Guest Author - Sandy Hemphill

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one of his most well-known paintings ever created. Almost everybody recognizes it and attributes it correctly to da Vinci’s body of work but mysteries linger. Who was the real woman? How did she know da Vinci? What’s she smiling about? And why did the artist himself refer to the painting as La Gioconda, Italian for the merry one or laughing one, instead of Mona Lisa?

When Leonardo da Vinci started work on the Mona Lisa in 1503, he probably had little reason to document his every thought pertaining to the painting or every detail involved with its creation. Surely he had little reason to believe this minutiae would be seriously and painstakingly debated 500 years in the future. Even so, meticulous research has revealed some background information that only makes the painting all the more intriguing.

Currently on display in Paris at the Louvre, the painting is identified as Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo was a wealthy silk merchant from Florence, Italy, who married into the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, producers of olive oil and wine. The Gherardini family also raised livestock and grew wheat.

Lisa became Francesco’s second wife when she was just 15 years old, in 1495; many scholars consider their marriage a union formed of love, not obligation or arrangement, as was common during the Renaissance, since the hard-working Gherardini family could produce little by way of dowry. Lisa brought just 170 florins into the marriage but she also brought a small farm in San Silvestro, near her parents’ country home. Francesco’s family was more financially comfortable than Lisa’s, a situation thought to advance Lisa’s social standing, but Francesco benefited handsomely from his bride’s old and respected aristocratic family name.

The year 1503 was a good one for Lisa and Francesco. The couple bought a home in Florence on the Via della Stufa, next door to Francesco’s family home. This new home represented the first time the couple lived independently, having shared a residence with other family members since their marriage eight years earlier.

By the time the two moved to Via della Stufa, the family had grown considerably. Francesco’s first wife, Camilla, died when their only child was about a year old. Lisa lovingly raised this child, Bartolomeo, as her own. Coincidentally, Lisa’s father had been married at one time to Caterina Rucellai, his second wife, who died in childbirth before Lisa was born. Caterina and Camilla were sisters.

In addition to young Bartolomeo, Lisa gave birth to Piero, Camilla, and Andrea. Historic records indicate Francesco commissioned da Vinci, then a painter for popes, to paint his wife’s portrait in celebration of both their new home and the birth of their child, Andrea. In time, Giocondo and Marietta would be born, too.

It could be that da Vinci called his portrait of Lisa La Gioconda in reference to her married name. It could also be in reference to her delightfully merry disposition, a reflection of a woman happy with her life and circumstances, as her easy smile suggests. Da Vinci’s handwritten notes and journal make reference to the woman’s endearing, cheerful personality and her engaging laughter.

Da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa for 16 years, finishing it in 1519, shortly before his death. The painting changed hands several times after da Vinci’s death, finally landing at the Louvre after the French Revolution.

Lisa and Francesco enjoyed a prosperous but comfortable life in Florence, where Francesco eventually became a city official. Accounts of their final days together differ but historians offer no dispute over the fact of Francesco’s undying love for Lisa.

Francesco died at the age of 80, in either 1538 or 1539, when the plague swept the city. Some historians claim Lisa died four years later, at age 63, but others say she lived into her seventies, dying around 1551 instead.

Regardless of her date of death, Francesco’s will left Lisa in comfort. In it, he reverted ownership of her dowry back to Lisa, giving her the farm in San Silvestro as well as all the jewelry, clothing, and personal belongings she accumulated during the course of their marriage. Francesco’s will describes Lisa as his beloved and faithful wife, a woman of noble spirit, and it includes his wish that she shall have all she ever needs.

The portrait was quietly treasured until the Symbolism movement in art history took hold during the late 19th century. The Symbolism movement in art represents the dark, gothic side of Romanticism and its advocates thought the Mona Lisa was a highly appropriate depiction of that movement. Their interest in the painting helped spread its fame.

But why the Mona Lisa? If da Vinci himself called the painting La Gioconda and the Louvre identifies it as Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, why do so many of the rest of us know the painting as the Mona Lisa?