Researchers want to determine at first with carbon-14 tests if the burned bones of some people found
behind the main altar of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, in the Martyr’s Crypt, in Florence, include the remains of Lisa Gherardini. They want to know exactly if the skeletons have the age of Lisa in 1500s. Operations are being conducted by Italy’s national committee for cultural heritage.
It seems that the enigmatic smile of that woman stirs human imagination even until today. Without any doubt, this was possible only because of Da Vinci’s extraordinary talent .
Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, a small painting 77 by 55 cm, more than 500 years old, is “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sang about, the most parodied work of art in the world”, as an inspiring famous journalist, John Lichfield, from The Independent, described it eight years ago.
