BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- German academics citing notes scribbled in the margin of a book by it owner in October 1503 have confirmed Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, was the model for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."
Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, has long been regarded as the most likely model for the 16th-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself.
"All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter," a manuscript expert, the Heidelberg University library said in a statement on Monday.
Until then, only "scant evidence" from sixteenth-century documents had been available. "This left lots of room for interpretation and there were many different identities put forward," the library said.
The notes were made by a Florentine city official Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of the artist, in a collection of letters by the Roman orator Cicero.
Art experts, who have already dated the painting to this time, say the Heidelberg discovery is a breakthrough and the earliest mention linking the merchant's wife to the portrait.
"There is no reason for any lingering doubts that this is another woman," Leipzig University art historian Frank Zoellner told German radio. "One could even say that books written about all this in the past few years were unnecessary, had we known."
(Agencies)
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