The never-ending hunt for the “real” woman portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is taking a new twist.  In the latest CSI-meets-art history research, an Italian art historian is attempting to locate and exhume the body of Lisa Gherardini, a woman who may have been the model for da Vinci’s painting.  New scientific approaches involving DNA research, body imaging, infrared scanning, and forensic analysis are being used to analyze a variety of early modern subjects—from Cosimo I de’ Medici’s clothing to Ferdinando I de’ Medici’s possible poisoning to Leonardo da Vinci’s lost Battle of Anghieri.

Read about the hunt for the “real” Mona Lisa at the Associated Press.

Students in HIST 420 The Renaissance will be particularly interested in this story.