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Archeologists on Tuesday unearthed a skeleton in a rare state of preservation in Florence in what they believe may be a crucial step towards unraveling the mystery of the identity of the woman with the most enigmatic smile in the world.
Several bodies have been discovered in the hunt to find the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the Florentine noblewoman widely believed to have served as the muse for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
Silvano Vinceti, who heads up the team of Italian archeologists, said this discovery in an abandoned convent was particularly exciting - though tests would still have to be carried out to ascertain the identity of the remains.
"I'd say that we've got to the really exciting part for researchers," said Vinceti, who specializes in resolving art mysteries.
"We are getting close to answering the key question, 'Will we or will we not find Lisa Gherardini's remains?'
"Today we opened another tomb with a complete skeleton, which is very important because in the first phase of the research we did not find human remains," he said.
The team began digging up the convent's new cement floor last year, after fresh documents confirmed that Gherardini, the wife of rich Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, had lived in the convent after her husband died and was looked after by her two daughters, who were nuns.
She was eventually interred there.
Del Giocondo is thought to have commissioned the portrait from the Renaissance artist, and though there is little proof, most art historians agree that Lisa Gherardini served as the primary model for the bewitching painting.
Mona Lisa was composed between 1503 and 1506 and hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris.
Although researchers had previously discovered bits of bones and two sets of remains in the convent, the latest skeleton to be unearthed is the best preserved, with the skull intact.
The next step is to send the latest remains off for a series of tests to confirm they belong to Gherardini. The team then hopes to reconstruct her face and compare it with the facial features in the painting.
"Carbon-14 dating allows us to date the period, and we have to find out whether the remains date to the middle of the 16th century.
"We will then do tests to prove the age of the person when they died," said Vinceti, who is chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage.
"Then comes the biggest test, the DNA, because we have the mortal remains of her children...and if it corresponds, we'll know these remains belong to Mona Lisa's model," he said.
If her identity is confirmed, the researchers will begin the two-month process of reconstructing the skeleton's face.
Questions:
1. Who painted the Mona Lisa?
2. Who is believed to be the subject of the famous painting?
3. In which museum does the Mona Lisa hang?
Answers:
1. Leonardo da Vinci.
2. Lisa Gherardini.
3. The Louvre.
About the broadcaster:
CJ Henderson is a foreign expert for China Daily's online culture department. CJ is a graduate of the University of Sydney where she completed a Bachelors degree in Media and Communications, Government and International Relations, and American Studies. CJ has four years of experience working across media platforms, including work for 21st Century Newspapers in Beijing, and a variety of media in Australia and the US.