Mona Lisa's IdentityConfirmed by Document

People always feel curious toward Mona Lisa, about her smile, about her identity. Who is she? Why does she smilelike that?



Mona Lisa's IdentityConfirmed by Document



The mystery over the identity of the womanbehind Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting has been solved once and for all,German academics at Heidelberg University announced.



Mona Lisa is "undoubtedly" Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, according to VeitProbst, director of the Heidelberg University Library.



Conclusive evidence came from notes written in October1503 in the margin ofa book.



Discovered two years ago in the library's collectionby manuscript expert Armin Schlechter, the notes were made by Florentine cityofficial Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of Leonardo da Vinci, in an editionof letters by the Roman orator, Cicero.



In his annotations, Vespucci wrote that Leonardo wasworking on three paintings at the time, including a portrait of Lisa delGiocondo.



"All doubts about the identity of the 'Mona Lisa'have been eliminated," the university said in a statement.



Vespucci's notes also "establish more preciselythe year the painting was done," the university said.



Until now, the only other source to have identifiedthe sitter in Leonardo's masterpiece as Lisa Gherardini, was the 16thcentury painter and art historian Giorgio Vasari.



In his work "Lives of the Artists," Vasarinamed Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the wealthy Florentine silk merchantFrancesco del Giocondo as the subject of the portrait and concluded thatthe portrait was painted between 1503 and 1506.



But doubts about Vasari's attribution have alwaysabounded since he was known to rely on anecdotal evidence.



The work is unsigned, undated and bears nothing toindicate the sitter's name. Attempts to solve the mystery surrounding herfamous smile as well as her identity have included theories that she was theartist's mother, a noblewoman, a courtesan, even a prostitute.


There have also been theories thatthe sitter was happily pregnant, or affected by various diseases ranging fromfacial paralysis to the compulsive gnashing of teeth.
"The German finding confirmsthat Vasari is indeed a reliable source," Giuseppe Pallanti, the author oftwo books on the "Mona Lisa," told Discovery News.
Pallanti was the first historianto identify the sitter in Leonardo's portrait as Lisa Gherardini,following 25 years of research.
"Indeed, I found documentsshowing that Leonardo's father -- a local notary, Ser Piero da Vinci -- andLisa's family were neighbors, living about 10 feet away from each other in ViaGhibellina," Pallanti said. "Leonardo met a pregnant Lisa in 1500 in Florence. In December 1502 she gave birthagain."
According to Pallanti’s research,Lisa Gherardini, a member of a minor noble family of rural origins, was born onJune 15, 1479, in a rather ugly house in Via Sguazza in Florence.
In 1495, when she was 16 yearsold, she married the merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Ser Francesco was 14years her senior and had lost his first wife, Camilla Rucellai, the previousyear.
The girl moved to Del Giocondo'shouse, located in today's San Lorenzo marketquarter. Though the house was big and beautiful, the surroundings were lessthan ideal. Prostitutes populated the area, which was a sortof Renaissance red light district.
In that house, Lisa gave birth tofive children: Piero, Andrea, Giocondo, Camilla and Marietta.
Pallanti was also able toreconstruct Lisa's last years. She died four years after her husband's death onJuly 15, 1542, at age 63, and was buried in the convent Saint Orsola.

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