In the Flesh
Leonardo da Vinci may have painted his famous Mona Lisa in a number of styles -- including nude. This painting, which features many parallels to the original Mona Lisa, was attributed to Leonardo da Vinci at purchase in 1845. But it may just be based on one of the artist's now-lost works.

Indeed, several other claims of unclothed Mona Lisas have been made over the years, pointing to the theory that Da Vinci might have had fun with the famous image he had created around 1503-1506.

"There are at least six nude version which are very close to Da Vinci's hand. All are attributed to the Da Vinci school. The most likely scenario is that his followers got inspired by a now-lost original," Vezzosi said.

According to Vezzosi, the original naked Mona might have been part of a series of erotic portraits by Da Vinci and his pupils, which were never really shown because they were considered inappropriate.

Called "Monna Vanna," the topless versions of the Mona Lisa are indeed often considered the portraits of a court mistress or prostitute.

Nevertheless, these paintings inspired nudes by other artists, including Raphaello's 1518 portrait of his mistress, "The Baker Girl."

"Our quest for naked Mona Lisas continues. We are now on the tracks of another interesting version in Las Vegas," Vezzosi said.


Related Links:

Museo Ideale

Rossella Lorenzi's Blog: Archaeorama

The Metropolitan Museum of Art on da Vinci

Treehugger.com: Rethinking Trash Into Inspired Art



Above is the caption which I neglected to include. You are right, Da Vinci always makes anatomically correct pictures. He was one of the early 'resurrectionists' who buy newly burried corpses from grave robbers for study and dissection. During those times, internal human anatomy was based on ape and pig dissection because the Church forbade the desecration of the human body. It was men like Da Vinci and Vesalius who made the first studies of the human body. They were called 'resurrectionists' by later generations of anatomists because they contract to buy newly buried bodies for study. Hmmm. . . . . maybe their pillaging of graves led to tales of vampires and the like, just maybe. - Ariel