Women in future art masterpieces will look 'gaunt and tired' due to trendy weight loss jabs - unlike 'fat and unhealthy' Mona Lisa

By SHAUN WOOLLER, EXECUTIVE HEALTH EDITOR Published: 21:00, 22 May 2026 | Updated: 21:00, 22 May 2026 Women in future art masterpieces are likely to look ‘gaunt and tired’ as a result of trendy weight loss jabs - unlike the ‘fat and unhealthy’ Mona Lisa, a leading obesity doctor says. Experts believe the smiling woman in Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th Century portrait was overweight with high cholesterol or an underactive thyroid. Dr Michael Yafi, a children’s medic at the University of Texas Houston, said fat women were considered beautiful in the past. Many leading artists depicted female models with bulging waistlines and ample curves, he added. But Dr Yafi believes future paintings will probably show women as unusually thin as weight loss jabs become widespread. Speaking at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul, he said: ‘Obesity has an interesting history. ‘Although currently it might be looked at in a negative way, in the past it was not. ‘Strong men, leaders, royal families, religious people, high people in the society were portrayed with high BMI. How Mona Lisa may have looked if she had been using weight-loss jabs, as imagined by AI. ‘Beautiful women and models were also portrayed with high BMI. ‘Women with obesity used to be models but current models are almost anorexic, which is not good for you either.’ The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world and was insured for nearly £54million in 1962 – a Guinness World Record and equal to £1billion in today’s money. It was completed by Da Vinci in the early 1500s and now hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris. It is believed to be of an Italian woman named Lisa del Giocondo, also known as Lisa Gherardini. Dr Yafi said: ‘Lisa is shown with excessive body fat. ‘There are many theories about her and the most recent paper was basically that she had a problem with her BMI and severe hypothyroidism. ‘We don’t know because we cannot go back and make a diagnosis, we are just analysing her features. Experts believe the smiling woman in Leonardo Da Vinci’s 16th Century portrait was overweight with high cholesterol or an underactive thyroid ‘A simpler explanation is that she had put on weight in pregnancy. ‘After all, she’d had four children by this time. ‘This is probably the most famous painting in art history and there are many papers about finding a medical diagnosis, I think it’s fun.’ Dr Yafi said musical composers Bach and Handel were also depicted as fat and probably had type 2 diabetes as they lost their vision. Angels and cherubs were also usually overweight, showing it was considered good. He said that women in paintings in future might have gaunt, bony faces because of GLP-1 weight loss jabs like Wegovy and Mounjaro. Dr Yafi added: ‘I think that as more people use these drugs, GLP-1 face will be depicted in art. ‘The face can develop an aged or tired look due to rapid fat loss in the cheeks, temples, and under-eye areas. ‘I am sure that if Picasso had been alive today, he would have painted it.’ The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.