“Unlocking the Enigma: Discover the Hidden Mysteries Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile”
This unnamed painting is hypothesised to have been a copy of the Mona Lisa. You see, Leonardo only ever painted four confirmed female portraits. Of the four ladies he immortalised, only two are smiling: our friend Lisa, and the ‘Lady with an Ermine’. But the latter’s smile is barely perceptible. Besides, Vasari would have described it as a portrait ‘In which is a woman who holds some sort of slender white rat.’
So, if Vasari did not name the painting, Greenfield argues that he ‘Did not recognize La Gioconda by sight – a failure that would all but disqualify Lisa del Giocondo as the sitter, had Vasari ever met her.’
Looking into it further, Greenfield then reviews Leonardo’s finances. The Mona Lisa was painted some time between 1503 and 1506. Da Vinci’s bank statement for the period shows regular withdrawals of 50 gold florins, once every three months. But no deposits!
According to art historian Frank Zoellner, University of Leipzig, this lack of income proved that Leonardo was not busy in the spring of 1503, and therefore willing to accept a private commission from a wealthy but unremarkable family such as the Giocondos.
But Greenfield counters that the Tuscan polymath was far from idle, as he was involved in military engineering plans. At the time, the Republic of Florence was at war with Pisa, and Leonardo had been commissioned by none other than Niccoló Machiavelli to divert the course of the river Arno, thus ravaging the enemy’s economy. Moreover, in December of 1503, the Republic’s government awarded a regular stipend to the artist, as payment for a large mural, the Battle of Anghiari.
