The Mona Lisa might be Leonardo Da Vinci in drag

For literally centuries, people have wondered who the woman in the Mona Lisa actually was. Historians had thought they pinpointed roughly whom the woman might have been. Or so they thought. According to new research, the Mona Lisa might just be a painting of Leonardo da Vinci dressed up like a woman. Oh, art.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous portrait in the world, but now some are speculating that the woman with the inscrutable smile may not be a woman after all. They are suggesting that the Mona Lisa may be a self-portrait, da Vinci in drag.

Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage, a leading association of scientists and art historians, is undertaking the investigation. They think the artist who died in 1519 is buried at a French castle and plan to dig up his skull. Using CSI-style technology, they want to rebuild da Vinci’s face. Will he resemble the mysterious Mona Lisa?

We’re all familiar with da Vinci’s love of riddles from a rather successful succession of books and movies.

“He is interested in symbols, he is interested in puzzles, he is interested in keeping things kind of hidden and this idea about the picture sort of relates to that, that is part of this whole mythologizing of Leonardo as someone who is playing tricks, who is always a step ahead of a viewer, and someone who is making you think of his works in a very different way,” [Jason Rosenfeld, associate professor of Art History at Marymount Manhattan College] says.

This wouldn’t really surprise me at all. Not that I had any inside knowledge or anything but I always wondered why people acted like the Mona Lisa was this amazing painting of a beautiful woman and I thought she looked kind of manly and about as cute as a hypodermic needle full of hepatitis C.

Also how creepy is the Mona Lisa if it really is da Vinci painting himself while dressed in drag? Not for nothing, but a man in the 1400s staring in a mirror and painting himself as he fixes his wig and perhaps tucks his genitals into his tunic doesn’t strike me as a major advancement in art.

[ABC News]

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