Mona Lisa Gives More Than Just An Enigmatic Stare: Historians Discover Numbers And Letters In Her Eye

Leonardo Da Vinci's most famous work of art, the Mona Lisa, has been pored over by everyone from tourists to art historians, from amateurs to experts, for many years. Yet no one saw what Luigi Borgia, a member of the National Committee for Cultural Heritage in Italy, found in an old dusty book on the painting - a sequence of numbers and letters hidden within those famously enigmatic eyes. Does anyone else feel another Da Vinci Code sequel coming? In one eye, the historians found LV (likely for the painter's initials) and in the other, they're still determining whether the figures are C and E, B and S, the number 72, or L2.

According to the Telegraph, Borgia said

the 50 year old volume describes how the Mona Lisa's eyes are full of various signs and symbols and he added: "We are only at the start of this investigation and we hope to be able to dig deeper into this mystery and reveal further details as soon as possible. It's remarkable that no-one has noticed these symbols before and from the preliminary investigations we have carried out we are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist.

Da Vinci's masterpiece has long been thought to be a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a very successful silk and fabric merchant in Florence, but with these letters and possible numbers (that don't seem to add up to LG), that long held belief may be called into question. The discovery of the figures, while enticing and thrilling to speculate on, have yet to reveal... what exactly they reveal - they could be obsolete and meaningless or they could unlock the secret to the real identity of the Mona Lisa. The painting is such an iconic work for a number of reasons, not least of which is how much mystery has always surrounded it. Dan Brown clearly chose his subject matter well.

(Image: Getty Images. Mona Lisa C.1503-5 Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519 Italian) Oil On Wood Panel,Musee du Louvre, Paris, France)

Comments

[DELGADO7]

02:31 PM on 01/04/2011

Well I think that there are many secrets behind the Mona Lisa , but I don't really think that it has to do with the end of the world...

[drp103]

03:29 PM on 01/02/2011

dont forget to drink your Ovaltine!

[Kombo Ch]

03:52 AM on 12/22/2010

Shawty's got a receding hairline.

[8pennylane]

08:37 PM on 12/15/2010

Swiss bank account numbers have a history of little over 300 years, he must have deposited his money in some French bank. Probably secret bank account numbers was his idea.

[timqueeney]

11:53 PM on 12/14/2010

The numbers are a conversion factor for extending the Mayan calendar to 3012 -- then the world can end.

[antv]

09:40 PM on 12/14/2010

Dan Brown sure gets a lot of credit for hacking up someone else's work.
*see the holy blood and the holy grail (1982)*
It makes me sad that pop culture has made his name synonymous with Leonardo.

[MemoFromTurner]

04:20 PM on 12/14/2010

Note that two of the letters under determination are B and S.

[JCushing]

03:10 PM on 12/14/2010

They foreclosed on him and took his painting. He put in a marker so he can ID it at Sotheby's eventually.

[JCushing]

03:07 PM on 12/14/2010

I am with the Priory of Sion and we are not telling you. Booyah.

[JCushing]

03:06 PM on 12/14/2010

It said "Repeal DADT".. since Uncle Leo was... one of 'em.

[WarrenPease]

03:52 PM on 12/14/2010

Back then, it was "Don't Ask, Don't Torch."

[madashellvoter]

02:39 PM on 12/16/2010

One of them???? WTF! Just SAY IT!!!! GAY!!!!

[baileywick]

05:58 PM on 12/16/2010

One of them, in that Michelangelo was gay, also.

[fairwayhill]

02:52 PM on 12/14/2010

My guess is that LV L2 means Leonardo from Vinci 1452, his birthpIace and year of birth. ( L is 50 in roman numbers )

[JCushing]

03:10 PM on 12/14/2010

It meant they owed him LV bucks for painting the thing since the last two months.

[GraphicMatt]

04:16 PM on 12/14/2010

Haven't you said the same thing like 5 times within this thread already?

[Doobysnacks]

02:48 PM on 12/14/2010

The numbers are the Valenzetti Equation on Lost. Each of the numbers represent a candidate. j/k

[eztempo]

02:32 PM on 12/14/2010

According to the Telegraph, "The numbers and letters are not visible to the human eye but have to be viewed under a microscope..." an invention not discovered for about 70 years after the painting was made, and well past the technical intention of Da Vinci. They're seeing patterns in clouds.

[Joffan]

02:59 PM on 12/14/2010

Actually, despite the photo caption there, the claim in the article is that they can be seen "with a magnifying glass", which is not unreasonable for Leonardo. I tend to agreed that the patterns are likely spurious though.

[dbissonn]

02:19 PM on 12/14/2010

It's paint by numbers.

[peaceandfreedom]

02:16 PM on 12/14/2010

It's his lunch order from the Chinese restaurant down the street.