(aka Mona Lisa), the wife of Florentine cloth merchant Francesco del Giocondo, was born on this day in 1479 in Florence. She is famous today for her portrait by Leonardo da Vinci (now at ), though debate remains as to whether Giorgio Vasari was correct in his identification of Leonardo鈥檚 enigmatic sitter. In 2005, Professor Veit Probst of Heidelberg University that gives greater weight to this identification. Vespucci compares Leonardo to the great ancient Greek painter using the artist鈥檚 portrait-in-progress of Lisa del Giocondo to make his point.
Recently, , Madrid was cleaned and examined to reveal that it was made contemporaneously with Leonardo鈥檚 masterpiece. Its newly revealed surface gives a sense of what Leonardo鈥檚 painting might look like if it were to undergo treatment.
In 2012, of Lisa Gherardini to undertake forensic research to see if her face was in fact the one painted by Leonardo.