Art History News: Mona Lisa Model ID’d

Mystery solved!

A 2007 handout photo shows a page from a book at the University of Heidelburg Library with a handwritten note on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa portrait. German academics said January 14, 2008, they have helped to solve the centuries-long mystery behind the identity of the ‘Mona Lisa’ in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sixteenth-century portrait. 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 Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, was the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.

REUTERS/Image courtesy of the University of Heidelberg/Handout

full story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080114/ts_nm/germany_mona_lisa_dc;_ylt=ApFOIjAQhIL9YefxwjFl9TXmWMcF

2 Responses

  1. It’s always nice to find a long secret
    revealed. Its just that this one has been pretty well known since 1550. What kind of mystery is it really ?

  2. Geoffrey, the point of the article is that the ID has now been documented.
    Linda

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