Happy Birthday Mona Lisa
Château du Clos Lucé. Photo: Mark Playle
Stand up, the real life, flesh and blood Lisa.
Although hers is the most recognised face in the world, Lisa Gherardini was air brushed out of Florence for five centuries. No streets were named after her, there was no public monument, no plaques. It was as if she had never lived there.
Was this because Florence is still miffed that France owns her portrait? If so, it can blame Pope Leo X. If he had treated Leonardo with respect, the Master would not have left Rome and moved to Amboise taking Mona Lisa with him to Château Clos Lucé.
Florence finally decided to remember its famous daughter in 2011 with a Monnalisa Day * on her birthday 15 June. This pushed the city to place a marble plaque on the corner of the street where Lisa was born.
For decades Florence also turned a blind eye to the eyesore that was once the beautiful convent where Lisa spent her final years, died and was buried.
Now, just as it is France who saved Mona Lisa, France ** is saving her again.
It takes nerve to take out a fifty year lease on a highly sensitive, shamefully neglected Italian heritage site and say, more or less ' we can do a better job of honouring the memory of Lisa Gherardini better than Florence has'. The planned Museo Sant'Orsola will feature a glass floor where visitors can look down on the excavations of the Renaissance tombs, including Lisa's.
The real Mona Lisa will finally be acknowledged for all time and about time.
After five hundred years, there are still more questions than answers about the most famous portrait ever, such as where in Florence was the portrait painted and who commissioned the portrait in 1503?
One theory is that it was in the house Leonardo rented (now demolished) once owned by Lisa's family. Another one is the Santa Maria Novella because in 1503, Leonardo was given the keys to the monastery to paint The Battle of Anghiari (another unfinished project).
As to who commissioned it, the theory which makes most sense is that it was Piero da Vinci, Leonardo's father.
In 1503, Lisa's husband, Francesco Giocondo, bought a palazzo near Piero's. Francesco, a wealthy silk merchant, used Piero's prestigious law firm to draft contracts, handle property deeds and manage his commercial empire. The two were not only friends, they were neighbours, business associates and social peers.
Piero, wanting a New Home present for Francesco asked his son if he would he paint the portrait of his friend's wife.
In 1504, the year after Leonardo began working on the portrait, Piero died.
He left his vast fortune to his legitimate sons.
Leonardo was not mentioned in the will.
Did Leonardo see the favour in a new light? Did he stop work on the painting?
In 1506, when Louis XII, king of France, invited Leonardo to Milan to work for him, he packed his bags and his portrait of Lisa.
These, however, are the known facts. So far.
1479. Lisa Gherardini was born in Via Maggio, Florence, Italy 15 June.
1503. Leonardo began painting her portrait when she was twenty-four.
1516. Leonardo brought the portrait with him from Rome to Château Clos Lucé, Amboise, France.
1542. Lisa died in Florence 14 July 1542. She was sixty-three.
2005. The University of Heidelberg confirmed beyond all doubt that Lisa was Leonardo's model when a note was discovered in the margin of a book which had found its way from Florence to Germany.
'Leonardo da Vinci is working on three paintings, including the head of Lisa del Giocondo...' Agostino Vespucci, October 1503.
Vespucci and Leonardo were friends in Florence.
2007. Italian historian Giuseppe Pallanti discovered Lisa's Notice of Death confirming she was buried in the Convent of Sant'Orsola.
2011.Silvano Vinceti started excavating the site of the lost convent. It took over a year to reach the 16th-century burial ground.
2026. After five hundred years visitors can finally see where Mona Lisa was laid to rest.
Leading the tours is French curator, Madame Morgane Lucquet Laforgue.
* Monnalisa Day is held annually (why 'Day'? In Italy, using English words is trendy).
Via Maggio where Lisa was born is full of antique shops and art galleries. For the Festival, shops transform their front windows to reflect life in her day. Trattorias serve a spiced wine popular in Lisa's time.
** When Silvano Vinceti left the site, Frenchman, Philippe Baudry, CEO of Artea, stepped in. In 2026 his Company's heritage arm, Storia, will complete its massive €31 million regeneration project.
Post by Pamela (BA History of Art). Photography by Mark.
Leonardo da Vinci: The Amboise Connection
by Pamela Shields
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