Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, La Joconde, a/k/a the Mona Lisa, is a 16th-century portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the wealthy Francesco del Giocondo, a local merchant. At least that was what we thought. However, some Italian researchers, specializing in solving art world mysteries, call that hokum.
At a press conference in Rome yesterday, one Silvano Vincenti, the head of the National Historic Commission in Italy, said that the model for the painting now known as The Mona Lisa was, in fact, probably Leonardo da Vinci's boyfriend Gian Giacomo Caprotti (nicknamed “Salai”). Salai was one of da Vinci’s male apprentices (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gian_Giacomo_Caprotti_-_Salai.jpg).
Caprotti started working as a model for da Vinci at the age of 10, and worked for him for more than 20 years. Silvano Vincenti also talked about many other paintings by da Vinci that look quite similar to the Mona Lisa.
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Yawn- this again? Doesn't the Mona Lisa argument swing like a pendulum between some young piece of man meat for Leo, and some wealthy guy's wife who paid Leo enough to be able to afford to keep said man meat? I swear I hear one argument or t'other every few years.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of like who wrote Shakespeare...
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ReplyDeleteThere is no proof that they were lovers! Neither that it is his face. In fact DaVinci had a very dim view of the sex act.
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