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Identity of 'Mona Lisa': Now we know

BERLIN - A researcher has uncovered evidence that apparently confirms the identity of the woman behind the Mona Lisa's iconic smile, Germany's University of Heidelberg says.

    by By David Rising, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

BERLIN - A researcher has uncovered evidence that apparently confirms the identity of the woman behind the

Mona Lisa

's iconic smile, Germany's University of Heidelberg says.

She is Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo, according to notes written in the margins of a book by a friend of Leonardo da Vinci's as the artist worked on the masterpiece, the school said in a statement Monday.

The discovery by Armin Schlechter, a Heidelberg University library manuscript expert, appears to confirm what has long been suspected. It is also an answer that has been in plain view for centuries: The

Mona Lisa

is known as

La Gioconda

in Italian.

Del Giocondo was first named as the likeness in the painting in 1550 by Italian writer Giorgio Vasari, who also dated the work to 1503 to 1506, the university said. But because Vasari relied on anecdotal evidence, there were always doubts about the identification. Vague references in 1517, 1525 and 1540 point to other identifications.

Schlechter's find settles the matter, according to the university. A friend of Leonardo's, Agostino Vespucci, wrote in the margins of a copy of the works of the Roman philosopher Cicero that the artist was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Vespucci dated his notes October 1503, also helping date Leonardo's work on the painting.

The discovery was made in 2005, but was not widely known until a German radio station last week aired it in a report.

    By David Rising, Associated Press, Inquirer