Nude Mona Lisa on show in Vinci: 5,000 Mona Lisa Works Displayed on Da Vinci muse

Mona Lisa has inspired fine artisits and pop artists to create their own Mona Lisa. Now, along with 5,000 works inspired by the original Mona Lisa, a 16th-century painting of a nude Mona Lisa once attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci went on show for the first time this past Saturday as part of a sweeping new exhibition that opened in Tuscany in Leonardo Da Vinci's home town of Vinci, near Florence in the region of Tuscany. The 5,000 works inspired by the original Mona Lisa including paintings, sculptures, etchings and new media images spanning five centuries, all on display at the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's hometown of Vinci in Tuscany for the show, the largest ever held on the mysterious muse.

Experts have succeeded in establishing that the nude Mona Lisa once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte's uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763-1839) - a major collector who also owned Leonardo's painting of St Jerome now in the Vatican Museums. Another nude will also go on show but investigations into its history are continuing.

Curated by Agnese Sabato and Alessandro Vezzosi under the supervision of the world's top Leonardo Da Vinci expert Carlo Pedretti, the exhibition will also reveal the latest spectacular scientific data from experts researching the original Mona Lisa housed in the Louvre in Paris.

The show is divided into two sections.

The first explores the history of the Mona Lisa, including dating problems and the identity of the smiling model, but also displays sculptures and etchings inspired by the painting from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

The second section is dedicated to so-called Leonardismo and highlights how the Mona Lisa became an icon in literature, graphic design and on the internet.

WHO IS MONA LISA?

Unlike most Renaissance portraits, Leonardo's original Mona Lisa (mona is the standard Italian contraction for madonna, or ''my lady,'') bears no date or signature, nor is the name of the sitter given. These omissions, coupled with the sitter's mysterious close-lipped smile, have helped spawn endless theories about the woman's identity. Various contemporary court beauties and noblewomen have been put forward, including Isabella d'Este and Isabella Gualanda, while some have concluded that she was Leonardo's mother. Other academics argue that the sitter was one of his favourite young lovers disguised as a woman. Such theorists note that da Vinci never relinquished the painting, keeping it with him up until his death in Amboise, France in 1519.

There is in fact no evidence that da Vinci was paid for the portrait or that it was ever delivered. The Mona Lisa's strange smile has also led to endless speculation and theories, some of the most curious provided by medical experts-cum-art lovers.

One group of medical researchers has maintained that the sitter's mouth is so firmly shut because she was undergoing mercury treatment for syphilis which turned her teeth black. An American dentist has claimed that the tight-lipped expression was typical of people who have lost their front teeth, while a Danish doctor was convinced she suffered from congenital palsy which affected the left side of her face and this is why her hands are overly large. A French surgeon has also put forth his view that she was semi-paralysed, perhaps as the result of a stroke, and that this explained why one hand looks relaxed and the other tense. An Italian doctor has pointed to an alleged puffy cheek and swollen hand to claim she was suffering from a 'fatty blood' disorder.

From "Mona Lisa to the nude Gioconda" runs at the Museo Ideale in Vinci from June 13 to September 30.

For more about the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci and video of the Rome exhibit, The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci, click WebVisionItaly.com Leonardo Da Vinci in Rome.

Leonardo Da Vinci Self Portrait Found?

Rome, February 27 - An Italian science journalist and television presenter said Friday he may have discovered a self-portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci as a young man in Da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds.

Piero Angela said he was flipping through a copy of the short manuscript written by Leonardo between 1490 and 1505 when he saw the drawing. ''I noticed that there was a drawing by Leonardo hidden between the words on the tenth page of his codex,'' he said.'' After extrapolating the red-chalk portrait with the help a graphic artist, a portrait of a Renaissance man emerged. Given the similarity, I thought that this could well be Leonardo himself''.

Angela said he compared the drawing with other portraits of Leonardo, and principally with Leonardo's famous self portrait of c. 1512-15, asking for help from a scientific investigation bureau in Rome.''The graphic artist then applied digital techniques used to age people or make them look younger, and astonishingly we found as amazing similarity - it was as if the two were brothers,'' he said. ''We also asked for the opinion of a maxillofacial surgeon, who said the two faces could well belong to the same many at different times in his life''.

Angela said the discovery ''had many exclamation marks, but very many question marks'', adding that it had not yet been possible to date the drawing. ''Thanks to other drawings present in the eight central pages of this codex, we think that Leonardo worked on these leaves between 1482 and 1489, when he was in Milan at the court of Ludovico Sforza. Then these pages were 'recycled' by the painter to write his codex''.

He stressed that the opinion of experts was still needed but said scholars to whom he had shown the drawing had told him it was an ''important discovery''. Angela will present his discovery on Saturday evening during a prime-time docu-entertainment show covering both history and science presented by his son Alberto and televised by state broadcaster RAI.

Earlier this month, a 16th-century portrait of Leonardo came to light in a hill town in Basilicata, southern Italy when a medieval historian was browsing through the collection of an aristocratic family. The oil painting shows Da Vinci in three-quarter profile and wearing a hat. Experts are investigating whether the painting could be by Cristofano dell'Altissimo, who painted another Da Vinci portrait in a similar style in the Uffizi in Florence, but have not yet ruled out the possibility that it too could be a self-portrait.

For more on Leonardo Da Vinci visit the exhibit Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci in Rome.

Butcher of Panzano Dario Cecchini - Antica Macelleria Cecchini

Dario Cecchini is known as the Butcher of Panzano, which is located in Chianti near Greve, in beautiful Tuscany.

The Cecchini family in Panzano have been the butcher's of Panzano for 600 years. For six centuries and continuing today under Dario "the Magnifico" Cecchini the Antica Macelleria Cecchini has butchered meet for the world's most famous and fed the most famous in its restaurant.

It is said Dante Aligheri loved to eat here and Leonardo da Vinci was inspired to paint the Mona Lisa after eating the meat butchered by the Cecchini family.

In his book Heat, Bill Buford observed Dario Cecchini is not just a butcher he is a Museum of Tuscany.

WebVisionItaly visited the Macelleria Cecchini and ate a very nice 'pranzo' on the Tuscan hill side. The weather was gorgeous in October and so while we give thanks and enjoy Christmas traditions with family and prepare for the New Year festivals we must include one Italy's great family traditions - Dario the Magnifico - Butcher of Panzano - in our thoughts this Christmas. Preparing wonderful lamb, Bistec Fiorentina etc etc.

Dario prepares cuts of meat in the greatest of Tuscan traditions, which date back to before the Renaissance and Medici family recipes written in books, to when recipes were shared orally from one Tuscan generation to the next. Dario learned to cut by mentoring with a family friend of his own father the butcher after he passed away. When in Chianti a visit to Dario Cecchini's Macelleria and a meal in the restaurant is a must see in Tuscany.

Click to view WebVionItaly's video interview with Dario Cecchini - Butcher of Panzano.