OK, a little break from serious issues. I thought this story from Reuters was interesting.
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.
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 for one of the most famous portraits in the world.
Evidently the notes were made by a city official in Florence, Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of DaVinci. The notes say he was working on three paintings at the time, one of them a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre in Paris.
