New signs point to illness of Mona Lisa’s subject
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Researchers in Italy recently examined Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, the Mona Lisa, and found evidence suggesting Lisa Gherardini, the woman depicted, had alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease causing hair loss.
The scientists studied the 16th-century portrait and noted the absence of eyebrows and eyelashes, along with a receding hairline, as indicators of the condition. Previous analyses attributed these features to fashion trends of the time. Dr.
Luigi Laino from the Institute of Dermatological Diseases and Hair Medicine believes psychological stress may have contributed to Gherardini’s condition. He points to her difficult life, including marrying at age fifteen, losing two children, and living during outbreaks of the plague, as potential triggers. Laino published his findings in Clinics in Dermatology, proposing that the famed portrait reveals a young woman experiencing the early stages of alopecia areata.
The condition affects an estimated 400,000 people in the United Kingdom, with women more susceptible than men, and often appears between ages 25 and 29.
