The exhibit seeks to illuminate people’s understanding of the intricacies of the human body, and is, therefore, morbidly educational — an ossuary of sorts composed of very real corpses of both sexes, flayed of their flesh, intricately dissected and dynamically posed to stimulate an emotional response from curious visitors interested in viscera. Museum president and CEO Dan Finley suggests this lack of life in the immaculately preserved specimens proves the existence of a soul and stresses, “This is the most important exhibit the Milwaukee Public Museum has ever hosted. One would think standing in a room surrounded by dead bodies — pulled apart and cross-sectioned in minute detail — would have prompted a similar response, but it didn’t. The people had not sacrificed themselves for the sake of either art or science — they were dying anyway, and perhaps they would have approved of the art, giving lie to their statements in life that they "didn’t have an artistic bone in their body. The ballet dancers — a young man and woman — posed as though performers having completed their routines for the Cirque du Soleil audience. read more
January 15, 2008 — BERLIN - German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait. Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the likeliest model for the 16th-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself. Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was, indeed, the model. read more
Veit Probst said that according to notes by a Florentine official, Agostino Vespucci, in a book found in the library, the woman with the enigmatic smile in arguably the world's most famous painting was Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Giorgio Vasari , who did so in a biography of da Vinci that saw the light in 1550. Leonardo da Vinci never mentioned Mona Lisa in any of his notes or drawings," Probst said, adding that there had been doubt about Vasari's conclusions as "he was known to tend towards the anecdotal". The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse. read more
M ona Lisa’s smile may still be a mystery but Bollywood, as usual, has managed to come around it. Aishwarya Rai [ Images ] takes over from Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece in artist Ratan Parimoo’s latest work. The 72-year-old exhibited his first paintings in Jehangir art gallery, South Mumbai, after a break of nine years. He adapted Mona Lisa [ Images ] as the archetypal female and also compared her metaphorically with well known female characters from both European and Indian art history. read more
