FOR 500 years, the art world's greatest enigma has captivated audiences and divided art historians.
Now an academic has suggested the secret of the Mona Lisa's mysterious smile is that she is just about to have a baby.
"Look at her swollen limbs. Her fingers, for example. She is not wearing rings. Yet a woman of that wealth would wear rings," Nuland said. He concludes Lisa has removed the rings because her fingers had got rather fat.
"Her face, too, is a little round while her hands are folded over her abdomen as pregnant women do," he said.
Further evidence for the pregnancy comes from records in Florence, where the painting was begun in 1503, showing Lisa del Gioconda gave birth late that year.
The more I have seen paintings and read about artists, the less I understand why the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. I think it is interesting to look at, but a lot of artists painted portraits. I have never seen it in person and maybe that makes all the difference. I love the Nat King Cole song, and there was a terrific novel written about a guy who steals it, but there isn’t much going on in the painting itself. da Vinci’s the Last Supper gives you a whole story. Maybe it is just the simplicity of her looking away from the artist and the mystery of her smile. If the French ever get their lids on straight, I may get to see it someday.
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