The hunt for the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the woman who, according to many art historians, sat for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa ,will start at the former convent of Sant’Orsola in Florence on May 9.
The men from the National Historical and Cultural Preservation Committee will explore the crypt, the cloister and the church in the hope of finding the remains of the noblewoman; but there are doubts about the success of the whole operation; even if they should come across the remains of Mrs Gherardini (actually the skull is what they are really after) will they ever be able to restore a woman’s face and once and for all establish whether it is depicted in the portrait of Leonardo? Maybe yes, in fact according to an important document found in the archives of the Church of San Lorenzo in 2007, Fancesco Del Giocondo‘s wife Lisa Gherardini was really buried at the convent of Sant’Orsola.