"Mona Lisa unmasked..." Topic

German experts crack Mona Lisa smile: link

German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the "Mona Lisa" in Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrait.

Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting.

But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself.

Now experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.

Interesting article. Mystery solved at last, or until someone else comes along to dispute the margin notes' authenticity!

Yes, thanks for that link.

Of course, then there's the view that the Mona Lisa is in fact a self portrait …

unmuseum.org/leocode.htm

A self portrait??????

Leonardo da Vinci was a drag queen?

I hadn't heard that before.

What mystery? La Gioconda was in fact Signora del Giocondo--who would have suspected.

That's like talking about the "mystery" of who wrote Shakespeare--all the evidence points to Shakespeare, and conspiracy theorists argue circularly from lack of evidence for their own preferred candidates.

Mulopwepaul, as the article noted, until now there were no references to the work until a generation later, when Vesari said it was a portrait of Signora del Giocondo. Likewise, there was no evidence (and for that matter, still isn't) that the picture was ever referred to as "La Gioconda" by da Vinci or anyone else when it was first painted. Thus, the reference to the painting as "La Gioconda" could have come from Vasari's assertion that she was the subject for the portrait.

I think most people have long accepted the Signora del Giocondo theory – but it is nice to have stronger contemporary evidence.

Now, about the theory that Signora del Giocondo wrote Shakespeare's plays…

"A self portrait??????

Leonardo da Vinci was a drag queen?

I hadn't heard that before."

About 20 years ago another bunch of techs used some sort of digital/x-ray/unveling thingee to digitally remove the layers of paint on the canvass. When they got it down to the bare canvas, what they found underneath was a pencil drawing of the artist himself.
Along with all the rumours about the artist never spending his spare time in the company of women, and always being around men, it led people to believe that the Mona Lisa was in fact a self portrait, of a type.

We will never know the truth.

Canvas was expensive, so it'd be recycled, especially for a commission.

Exactly.

It also often happened with parchment.

Shakespeare's plays weren't written by Shakespeare, but by another dramatist of the same name.