign of high cholesterol. The news is so absurd I decided to join the fray and come up with few matching thoughts of nonsense.... There was no McDonald’s back in the 1507 when Lisa Del Gioconda posed for Leonardo. I wonder what Mona Lisa’s diet was back then. What we know for sure is that Mrs. Gioconda did not eat French fries because the potatoes were imported from the...

For centuries, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and her enigmatic smile have inspired as much speculation as admiration. Now she's ready to answer questions -- in Mandarin. A digital, interactive version of the renowned 16th century painting is one of 61 high-tech replicas breathing life into classical and ancient art works in the "World Classic Interactive Arts Exhibition" which opened in Beijing last week.

Tuesday July 7, 2009 Alabama Attorney General Calls Undercover Video of Planned Parenthood 'Extremely Troubling', Seeks Investigation MONTGOMERY, Alabama, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Alabama Attorney General Troy King has called a new undercover video released last week showing Planned Parenthood of Alabama apparently breaking state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse "extremely troubling" and requested the full recordings. The student-led nonprofit responsible for the recordings, Live Action, immediately sent the full footage, which the Attorney General's office received yesterday. The video shows a Planned Parenthood staffer, identified as "Tanisha," telling a purportedly 14-year-old girl with a 31-year-old "boyfriend"...

Thursday June 25, 2009 YouTube Bans New Video of Planned Parenthood Telling Customer Abortion Photos "Not Real" By Kathleen GilbertLOS ANGELES, California, June 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Live Action Films, the investigative group responsible for uncovering the illegal practices of Planned Parenthood employees, has released another video showing a Planned Parenthood employee denying that widely disseminated photographs of aborted children are real. However, the video-sharing site YouTube quickly and without explanation removed the video, and the group says YouTube issued Live Action's account a "warning strike."The video first plays undercover footage of a Planned Parenthood counselor from Tucson, AZ...

Leonardo da Vinci, in a Renaissance version of Mad Magazine, may have painted his famous Mona Lisa in a number of ways, including nude. Now, a painting has surfaced that looks much like the original, sparking debate over just how far the master took his iconic painting. The newly revealed painting, hidden for almost a century within the wood wall of a private library, shows a portrait of a half-naked woman with clear links to the famous (and clothed) Mona Lisa. The work, which documents suggest was at least based on never-seen similar work by da Vinci, is now on...

Words cannot describe how powerful this video is, just as its pedecessors have been. Live Action, as part of its Mona Lisa Project, have now visited Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana, Arizona, California, and Tennessee. The story remains the same: young teenage girl, pregnant by her much-older boyfriend seeks help at a Planned Parenthood clinic. Clinic ignores the story and instructs her on how to obtain an abortion, often by lying to a judge (to avoid parental consent) or by crossing state lines (to take advantage of more liberal abortion access laws). By doing so, these clinics are repeatedly violating...

German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait. ADVERTISEMENT Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself. Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The "Mona Lisa" has long been shrouded in mystery, including one long-standing question about the famous lady: What happened to her eyebrows and eyelashes? Now, a French engineer and inventor says he's uncovered part of the enigma.

Cash-strapped Communists hawk treasures By Kim Willsher in Paris, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:56am BST 10/06/2007 It was once France's biggest political party, feared by the bourgeoisie and the CIA alike as a red menace with the power to spark another revolution. The party is considering selling Mona Lisa with Moustache Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping victory in last month's presidential election, however, and the prospect of another landslide for his party in the parliamentary elections - with the first round today - have spelled disaster for the French Communist Party. So bad were the presidential election results that the "people's" party...

The woman behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting may be buried near a now derelict building in the heart of Florence, according to archival documents. The exact location of Mona Lisa's burial site, the convent of Sant'Orsola, was just a about 900 feet away from the house of the artist's father, according to the historian, Giuseppe Pallanti. "The mystery of Mona Lisa's identity is over. My study shows that she did exist indeed," Pallanti told Florence's daily La Nazione. he author of two books on the Mona Lisa, Pallanti has identified her as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the...

An expert on the "Mona Lisa" says he has ascertained with certainty that the symbol of feminine mystique died on July 15, 1542, and was buried at the convent in central Florence where she spent her final days. Giuseppe Pallanti found a death notice in the archives of a church in Florence that referred to "the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, deceased July 15, 1542, and buried at Sant'Orsola," the Italian press reported Friday. Born Lisa Gherardini in May 1479, she is thought to have been the second wife of Del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant, with whom she had...

ROME - An expert on the “Mona Lisa” says he has ascertained with certainty that the symbol of feminine mystique died on July 15, 1542, and was buried at the convent in central Florence where she spent her final days. Giuseppe Pallanti found a death notice in the archives of a church in Florence that referred to “the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, deceased July 15, 1542, and buried at Sant’Orsola,” the Italian press reported Friday. Born Lisa Gherardini in May 1479, she is thought to have been the second wife of Del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant, with whom...

Researchers using three-dimensional technology to study the "Mona Lisa" say the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece was either pregnant or had recently given birth when she sat for the painting. ADVERTISEMENT That was one of many discoveries found by French and Canadian researchers during one of the most extensive physical examinations ever carried out on the artwork. "Thanks to laser scanning, we were able to uncover the very fine gauze veil Mona Lisa was wearing on her dress. This was something typical for either soon-to-be or new mothers at the time," Michel Menu, research director of...

An early copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which has bright colours believed to reflect the original painting, will go on display in London for the first time since 1902. The original Mona Lisa painting hangs in the Louvre in Paris. (Canadian Press) The Dulwich Picture Gallery will exhibit a reproduction once owned by portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, who received it from the Duke of Leeds in 1790. ..... The reproduction is wider than the original, showing a pair of columns flanking the figure that are only hinted at in Leonardo's version. As well, the colours are much...