The scientist said that the model who posed for the “Mona Lisa” had syphilis.
British scientist Jonathan Jones explained the enigmatic smile of the model who posed for the painting “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci, her disease syphilis.
In his work, the author argued the approval data from the accounting books of the Florentine monastery, according to which Lisa Gherardini, wife of silk merchant from Florence, bought in the local pharmacy acqua di chiocciole, the so – called water snails, which was used then for the treatment of syphilis.
Jones says that in those days the disease was very common in Europe.
The critic also notes that the disease model, in part, confirmed by the landscape, which became the background of the painting. It is considered that syphilis was brought to the Old world by explorers who visited America in 1492. And the background just depicts the seascape and mountains, which became a symbol of the New world.
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