Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Model 'Was A Man' ?

★ Silvano Vinceti, chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage, said the Florence-born Renaissance artist's male apprentice and possible lover Salai was the main inspiration for the Mona Lisa.

★ Salai, real name Gian Giacomo Caprotti, an effeminate young artist who worked with da Vinci for 25 years, is thought to have served as a model and muse for several of his paintings. 

★ The pair had an "ambiguous" relationship and were probably lovers, Vinceti said.What is more, Vinceti said da Vinci had left clues to the model's identity in tiny letters L and S which he and his team found painted into the eyes of the Mona Lisa.

★ "Close examination of a high-quality digital copy of the portrait had revealed an L for Leonardo and an S for Salai," he said.

Reference :: /news.discovery.com

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★ Painted in 1907 by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

★ This painting was confiscated by the Nazi Germany when the Nazis occupied Austria.

 ★ In 2006, a cosmetics entrepreneur named Ronard S. Lauder, bought the painting for $ 135 millions. ($135,000,000)

★ The painting was later exhibited in his gallery, the Neue Galerie, New York.


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★ The Mona Lisa took da Vinci almost four years to complete the painting.

★ He began in early 1503 and finished in late 1506.

★ It actually has a recent imperfection.

★ In 1956, a man named Ugo Ungaza threw a rock at the painting, which resulted in a small patch of damaged paint next to her left elbow.

★ The painting resides in its own room in the Louvre Museum in Paris and is protected in a climate controlled environment and encased in bullet proof glass.

★ This room was built especially for the painting and cost the museum over seven million dollars.

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