La Monaliza

Main article: Lisa del Giocondo


A note by Agostino Vespucci 1503 in a book at Heidelberg University states that Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo.
The painting's title Mona Lisa stems from a description by Giorgio Vasari: "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife...."[4][5] In Italian, ma donna means my lady. Thisbecame madonna, and its contraction mona. Mona was thus a polite form of address, similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English. Though traditionally spelled "Mona" (as used by Vasari[4]), in modern Italian, this short form of madonna is now usually spelled Monna. The title is therefore sometimes given as Monna Lisa, but this is rare in English. "Monna Lisa" is the normal spelling in modern Italian.Vasari's account of the Mona Lisa comes from his biography of Leonardo published in 1550, 31 years after the artist's death, and which has long been the best known source of information on the provenance of the work and identity of the sitter. That Leonardo painted such a work, and its date, were confirmed in 2005 when a scholar at Heidelberg University discovered a margin note in a volume ofCicero printed in 1477. It had been written by Leonardo's contemporary Agostino Vespucci and likened Leonardo to Apelles, who is mentioned in the text. The margin note states that Leonardo was at that time working on a painting of Lisa del Giocondo and is dated October 1503.[6] At his death in 1525, Leonardo's assistant Salai owned a portrait named in his personal papers as la Gioconda which hadbeen bequeathed to him by the artist. Italian for "jocund", "happy" or "jovial", La Gioconda ("the jocund one") was a pun on the feminine form of the sitter's married name Giocondo.[7][8] In French, the title La Joconde has the same meaning.
The sitter, Lisa del Giocondo,[9][10] was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francescodel Giocondo.[7] The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.[11]
Over the years there have been several alternative views. Some scholars have argued that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait, identifying at least four other paintings as the Mona Lisa referred to by Vasari.[12][13] Several otherindividuals have been proposed as the subject of the painting[14] including Isabella of Naples,[15] Cecilia Gallerani,[16] Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla‎,[14] Isabella d'Este, Pacifica Brandano or Brandino, Isabela Gualanda, Caterina Sforza, and Leonardo himself.[17][18] Today the consensus of art historians is that the painting depicts Lisa del Giocondo, which has always been thetraditional view.[6]
History

Main article: Leonardo da Vinci


Self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, executed in red chalk sometime between 1512 and 1515
Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy.[19] According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "...after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished...."[5] Leonardo, later in his life, issaid to have regretted "never having completed a single work".[20]
In 1516 Leonardo was invited by King François I to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. It is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work after he moved to France.[17] On his death the painting was inherited, among other works, by his pupil and assistant Salai.[7] The king bought thepainting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Palace of Fontainebleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre, but spent a brief period in the bedroom of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.[21]...