The “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo Di Vinci, which hangs in Paris‘ Musée du Louvre and is conceivably the world’s most famous painting, finally revealed that she does have a secret behind those mysterious eyes.
Thanks to a book written in the 1960s by a French art historian that mentions the possibility of tiny symbols painted into her eyes, experts recently decided to take a closer look.
They found that her right eye holds the letters “LV” (representing the artist’s initials) and in her left eye are the letters B and S, or C and E. In the background they spotted a 72, or the letter L and the number 2. It’s unclear at this point what the symbols mean.
Silvano Vinceti, chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage said, “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.”
The Guardian suggests that the findings may lead to the true identity of the woman in the painting. While it’s believed to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, Dan Brown says in his book The Da Vinci Code that she is a, ” … self-portrait of da Vinci himself. It reflects the union of male and female like the holy union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The name Mona Lisa is also an anagram for ‘Amon L’Isa’ which refers to the father and mother gods of Ancient Egypt.”
Vinceti will announce his conclusions in January 2011.
Photo by Musée du Louvre via Wikimedia Commons.