Annie photos.
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci, the Louvre Museum, Paris - France.
The "Mona Lisa", the most enduring symbol of feminine mystique, became the portrait of a virtuous mother's family, who had five children including two girls who became nuns.
After two centuries in which historians have tried to uncover the identity of the model - theories ranged from the mother of the painter to a prostitute in Florence - new research came to a conclusion: it is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy merchant silk.
Giuseppe Pallanti, a professor of Florence who has spent the last 25 years researching the archives of the city, discovered the first clear evidence of the family's relationship with Da Francesco del Giocondo, a rich silk merchant who married Lisa in 1495.
The researcher also found that in 1550, Giorgio Vasari, the biographer of Italian artist, said that Lisa would be the woman portrayed by Da Vinci. And he was a trusted source, because he knows the Giocondo family personally.
For centuries, the "Mona Lisa" was also known as "La Gioconda", precisely because the theory of Vasari. Nevertheless, the enigmatic nature of the disorder and her mysterious smile have been studied by dozens of researchers, mainly because, unlike other portraits of the time, painting is not signed, dated and does not indicate the name of the seated woman.
Among those who have been identified as possible models appear Isabella d'Este (shown on the label below), and Isabella Gualanda Cecilia Gallerani, figures of Italian society of the time, and many other courtesans and prostitutes. The artist's mother also came to be identified as the woman portrayed ...
"Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci, the Louvre Museum, Paris - France.
The "Mona Lisa", the most enduring symbol of feminine mystique, became the portrait of a virtuous mother's family, who had five children including two girls who became nuns.
After two centuries in which historians have tried to uncover the identity of the model - theories ranged from the mother of the painter to a prostitute in Florence - new research came to a conclusion: it is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy merchant silk.
Giuseppe Pallanti, a professor of Florence who has spent the last 25 years researching the archives of the city, discovered the first clear evidence of the family's relationship with Da Francesco del Giocondo, a rich silk merchant who married Lisa in 1495.
The researcher also found that in 1550, Giorgio Vasari, the biographer of Italian artist, said that Lisa would be the woman portrayed by Da Vinci. And he was a trusted source, because he knows the Giocondo family personally.
For centuries, the "Mona Lisa" was also known as "La Gioconda", precisely because the theory of Vasari. Nevertheless, the enigmatic nature of the disorder and her mysterious smile have been studied by dozens of researchers, mainly because, unlike other portraits of the time, painting is not signed, dated and does not indicate the name of the seated woman.
Among those who have been identified as possible models appear Isabella d'Este (shown on the label below), and Isabella Gualanda Cecilia Gallerani, figures of Italian society of the time, and many other courtesans and prostitutes. The artist's mother also came to be identified as the woman portrayed ...