Historians believe that Da Vinci's love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman - with some believing the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait. But the Mona Lisa was at the centre of a new mystery recently after art detectives took a fresh look at the masterpiece – and noticed something in her eyes. Hidden in the dark paint of her pupils are tiny letters and numbers, placed there by the artist Leonardo da Vinci and revealed only now thanks to high-magnification techniques. In the right eye appear to be the letters LV which could well stand for his name, Leonardo da Vinci, while on the left pupil the researcher found the letters "BS", or maybe "CE." On the back of the work, it was discovered the number "149" with a fourth number erased, leading to believe that the work was made in the 1490s, rather than the early 1500s, as is commonly agreed. Under a bridge in the background of the painting, it was noticed "72" or "L2," which could be another clue toward understanding the portrait. You have to remember the picture is almost 500 years old so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted.
Some other theories:
- If you have looked at Mona Lisa's eyes before, you may have noticed that no matter from which angle you are looking at them, they will appear to gaze back at you. This could be accounted for the fact the Leonardo Da Vinci painted himself by using something like a mirror. If you have looked into a mirror before, you might notice that no matter from which angle you look at your reflection, the reflection's eyes appear to be looking back at you. Thus as Leonardo Da Vinci painted himself by looking at some sort of a reflective surface, the output or result of the painting would be that when you look at it, the eyes are always gazing back at you.
- In late 2009, the question of the Mona Lisa’s eyebrows was raised once again. many had long asserted that the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's portrait was missing arched brows because it was common practice for wealthy noblewomen to pluck their eyebrows bare, a high-resolution photograph revealed that Leonardo had originally painted eyebrows. Using a highly light-sensitive camera that can depict underlayers of paint, Pascal Cotte discovered that the artist had laid down coats of pigment for the eyebrows. According to Cotte, the brows were likely wiped away during restorations, which also changed the hue of the Mona Lisa's skin.