Lisa del giocondo biography

Not to be confused with Mona Lisa.

Lisa del Giocondo (15 June 1479 – 15 July 1542) was an Italiannoblewoman and a member of the Gherardini family from Florence. She was the model for the Mona Lisa portrait. The portrait was commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance.

Born in Florence and she married when she was young to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official. They had five children together, and she lived a comfortable and ordinary life. Lisa outlived her much older husband.

After Lisa died, the Mona Lisa became the most famous painting in the world. In 2005, it was confirmed that Lisa was indeed the model for the Mona Lisa.

Early life

Giocondo's family in Florence used to be rich and important, but as time passed, their power and status declined. They had a decent income from farming, but they weren't rich. This was in a city where some people were very rich and others were not.

Lisa's father, Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini, came from a family that had lived near San Donato in Poggio and had just moved to the city. Gherardini used to own or rent six farms in Chianti. These farms made wheat, wine, olive oil, and raised animals.

Gherardini had two wives, Lisa di Giovanni Filippo de' Carducci, whom he married in 1465, and Caterina di Mariotto Rucellai, whom he married in 1473, but, both wives died during chi

Italian noblewoman and subject of the Mona Lisa (1479–1542)

For the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, see Mona Lisa.

Lisa del Giocondo (Italian pronunciation:[ˈliːzadeldʒoˈkondo]; née Gherardini[ɡerarˈdiːni]; June 15, 1479 – July 14, 1542) was an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany. Her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Italian Renaissance.

Little is known about Lisa's life. Lisa was born in Florence. She married in her teens to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official; she was a mother to six children and led what is thought to have been a comfortable and ordinary life. Lisa outlived her husband, who was considerably her senior.

In the centuries after Lisa's life, the Mona Lisa became the world's most famous painting. In 2005, Lisa was identified as a subject for a da Vinci portrait around 1503, strongly reinforcing the traditional view of her as the model for Mona Lisa.

Early life

Lisa's Florentine family was old and aristocratic, but over time had lost their influence. They were well off but not wealthy, and lived on a farm income in a city where there were great disparities in wealth among inhabitants. Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini, Lisa's father, came from a family who had lived on properties near San Donato in Poggio and only recently moved to the city. Gherardini at one time owned or rented six farms in Chianti that

By Anne Leader

Lisa Gherardini (aka Mona Lisa), the wife of Florentine cloth merchant Francesco del Giocondo, was born on 15 June 1479 in Florence. She is famous today for her portrait by Leonardo da Vinci (now at the Louvre), though debate remains as to whether Giorgio Vasari was correct in his identification of Leonardo’s enigmatic sitter. In 2005, Professor Veit Probst of Heidelberg University discovered a note written by Agostino Vespucci in 1503 that gives greater weight to this identification. Vespucci compares Leonardo to the great ancient Greek painter Apelles using the artist’s portrait-in-progress of Lisa del Giocondo to make his point.

Recently, a copy in the Museo del Prado, Madrid was cleaned and examined to reveal that it was made contemporaneously with Leonardo’s masterpiece. Its newly revealed surface gives a sense of what Leonardo’s painting might look like if it were to undergo treatment.

In 2012, Italian researchers exhumed the body of Lisa Gherardini to undertake forensic research to see if her face was in fact the one painted by Leonardo.

Post Script: In 2015, the results of the exhumation were still unclear and the Mona Lisa, as always, remains and enigma.

Tags: 15th century, art, art history, Florence, history, italian painting, la gioconda, Leonardo, leonardo da vinci, lisa gheradini, lisa gherardini, Mona Lisa, monna lisa, Renaissance, renaissance florence

Florentine woman. Name variations: Mona Lisa; Monna Lisa; Lisa Ghevardini; Mona Lisa de' Gherardini; La Gioconda. Born Lisa Ghevardini in Naples, Italy, in 1474; death date unknown; married Francesco di Zanobi del Giocondo (a Florentine merchant), in 1495.

Lisa del Giocondo was a beautiful woman of Florence, whose face inspired one of the most famous paintings in the world—the Mona Lisa. Though del Giocondo was born in Naples, where she lived as a girl, her maiden name Ghevardini was that of an ancient, noble family of Florentines. In 1495, she married Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine merchant; during the rest of her life, as far as is known, she lived in Florence, where she seems to have been a happy wife and mother, but of her later years there is no record.

It was probably in the first year of her marriage that she met Leonardo da Vinci, and a friendship began that grew into a platonic affection, about which many writers have woven romance. In 1503, according to a contemporary art critic Giorgio Vasari, da Vinci was commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo to paint his wife's portrait. "After toiling over it for four years, he left it unfinished" and refused to give it to Francesco.

Physically, morally and intellectually, Lisa del Giocondo fascinated da Vinci; he painted her again and again. The extent of her influence is manifest in much of his work, and his major paintings produce something of her personality. The Mona Lisa smile can be found over and over in Northern Italy where works of da Vinci and his pupils are to be seen; the painting, known as La Gioconda or Mona Lisa set a fashion in vitality and subtlety of expression absolutely unrivalled. "Some have speculated that she was pregnant at the time of the portrait, while others have claimed she was asthmatic," wrote Mervin and Prunhuber, "But no one has ever penetrated the mystery of her smile."

In 1516, da Vinci journeyed to France, to the court of