According to a recent news item (circulated by Reuters) in January 2008 academics in Germany believe they have “solved the centuries old mystery behind the identity of the Mona Lisa in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait.” The report says the Heidelberg University Library has announced that “all doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr Armin Schlechter,” a manuscript expert who found the revealing evidence in a book lying in that library some time ago.
The Mona Lisa (circa 1503), is perhaps the world’s most famous and most celebrated painting, rivalled only by the mural painting, The Last Supper (1495-1498), and works by the great Michaelangelo (March 6, 1475 – Feb 18, 1564), a contemporary of Da Vinci. It is said that this riveting portrait is the most reproduced, most imitated and most commercialized of all paintings, with an image that is more immediately recognisable than any other. It has become a legend and has even passed over into myth since its sixteenth century creation and, like the legendary genius who painted it, has commanded the world’s attention for centuries. Yet it is an object of enduring curiosity, known as a great mystery and the source of endless speculation, since the story has been that no one knew very much about it.
All of this is in spite of the paradoxical fact that it is so well known, researched and written about, and that it is, on the surface, such a simple looking and unassuming work. It is a realistic portrait of a woman, fairly sensuous, with an almost faint smile. But the favourite mystery that helps to sustain the clamour and curious attraction is that it is not known who the model was, whether she was real or imagined, and equally important, the meaning of that captivating, mysterious smile; why was she smiling and what is the meaning of the expression on her face? It has evoked poems, other works, and stories bordering on the mythical.
Equally paradoxical is the fact that the woman’s identity was revealed ages ago. She has been identified as Lisa Gherardini of Florence – the same province in which Da Vinci was born – the wife of a wealthy merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. This identity was so much accepted that the painting was also given the name La Gioconda, signifying the model’s married title as well as “the happy (or joyful) woman” in Italian. So, this most recent discovery does not really provide new earth-shattering information not already in circulation. However, its value is that it now provides concrete evidence to finally prove what has been speculative, albeit largely accepted historical evidence.
The Reuters release says “art historians have wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci’s lover, his mother or the artist himself.” However, two years ago, Dr Schelchter found in the Heidelberg Library, a book with “dated notes scribbled in its margins by its owner in October 1503” which “confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model.” Until then, “only scant evidence from 16th century documents had been available.” The library declared that “this left lots of room for interpretation and there were many different identities put forward.”
“The notes were made by a Florentine city official, Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of the artist, in (the newly discovered library book) a collection of letters by the Roman orator, Cicero. The comments compare Leonardo to the ancient Greek artist, Apelles, and say he was working on three paintings at the time, one of them a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Art experts, who have already dated the painting to this time, say the Heidelberg discovery is a breakthrough, and the earliest mention linking the merchant’s wife to the portrait.”
The find has led Frank Zoellner, German art historian of Leipzig University, to comment, “there is no reason for any lingering doubts that this is another woman. One could even say that books written about all this in the past few years were unnecessary, had we known”! Reuters carries the library’s explanation that “the woman was first linked to the painting in around 1550 by Italian official Giorgio Vasari, but added there had been doubts about Vasari’s reliability and he had made the comments five decades after the portrait had been painted.”
That has therefore been settled, but the Mona Lisa, which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris, will continue to attract attention. There is still much interest surrounding the circumstances under which it was painted. Its creator is Leonardo Ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) the distinguished remarkable Renaissance man born in Vinci, Italy. He was a painter, sculptor, writer, scientist, engineer, human anatomist, inventor, botanist, architect and musician. At times his interest in scientific research rivalled and threatened his work in art. He spent much time dissecting cadavers until the Pope, whom he met, forbade him from delving into human anatomy. His interests and activities were so wide he was said to be a procrastinator and often had difficulties finishing the projects he started, including La Gioconda.
The story goes that, according to the fashion among the wealthy and the aristocratic class, famous artists were commissioned to do portraits. Giocondo thus enlisted da Vinci to paint his wife. The lady began sitting and the artist began painting, but did not complete the work during the series of sittings. Among the many works inspired by Mona Lisa is the Victorian dramatic poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning in which this custom is fictionalised. Like the gentlemen who usually commissioned these works, the Count in Browning’s poem likes to drop names and boast about the famous artists who have done work for him.
Giocondo was deprived of the opportunity to take pride in and boast about the possession of such a treasure, however, because Da Vinci never delivered the portrait. He left Florence with it and it is speculated he completed it elsewhere, putting in a different background to the one against which his model sat. The belief is that the merchant had not paid for it, so the artist did not deliver. Da Vinci travelled a good deal and it is reported that during one of these travels the notorious Niccolo Machiavelli, author of The Prince, used his influential contacts to get work for him. Eventually, the great Renaissance man accepted a high position and a home offered to him by the King of France (Francis or Francois I), spending the rest of his years there.
Mona Lisa is not the only one of this distinguished artist’s works to have attracted unending attention, curiosity and speculation. Another in this category is the similarly celebrated painting The Last Supper. It depicts Jesus and his Disciples at table, capturing the reaction of the men at the moment he announced and foretold his betrayal by one of them. It details each of them caught in various attitudes of consternation, dismay or anger at the news. Among the works that this masterpiece inspired is the book The Da Vinci Code and the film version of it that take the legendary work into the realms of myth, spirituality, mystery and the Roman Catholic Church.
As it happens, this very dramatic realistic painting was also in the news again recently. In November 2007 an Italian musician and computer technician claimed that he has uncovered a musical hymn hidden inside the masterpiece. He pointed out where and how the musical score of the hymn is camouflaged in various spots, lines and details barely visible in the painting. Indeed, the work of Leonardo (Sel Piero) da Vinci does have the capacity to conjure up such mystery, fanciful imagination and wild speculation. But then again, Leonardo was, after all, a brilliant inventor and a skilful craftsman who loved music.
