Folk figure. Wife of Francesco del Gioncondo, a wealthy silk merchant who was a patron of Leonardo Da Vinci. She is believed to be the model for Leonardo's painting Mona Lisa.∼Folk Figure. She is believed to be the woman in one of the most famous paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa, by celebrated Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. The third wife of a prominent silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, she was raised in the Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany, Italy. The famous painting done in 1503, when Lisa was about 24, took about four years to complete and hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Nothing much was known of her life until recently when an Italian scholar named Giuseppe Pallantini published the work, "Monna Lisa, Mulier Ingenua" (or "Mona Lisa, Real Woman"). The 2004 book included archival evidence in support of the traditional identification of the model known as Lisa Gherardini. The evidence also insists that Leonardo da Vinci's father knew her husband Giovanni, and the painting was probably commissioned by Leonardo's father. The evidence also revealed that the two married in 1495, had five children, and that she outlived her husband by several years. In January 2007, Pallanti also found a death notice in the archives of a Florence, Italy, church that referred to the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and a possible burial location for Lisa at a convent in Florence called Sant'Orsola. ∼Portrait Model
She is believed to be the model behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Lisa was born into an Italian noble family and married a wealthy silk merchant. She is said to have had a happy life as a wife and mother but very little actual records exist—especially concerning the last years of her life once she moved into a convent. She is thought to have met Leonardo soon after her marriage and they grew to be friends, with Lisa posing for several of Leonardo's portraits. It is believed her grave site was located in 2015 thanks to DNA and archaeological research but the definitive proof has not 100% been confirmed, so please keep this in mind for the location listed for her burial.