Mona Lisa mystery solved?

January 15, 2008

For centuries, art historians and fans of the painting have wondered who the smiling woman really was, with some suggesting she could have been da Vinci's lover, or even his mother. But Armin Schlechter, a manuscript expert from Heidelberg University, has found notes scribbled in a book dating from 1503 which he says have cracked the code and firmly link Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, to the painting also known as "La Gioconda".Joanna Partridge reports for Reuters