Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: aculeus
I stand corrected. She was actually Lisa Giocondo, wife of a Florentine businessman. (Her maiden name was close to "Ghiradelli".) More Mona trivia:

She was born in 1479 and would be about 24 years old when Leonardo painted her.
Her father was a Florentine Nobel Antonio Maria Di Noldo Gherardini.
She married in 1495 at the age of 16 to Francesco Di Bartolomeo Di Zanolsi del Giocondo who was twice a widower and 19 years her senior.
They became wealthy in the silk trade.
Leonard undertook for Francesco Zanobi del Giocondo the portrait of his wife Mona Lisa.

"Mona" is an honorific for a married woman. So the portrait is really a picture of Mrs. Giocondo. Kinda loses some of its mystique, eh?

5 posted on 03/13/2002 4:47:08 PM PST by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: IronJack

There is a good biography out on the astounding Catarina Riario Sforza de Medici. It is by Elizabeth Lev entitled The Tigress of Forli.


17 posted on 02/15/2020 8:03:08 AM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson