Mona Lisa mystery: Da Vinci to be exhumed [Archive]

St.Sinner

01-26-2010, 01:11 AM

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/odd/6720919/mona-lisa-mystery-da-vinci-to-be-exhumed/

Leonardo Da Vinci's remains are to be exhumed to allow scientists to establish whether the Mona Lisa is a disguised self-portrait.

Scientists and historians from Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have sought permission to open the artist's tomb in France's Loire Valley.

They hope to find his skull which they can use to reconstruct his face to discover whether his famed masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.

Mystery has surrounded the identity of the Mona Lisa for centuries.

Scholars have suggested Da Vinci's presumed homosexuality and love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman.

Speculation on the sitter has also ranged from Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, to Da Vinci's mother.

They're going to dig up poor Leo! Heh, while I feel slightly ambivalent about unearthing a Renaissance master, it would be quite interesting to find out, wouldn't it?

Coidzor

01-26-2010, 01:13 AM

This is all going to end up with some scientists and laborers being snacked on by some kind of supernatural horror in powered battle armor, I just know it.

Icewalker

01-26-2010, 01:23 AM

I'll bet they don't get any definitive conclusion. Would be pretty hilarious. :smallsigh:

reorith

01-26-2010, 01:36 AM

I'll bet they don't get any definitive conclusion. Would be pretty hilarious. :smallsigh:

especially since i dug up Da Vinci's corpse and replaced it with the remains of Sylvia Plath.

Mystic Muse

01-26-2010, 01:46 AM

This is all going to end up with some scientists and laborers being snacked on by some kind of supernatural horror in powered battle armor, I just know it.

........only? I'd think that Da vinci would be able to think up something much more effective or horrible.

heck one of those tries to kill me every day. And that's on a GOOD say.

darkblade

01-26-2010, 01:54 AM

I highly doubt his bones are in good enough shape after all this time to get any conclusive evidence.

SurlySeraph

01-26-2010, 01:56 AM

They are exhuming da Vinci.
Because someone thinks the Mona Lisa was a self-portrait.
And they think his skull will be in good enough shape to let them definitely prove whether it was or not.
Ooooookay.

Solaris

01-26-2010, 02:08 AM

I highly doubt his bones are in good enough shape after all this time to get any conclusive evidence.

It's only been a couple of centuries. If the bones are in a dry tomb, they definitely would be.

toasty

01-26-2010, 02:12 AM

This is... stupid? its a cool painting. That's about it.

I need to make a note in my will that no one can exhume me except for matters pertaining to National or International Security or various other Legal Matters. Not to please the (morbid?) curiosity of a few scientists and art aficionados.

Athaniar

01-26-2010, 02:18 AM

I thought they had proof already that Mona Lisa is a picture of Lisa Gherardini. But no, some scientists disagree, and it's exhuming time!

Also, why do I keep imagining Da Vinci's tomb as a mechanical dungeon?

Coidzor

01-26-2010, 02:21 AM

Also, why do I keep imagining Da Vinci's tomb as a mechanical dungeon?

Because that's by rights what it should've been. If life were a video game, we'd have to worry more about the mechanical doom than the undead in his tomb.

Tirian

01-26-2010, 02:25 AM

Solaris

01-26-2010, 03:09 AM

No doubt. If you're the sort of person who needs to desecrate a guy's corpse just because you want to settle some bet about a painting that has no deeper relevance, then you need a new hobby. Seriously.

<<
>>
Wait, it's bad to desecrate a corpse based on a bet? Well, at least my 'Why miss heaven by inches?' philosophy remains intact...

golentan

01-26-2010, 03:12 AM

NOOOOO!!!! When they find the note, they're going to know to come after me and Leo. It was hard enough developing immortality and faking his death, can't they just let him rest in peace?

Killer Angel

01-26-2010, 03:20 AM

I thought they had proof already that Mona Lisa is a picture of Lisa Gherardini. But no, some scientists disagree, and it's exhuming time!

Even them (http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/bones-stars.jpg) (with particular reference to the one on the left :smallwink:) would disagree with the exhumation...

St.Sinner

01-26-2010, 03:23 AM

It's not as though Da Vinci'll mind...

742

01-26-2010, 03:53 AM

it just seems absurd. thats a lesson though: if you dont want people digging you up every few hundred years after you die make sure to never sign your art or do it all on camera. alternatively you could make sure it all sucks enough that noone would be interested, but that seems like it would be even harder. people like some strange stuff.

ghost_warlock

01-26-2010, 06:07 AM

Okay, so who else thinks this would be a great opportunity to snag a piece of the body as a keepsake? Would make a great conversation piece...

"Who's pelvis is this on your coffee table?"
:smallamused:

Archonic Energy

01-26-2010, 06:08 AM

damn... i want to make a joke about "Decomposing Composers"... but he wasn't one...

Yarram

01-26-2010, 06:23 AM

especially since i dug up Da Vinci's corpse and replaced it with the remains of Sylvia Plath.

That statement was so full of win.

Serpentine

01-26-2010, 07:34 AM

I highly doubt his bones are in good enough shape after all this time to get any conclusive evidence.As mentioned, it's only been a couple of centuries. They've found well-preserved remains thousands of years old, and less-well-preserved from which they can still get a supposedly reasonable likeness.
damn... i want to make a joke about "Decomposing Composers"... but he wasn't one...Well actually... (http://www.cracked.com/article_18386_7-mind-blowing-easter-eggs-hidden-in-famous-works-art.html) (#5)

I think this could be pretty awesome. As long as they're looking at it they ought to see what else they can find out about him, as as mentioned, it's not as though he'll mind. There's noone who knew him to mourne his being moved. After all, it's for SCIENCE! and also HISTORY!

toasty

01-26-2010, 08:01 AM

After all, it's for SCIENCE! and also HISTORY!

Yes, but most people don't care... so is it really so important?

I dunno, it seems like a waste of time and money to me. But I can't exactly stop them (nor would I try).

Serpentine

01-26-2010, 09:19 AM

I think you'll find most people don't care about most things. If there is knowledge to be found, it (ethics permitting) should be. That's what both SCIENCE! and HISTORY! are about.

Bouregard

01-26-2010, 09:28 AM

Another reason to turn your own tomb into a nightmare that makes the Tomb of Horrors look like a daycare.

RabbitHoleLost

01-26-2010, 10:09 AM

Bummer.
I thought the appeal to the Mona Lisa was the mystery.

Serpentine

01-26-2010, 10:10 AM

The appeal of mysteries is trying to figure it out.

But... I thought we already had self-portraits of him? Couldn't we just use those?

Black_Pants_Guy

01-26-2010, 10:17 AM

damn... i want to make a joke about "Decomposing Composers"... but he wasn't one...

Da Vinci was said to have played the Lyre.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist and writer. Leonardo

Nameless

01-26-2010, 10:26 AM

Bummer.
I thought the appeal to the Mona Lisa was the mystery.

Well, the good news is that when people visit the gallery from now on, they won’t just walk all the way over the Mona Lisa and then walk out again. They’ll actually look around at all the other amazing art.

SurlySeraph

01-26-2010, 10:45 AM

The appeal of mysteries is trying to figure it out.

But... I thought we already had self-portraits of him? Couldn't we just use those?

Indeed we do. You may judge for yourself whether he resembles the Mona Lisa.

http://www.italianvisits.com/people/da_vinci/images/da-vinci_self_portrait.jpg

http://www.artsology.com/gfx/da_vinci_1.jpg

Starscream

01-26-2010, 11:04 AM

Also, why do I keep imagining Da Vinci's tomb as a mechanical dungeon?

You just inspired my next D&D campaign. At the end you fight a monstrous version of Dan Brown, desperate to keep people from knowing any actual facts about Da Vinci, because he's afraid it will cost him book sales.

RabbitHoleLost

01-26-2010, 11:06 AM

BRC

01-26-2010, 11:10 AM

You just inspired my next D&D campaign. At the end you fight a monstrous version of Dan Brown, desperate to keep people from knowing any actual facts about Da Vinci, because he's afraid it will cost him book sales.
Don't stop with Da Vinci, they should have to enter the tombs of countless historical greats. Da Vinci's Tomb is protected by countless clockwork deathtraps, in a massive mechanical contraption, undead Tesla and Edison consider their eternal duel, their bodies fueled by electricity, their machines eternally battling. Joshua A. Norton lies deep beneath San Fransisco, his body guarded by deathless guards worthy of an emperor.

Starscream

01-26-2010, 11:20 AM

Because people totally don't read the "This is totally fiction" disclaimer at the beginning of the book.

I know it's fiction. I just worry that he doesn't:

Martin Savidge:When we talk about da Vinci and your book, how much is true and how much is fabricated in your storyline?

Dan Brown: 99 percent of it is true. All of the architecture, the art, the secret rituals, the history, all of that is true, the Gnostic gospels. All of that is … all that is fiction, of course, is that there's a Harvard symbologist named Robert Langdon, and all of his action is fictionalized. But the background is all true.
— "CNN Sunday Morning" interview With Dan Brown, aired May 25, 2003, 09:45AM

By the way, there's no such thing as being a "Professor of Symbology", at Harvard or elsewhere.

BRC

01-26-2010, 11:30 AM

I know it's fiction. I just worry that he doesn't:

Well, considering alot of the draw of the book is it's supposed verisimilitude, it was popular because people thought it was a novel that told you abunch of nifty historical facts, not a Novel that tells you abunch of stuff that is not necessarily proven false by plugging it into Google and hitting "I'm Feeling Lucky".

RabbitHoleLost

01-26-2010, 11:34 AM

I know it's fiction. I just worry that he doesn't
The poor man gets confused.
I'm pretty sure his editors slipped that little disclaimer in there.

Grommen

01-26-2010, 11:43 AM

BRC

01-26-2010, 11:52 AM

Well the good news is that at least Americans are not the only silly people on the planet. It is probably a picture of his mom. Just let the dude stay dead and burred before we have a media circus, a book deal, and a Summer Block Buster.

O wait....damm:smallfurious:
Or, you know, it's just a really good picture of a merchant's wife. If it wasn't one of the most famous paintings ever, nobody would have read anything else into it.

Athaniar

01-26-2010, 12:05 PM

While we're on the subject, read this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccuracies_in_The_Da_Vinci_Code) list (note: only trust sourced information or information you know to be true, as usual when it comes to Wikipedia).