Lisa del Giocondo
Lisa del Giocondo (Italian pronunciation: [ˈliːza del dʒoˈkondo]; née Gherardini [ɡerarˈdiːni]; June 15, 1479 – July 14, 1542) was an Italian noblewoman and member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany. Her name was given to the Mona Lisa, her portrait commissioned by her husband and painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the Italian Renaissance.
For the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, see Mona Lisa.
Lisa del Giocondo
July 14, 1542[1] (aged 63)
Subject of Mona Lisa
6
Little is known about Lisa's life. Lisa was born in Florence. She married in her teens to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official; she was a mother to six children and led what is thought to have been a comfortable and ordinary life. Lisa outlived her husband, who was considerably her senior.
In the centuries after Lisa's life, the Mona Lisa became the world's most famous painting.[2] In 2005, Lisa was identified as a subject for a da Vinci portrait around 1503, strongly reinforcing the traditional view of her as the model for Mona Lisa.[3]
Marriage and later life[edit]
On March 5, 1495, 15-year-old Lisa married 29-year-old Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo,[16] an ambitious cloth and silk merchant, becoming his second wife.[17][a] Her age at marriage was around the norm for Florentine women of the time, who often married men ten or more years their senior.[20] Because her father had not participated in the custom of saving cash at a daughter's birth that compounded interest for dowries,[21] Lisa's dowry was land: her father's most valuable property in Chianti,[22] the San Silvestro farm near her family's country home,[23] which lies between Castellina and San Donato in Poggio, near two farms later owned by Michelangelo.[13] The farm was valued at 400 florins, and its contents at 170 florins.[b] The modest dowry may be a sign that the Gherardini family was not wealthy at the time. Art historian Frank Zöllner says the dowry's small size lends reason to think Francesco may have had true affection for Lisa.[23]
Neither poor nor among the most well-to-do in Florence, the couple lived a comfortable middle-class life. Historian Donald Sassoon says they were upwardly mobile and were among the city's nouveau riches.[25] Lisa's marriage may have increased her social status because her husband's family may have been richer than her own.[26] Francesco is thought to have benefited because Gherardini is an "old name".[27]
They lived in shared accommodation until March 5, 1503, when Francesco was able to buy a house next door to his family's old home in the Via della Stufa. Leonardo is thought to have begun painting Lisa's portrait the same year.[28][29] Lisa lived in the "Casa grande" on Via della Stufa for nearly fifty years.[1]
Lisa and Francesco had six children: Piero, Piera, Camilla, Marietta, Andrea, and Giocondo between 1496 and 1502. Piera and Giocondo both died before they were toddlers.[30] Lisa also raised two of her brother's children after their father's death.[31] Lastly, she raised Bartolomeo, the son of Francesco and his first wife Camilla di Mariotto Rucellai, who died shortly after the birth. The second wife of Lisa's father, Caterina di Mariotto Rucellai, and Francesco's first wife were sisters, members of the Rucellai family.[23]
Camilla and Marietta became nuns. Camilla took the name Suor Beatrice and entered the convent of San Domenico di Cafaggio, where she was entrusted to the care of Lisa's sisters Suor Alessandra and Suor Camilla.[32] Beatrice died at age 18[32] and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.[33]
Adopting roles of a customer and supplier, Lisa developed a relationship with Sant'Orsola, a convent held in high regard in Florence. From the convent, Lisa is known to have purchased distillation of snail water—a medicine listed in formularies of following centuries.[34] Kemp and Pallanti say on another occasion, the nuns purchased from Lisa 30 pounds (14 kg) of cheese made on her family's lands.[35] She was able to place Marietta at Sant'Orsola in 1519.[36] In 1521, Marietta took the name Suor Ludovica; she became a respected member of the convent in a position of some responsibility.[37]
Francesco was a social climber, and not known particularly for his rectitude.[38] He had joined the family business, a respected source of fine textiles, where he had done well, but the promise of higher profits tempted him into other enterprises.[31] He imported sugar, animal hides, wool, and soap.[39] He became a money-lender and dealt in property. Believing that land was a safe investment, Francesco transformed himself into a wealthy landowner after thirty-five years of marriage to Lisa by 1530.[40]
As members of the Silk Guild, Francesco's family was eligible for the highest offices of Florence, and eighty of his relatives occupied such roles over a span of fifty years.[41] Francesco was elected to the Dodici Buonomini in 1499 and to the Signoria in 1512, where he was confirmed as a Priore in 1524. He may have had ties to Medici family political or business interests (he was termed a "friend" rather than a "close friend").[42] In 1512, when the government of Florence feared the return of the Medici from exile, Francesco was imprisoned and fined 1,000 florins. He was released in September when the Medici returned.[33][43]
Death and outcome[edit]
In June 1537, by his last will and testament, Francesco returned Lisa's dowry to her, gave her personal clothing and jewelry and provided for her future. Upon entrusting her care to their daughter Ludovica and, should she be incapable, his son Bartolomeo, Francesco wrote, "Given the affection and love of the testator towards Mona Lisa, his beloved wife; in consideration of the fact that Lisa has always acted with a noble spirit and as a faithful wife; wishing that she shall have all she needs…"[44] Martin Kemp and Giuseppe Pallanti remark in their history that Francesco—who provided for an eternal flame on his own grave—willed all of his possessions to his children and not to his wife, and did not guarantee Lisa an annuity, which would have been fairly commonplace.[45]
In one account, Francesco died at age 73 in 1538; then Lisa fell ill and was taken by her daughter Ludovica to the convent of Sant'Orsola, where she died on July 14, 1542,[1] at the age of 63.[46] In his scholarly account of their lives, Frank Zöllner writes that Francesco was nearly 80 years old when he died, and Lisa may have lived until at least 1551, when she would have been 71 or 72.[14] Lisa's death was not recorded by the city or by her family.[1] Her funeral was well-attended and she was buried not in the family's vault at Santissima Annunziata, but at the church of Sant'Orsola.[47][c] After Francesco's death, his sons inherited the family business but were incapable of keeping it from decline; one sold the family home on Via della Stufa to pay his debts to his brother.[48] Francesco's grandson was similarly unprepared to save the business, declared bankruptcy, and found work as a scribe in the convent of Santissima Annunziata.[49]