p2pnet news | Off Topic:- Had she just learned she was pregnant? Was she looking at something which amused her. Was she suffering from gas?

All three propositions, plus numerous others, have been put forward as reason for the smile on the Mona Lisa’s face.

But nothing so exotic, say German historians, who reckon they’ve figured it out, says Reuters.

It’s simple, according to academics at Heidelberg University library.

The painting is also known as "La Gioconda" meaning the happy or joyful woman in Italian, "a title which also suggests the woman’s married name".

The historians say dated notes in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503, "confirm Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model " for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait.

Until then, only "scant evidence" from sixteenth-century documents had been available, says the story, adding:

"All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter," a manuscript expert, the library says.

But wait! That just confirms the name of the subject. It doesn’t say why she was smiling.

So maybe it was gas after all.

Slashdot it!

Also See:-

pregnant – Mona Lisa, under the surface, September 27, 2006
Reuters – German experts crack Mona Lisa smile, January 14, 2008

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 6:27 am and is filed under Off Topic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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