Secret Life of Mona Lisa
Secret Life of Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the most famous painting in the world. It hangs in the Louvre, as everyone knows. Her real name, according to art history, is “La Gioconda,” writes Giorgio Vasari, the chronicler of the Renaissance, in his diary. “La Gioconda” can be traced to Francesco del Giocondo, a rich Florentine merchant, and the Mona Lisa is the portrait of his wife Lisa del Giocondo. There have been doubts for many years about this theory, and they have never been more virulent than now.
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the most famous painting in the world. It hangs in the Louvre, as everyone knows. Her real name, according to art history, is “La Gioconda,” writes Giorgio Vasari, the chronicler of the Renaissance, in his diary. “La Gioconda” can be traced to Francesco del Giocondo, a rich Florentine merchant, and the Mona Lisa is the portrait of his wife Lisa del Giocondo. There have been doubts for many years about this theory, and they have never been more virulent than now.
Related Titles
Related Articles
View All
Who Was the Real Mona Lisa?
Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous painting ever, entertaining six million viewers each year at the Louvre. But its subject, most likely the Italian…
Édouard Manet and the Revealing Gaze of Modern Art
Édouard Manet was, in key ways, the first “modern” painter. Born in Paris during great social upheaval, he reinvented traditional painting to capture the changing scenes of urban…
Who Was the Real Pocahontas?
Popularized by the Disney film, the story of Pocahontas is a crown jewel of American folklore. But was any of it true, or was the tale invented by European colonizers like John…
How Hitler and the Nazis Stole Art (and Profited from the Crime)
Out of 600,000 works of art stolen or looted by the Nazis during WWII, more than 100,000 are still unaccounted for. Nazi collaborators, even in Allied countries, helped the Nazis…
Seeing through Art: Waldemar Janusczcak’s Iconoclastic Vision
Viewing art can be a solitary, sometimes confounding experience. Waldemar Januszczak is seeking to change that by hosting TV documentaries on art that feature his accessible yet…
4 Women Impressionist Artists: Confronting Barriers in the Avant-Garde
Marie Bracquemond, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Berthe Morisot – these painters, all affiliated with the Impressionist art movement, have not received the attention given their…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: His Life, His Death, His Immortality
In a life of only 35 years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created an extraordinary volume of memorable work that will be performed for as long as we appreciate the genius of timeless…
Mozart and the Musical Flowering of the Age of Enlightenment
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came to fame during the Age of Enlightenment, and his compositions were informed by this spirit. But in fact, whether we would even have some of his most…
Beethoven and His Father: Alcoholism and the Gifted Child
Ludwig van Beethoven was among the greatest composers in history, yet is often seen as a moody, dark genius. What does his childhood tell us about him?
Encroaching Silence: The Impact of Deafness on Beethoven and His Music
Ludwig van Beethoven’s music includes some of the most memorable, profound, and beautiful compositions of all time. But for much of his career he was unable to listen to what he…