Series One · Now Showing
One Question Leads to Another
One investigation unfolding — each discovery opening the next question, drawing the enquiry steadily deeper.
Episode 1
Who Is She?
We know the face. We know the name. But do we really know the woman? Episode 1 — Who Is She? — opens the investigation into the most famous face on Earth.
Episodes 01–04 are now showing. The Gorgon’s Gaze — Episode 05 — is the next investigation, with further pages of the Codex still to be revealed.
Episode 2
The Knot She Wears
What if one line of gold — turning, crossing and returning across the Mona Lisa’s dress — could unravel everything we think we know about her?
Revealed
Episode 3
The Pillars Beside Her
What if the Mona Lisa is framed by the gateway to another world?
Revealed
Episode 4
The Hands
What if the Mona Lisa’s hands are speaking?
They may be the most familiar hands in art — but what if we have been looking at them without ever learning how to read them? The knot. The pillars. And now — the hands.
Revealed
The Hands · Codex Research
References & Further Reading
These are the source materials and scholarship informing the investigation. Fine Art Detective examines visual relationships, historical context and gesture — the questions and connections we raise are our own interpretation, offered as enquiry, and are kept distinct from the historical sources and scholarly research listed here. Nothing below is presented as proof of the sitter’s identity.
Primary SourceFlorentine Codex — Childbirth & Midwifery
A primary source concerning pregnancy, childbirth and the role and advice of the midwife.
Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators. Florentine Codex, Book VI, Chapter 27, fol. 128v. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence. Digital Florentine Codex, Getty Research Institute.
Getty Digital Florentine Codex — Book VI, fol. 128vPrimary SourceFlorentine Codex — Malintzin / Translation
Primary-source material relating to Malintzin’s role as translator and intermediary.
Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators. Florentine Codex, Book XII, including fols. 26r and 29r. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence. Digital Florentine Codex, Getty Research Institute.
Getty Digital Florentine Codex — Book XIIScholarly ResearchChristian Roith
A study examining representations of hands and gestures in the Florentine Codex, particularly in contexts of birth, upbringing and education.
Christian Roith, “Representations of Hands in the Florentine Codex by Bernardino de Sahagún (ca 1499–1590),” Paedagogica Historica, Vol. 54, Nos. 1–2 (2018), pp. 114–133. DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2017.1360918
Read the study (Paedagogica Historica)Scholarly ResearchThelma D. Sullivan
Scholarly translation and study of the Book VI childbirth texts.
Thelma D. Sullivan, “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Deification of the Women Who Died in Childbirth: Texts from the Florentine Codex, Book VI, Folios 128v–143v,” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, Vol. 6 (1966), pp. 63–95.
UNAM article record (Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl)
Episode 05
The Gorgon's Gaze
One face you were forbidden to look at. One face the world cannot stop looking at.
Next Investigation
The page awaits its reveal.
Every episode opens another thread
Behind the films sits the Codex — the evolving record of the research, questions, sources and connections the investigation uncovers. Source material, scholarship and Fine Art Detective’s own interpretation are kept clearly distinct.
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