BBC: Italian Professor Vito Franco Claims Mona Lisa had High Cholesterol!

Can the cause of Mona Lisa’s depressed face be her failing health?

Well… this is exactly what professor Franco has suggested. Professor Vito Franco points towards the yellowish tint around the left eye of Mona Lisa, stating that it is the sure sign of a skin condition called xanthelasma.

What is Xanthelasma?

Xanthelasma is a condition marked by cholesterol build up under the skin. A telling sign of this condition is externally visible yellowish nodules or disc-spaced mars on different parts of the body. One area where these marks appear is usually around the eyelids.

Professor Vito Franco’s Claim

Professor Vito Franco supports the school of thought which believes that an artist captures his/her subject as they are. So, if the subject is ill or has a condition whose symptoms are externally visible, then they will appear in the painting as it is.

In the painting, Mona Lisa has a yellowish color around her left eye, and Professor Vito Franco believes that Leonardo Di Vinci captured Mona Lisa as she was- suffering from the condition of xanthelasma.

What Do Skeptics Say?

Not everyone accepts Professor Franco’s claim. Skeptics points out that Di Vinci used his imagination to give the yellowish tint around Mona Lisa’s left eye. Some also insist that since this was a painting and not a photograph, one cannot draw conclusions based on what one sees in the painting.

Does Art Speak the Truth?

Mona Lisa’s painting is not the first instance where someone has speculated the health condition on the basis of a portrait.

A painting of the ancient Egyptian leader, Akhenaten, shows him as having abnormal features. Many people, on the basis of what they see in the painting, have argued that Akhenaten suffered from many health conditions including diabetes.

Another such instance is the painting named “The Sick Child” by Edvard Munch. In this painting, Edvard Munch captured his sister, Johanne Sophie, and the painting shows her in depletable condition. The reality wasn’t much different than the portrait – Johanne Sophie was critically sick with tuberculosis and passed away when she was just fifteen years old.

Such examples show that it will be not right to ignore the claim that art does inform us about the health of the people during that time. Maybe Professor Vito Franco is right, and perhaps Mona Lisa did have xanthelasma, which occurs due to high blood cholesterol levels.

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