Original photo by marc zakian/ Alamy Stock Photo
Not entirely, anyway. The subject of this early 16th-century portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, so famous that it resides in its own bulletproof glass case at the Louvre Museum in Paris, is believed to have been Lisa del Giocondo (née Gherardini), the wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo.
As was common with other Renaissance works, the "Mona Lisa" didn't have a formal title for many years, instead going by names like "A Certain Florentine Lady" or "A Courtesan in a Gauze Veil." The identity of the subject also became something of a mystery, as Leonardo failed to provide any confirmation in his papers or in the painting itself. It was a later Renaissance artist, Giorgio Vasari, who provided the first inkling that the sitter was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, in his 1550 book The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. From there, the now-famous name took root: Mona, short for Madonna, means "my lady," or something akin to "Mrs." in 16th-century Italian. The painting's common Italian ("La Gioconda") and French ("La Joconde") names also seemingly derive from the subject, although those monikers carry a double meaning as adjectives describing a smiling person.
For a long time, the question persisted as to whether Vasari correctly identified the woman who inspired the iconic painting’s name. However, the 2005 discovery of the "Heidelberg document" (in which a secretary noted that Leonardo was painting "the head of Lisa del Giocondo" in 1503) seemingly provided contemporary proof of the Leonardo-del Giocondo partnership, confirming for many that the sitter was indeed Mona Lisa and not Mona Somebody Else.
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Leonardo da Vinci may have painted two versions of the "Mona Lisa."
While there are many “Mona Lisa” replicas in existence, some experts believe that one particular painting, known as the “Earlier Mona Lisa” or “Isleworth Mona Lisa,” was rendered by the same Renaissance master prior to the more famous version hanging in the Louvre. Proponents of this belief include the nonprofit Mona Lisa Foundation (endowed by the owners of the older painting), which points to documented evidence of Leonardo da Vinci working on separate iterations of the same subject. On the flip side are critics such as art historian Martin Kemp, who notes that Leonardo typically painted on wood — the “Earlier Mona Lisa” is on canvas — and who dismisses the background of the work in question as the efforts of an obviously inferior artist. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and while we may never know with certainty whether the “Earlier Mona Lisa” is indeed just that, the controversy adds to the intrigue of a treasured painting that has long captivated viewers.
Tim Ott has written for sites including Biography.com, History.com, and MLB.com, and is known to delude himself into thinking he can craft a marketable screenplay.
