Da Vinci in Drag? New Theory Suggests Mona Lisa is a Self-Portrait

Perhaps this is the real Da Vinci code.

Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage, a leading association of scientists and art historians, hypothesizes that the Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old master work, might actually be the master painter himself — and is even going so far as digging up the long-dead genius to examine his skull for clues.

"If Leonardo is a Renaissance man ... why can't he be a transvestite as well, and a cross-dresser?" Jason Rosenfeld, associate professor of Art History at Marymount Manhattan College, wonders aloud to ABC News.

Italy's cultural heritage committee seems to agree, and is dispatching a team to the French castle where they believe Da Vinci was buried after he died in 1519. Once they have his skull in hand, they plan to use CSI-style technology to rebuild Da Vinci's face and compare it to Mona Lisa's.

If they determine the two are one in the same, they will have solved a centuries-old mystery that has befuddled art historians for years: who exactly is the Mona Lisa?

"The questions about who this woman is range from: she is related to Medici family, or she is the wife of a wealthy merchant in Florence ... no one really knows," said Rosenfeld.

Rosenfeld admits the theory that Da Vinci is the Mona Lisa "seems most outrageous," but on the other hand, the artist is known for his fascination with symbols and puzzles and "keeping things kind of hidden," as Rosenfeld put it. (And assuming you read the Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code — and really, who hasn't? — you know what he means.)

So is Da Vinci the man — er, woman — behind the painting? Stay tuned to find out.

Mona Lisa photo courtesy of Musee de Louvre via Wikimedia Commons

Leonard Da Vinci photo via Wikimedia Commons