In 2010, Silvano Vinceti, chairman of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, claimed to have discerned letters minutely painted on Mona Lisa’s eyes: L and V (Leonardo da Vinci’s initials) in the right eye, and perhaps C, E or B in the left. 

The Louvre responded that Vin...

Over the past century, it has been proposed that Mona Lisa was a noblewoman – Isabella d’Este, Marquise of Mantua, or Costanza d’Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla.

Others have stared at that unsettling visage and seen the face of a man – Leonardo da Vinci himself, or...

An Italian doctor looked at the swelling around her eyes and diagnosed excess cholesterol in her diet. Other conditions include facial paralysis, deafness, even syphilis.

It has been suggested that look of contentment on her face indicates she is pregnant. 

Dentists have also posite...

The distant, dreamlike vista behind Mona Lisa’s head seems to be higher on the right-hand side than on the left. It is hard to see how the landscape would join up. 

This is subliminally unsettling: Mona Lisa appears taller, more erect, when one’s gaze drifts to the left than when it is on t...

In 2000, scientists at Harvard University suggested a neurological explanation for Mona Lisa’s elusive smile. 

When a viewer looks at her eyes, the mouth is in peripheral vision, which sees in black and white. This accentuates the shadows at the corners of her mouth, making the smile seem b...

Leonardo da Vinci worked on the painting for four years, and possibly at intervals after that. He always took it with him when he travelled, and he never signed or dated it. 

The picture went with him when, towards the end of his life, he moved to France.

At that time, it was not seen...