Mona Lisa 'was pregnant'
27/09/2006 - 16:43:03Mona Lisa, 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, a French art expert said today.
“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 the French Museums’ Centre for Research and Restoration, said.
Menu said a number of art historians had suggested that she was pregnant or had just given birth.
Researchers have established that the picture was of Lisa Gherardini, wife of obscure Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocond, and that da Vinci started painting it in 1503.
