Putting a face on the 'Mona Lisa' smile Silvano Vinceti leading
team to exhume, identify remains of Lisa Gherardini Few
paintings have been more viewed, more analyzed, studied and
interpreted, than Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," otherwise
known as "La Gioconda." Despite this, no one has come up with an
explanation for that enigmatic smile, or a lot of other details
in this painting that, despite all the ink and hot air expended
on it, measures a mere 77 by 52 centimeters (about 30 by 21
inches). In the frigid bowels of a derelict building in central
Florence, Italy, that covers the ruins of an old Franciscan
convent, a group of researchers is trying to nail down some of
the elusive details of the woman featured in the iconic
painting. It is here that old city records say the woman who
posed for the painting, Lisa Gherardini, the second wife of
wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, was
buried. Silvano Vinceti is leading a team to exhume and identify
Gherardini's remains. Those remains are