ENIGMATIC? WE ARE MONA LISA'S RELATIVES x6 M$ p- U9 o" ~; z: ?
& c# g, ~6 V; h: d8 w( {* ^SHE is the mystery woman whose enigmatic smile has been forever captured in Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa. : ^& R( W' q# S5 U* Y: x# a/ Y1 M9 b) U. f J7 P; |
But new research has revealed her identity to be the wife of a silk merchant, who was a friend of the artist’s father. : W) q W. ]' _0 O! q3 `" l n, H1 x- h# A
Experts have long suspected that Lisa Gherardini, whose husband was Francesco del Giocondo, was the sitter. But in January, Italian scholar Professor Giuseppe Pallanti found a death certificate in a Florentine church which is thought to be the final piece of the jigsaw. 0 s9 X7 g1 v+ C# p( E
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An Italian genealogist has since identified two living descendants of Lisa Gherardini who say a family legend also points to their ancestor being the woman with the enchanting smile.. O3 \, P2 K( ^' l( c/ F! i2 T, L
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Natalia Guicciardini Strozzi, 30, and her sister, Irina, 24, of Cusano, have been told since they were little girls that they are descendants of the Mona Lisa. 7 q6 W: m3 h( Z7 s 5 V" |5 p. s5 T+ z4 g" SNatalia said: “My mother and grandmother had already talked about this. We were touched the way the family stories were handed down the generations. We are very happy, but we also feel it is a real sense of responsibility.” ! Q# r# }' e4 q- g3 X3 J T / y% y7 E2 e, o4 eNatalia, who is an actress and former ballerina, and Irina, an economist and a concert pianist, both have a dark, enigmatic beauty like their illustrious predecessor. Natalia added: “It’s wonderful to be able to say that we are modern women but we are preserving the extraordinary memories of the past.”6 @+ f: i: B4 I1 e, A! p
! J- |" A2 h9 n; c' fProfessor Pallanti built up a detailed picture of who Lisa Gherardini was, where she lived and when she died. He believes Leonardo’s father, Messer Piero, commissioned the painting as a gift to his friend del Giocondo. Leonardo started the painting on poplar wood in 1503 and took four years to complete it. It was taken from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited Leonardo to work near his castle in Amboise. - t# y5 J* y$ E8 `5 [
8 T9 }; |* L' w: V6 R0 N+ \The king bought the painting for 4,000 écus – £50,000 in today’s money – and kept it at Fontainebleau, where it remained until moved by Louis XIV.+ K/ }* f' F) Z+ f0 s
5 R% ^0 t, Z+ R( X! d' SThere are at least two early copies of the Mona Lisa which claim to be authentic but most historians dismiss the view. 9 c& {1 o& U% @
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There are also copies of the painting showing Lisa as a nude, fuelling speculation of a lost Leonardo original. ( q r5 _- g! [; K' t) J0 P+ x: U, u1 s; S, S$ \; n; g% P
The Louvre painting has for centuries been known in Italy as La Gioconda – meaning ‘the lighthearted one.’8 f2 E9 C: ^, C( @/ R
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Natalia said: “Don’t forget, Lisa was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, which is where the name Gioconda comes from – that’s too much of a coincidence.”( J2 y- k- \, p' ]9 ], H
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Leonardo took his celebrated painting with him everywhere until his death in 1519 in Amboise. Now millions of people file past the half-length portrait in the Louvre, Paris every year. 3 e4 j3 l& J6 {) z1 k8 X' j- F% V/ b5 N& ]: _: [
It was most recently featured in Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Da Vinci Code." z" @( [% e* |& T1 Z/ t: B
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[ 本帖最后由 日月光 于 2007-4-11 14:02 编辑 ]
图片附件: [“蒙娜丽莎”后裔 » 娜塔丽娅·古伊西亚迪尼和她24岁的妹妹伊丽娜] Natalia Guicciardini Strozzi and her sister, Irina.jpg (2007-4-11 13:02, 14.27 KB) / 下载次数 68 http://rs238848.rs.hosteurope.de/bbs/attachment.php?aid=251629&k=aebb5ae78eaf1a10ea35aaacf134afbf&t=1732405445&sid=SvvYi8