A nude drawing titled the Monna Vanna, or the “nude Mona Lisa,” has been sitting in the archives of the Condé Museum since 1862. And now scientists and historians are trying to figure out if Leonardo da Vinci was the man who drew it.
The charcoal drawing, which looks a lot like the Mona Lisa down to the sly, soft smile, has been attributed to da Vinci since the 20th century, reports the New York Times. And while the date of the piece (started around the beginning of the 16th century) and the provenance of the paper lines up with da Vinci’s whereabouts, there was some hatching done at the top by a right-handed person (whereas da Vinci was left-handed.)
So the Condé Museum’s directors say that parts of the drawing could be by da Vinci or, as it so often happens in art history, the work of one of da Vinci’s students. The truth is there are as many as 20 naked Mona Lisa paintings stored and displayed around the world, because clearly some horny artists prefer her without clothes on. But could one of them really be da Vinci?
“So many students of Leonardo have painted naked Mona Lisas or written about it,”Mr. Deldicque told the New York Times. “We are almost certain that Leonardo painted one.”