Lisa del Giocondo, The Woman Behind Bulletproof Glass

Discover WHY the Mona Lisa is a rare masterpiece, who Lisa Gherardini was, the paper trail that proves the story, and why it is one of the most important artworks of the Renaissance.

Mar 03, 2025

Lisa del Giocondo, the woman behind bulletproof glass — *Lisa del Giocondo, © 2018 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre), Michel Urtado.*

Lisa del Giocondo, or the masterpiece behind the fame

As explained in the first part of this story, "Mona Lisa Consumed By Fame," only one painting gets people to desecrate tombs to prove or disprove a portrait's identity.

The goal here is not to dance on Lisa del Giocondo's grave but to breathe life into the bulletproof box encasing Mona Lisa.

And help realize that behind the Most Famous Painting In The World—or the Most Disappointing Masterpiece—is a lady.

Her name is Lisa del Giocondo.

Who was Lisa Gherardini?

Lisa Gherardini was born into a noble Florentine family. Around the corner from their home was a 'new money' family, the Giocondos, who made their fortune as silk merchants.

Francesco del Giocondo, widowed with a baby son, married Lisa Gherardini. She became Madonna—Madam—Lisa del Giocondo, shortened into Monna Lisa.

She took Francesco's son from his first marriage as her own and gave birth six times.

Four of the children lived, as a baby boy died within weeks, and a baby girl aged two.

At the age of 60, a widow, she retired to the convent, where she died three years later.

She was buried in that convent, where a team of archaeologists tried to dig her out for their moment of fame.

Not a love story but a financial transaction

Whether rich or poor, marriage was a negotiation and a financial transaction. Lisa's family, the Gherardinis, was noble but cash-poor.

The Giocondos, a merchant family, lacked a name but had plenty of cash.

The portrait is probably a love token

If there was no love as we understand it today in marriage, it does not mean Francesco was not grateful to his wife for the family she gave him.

They were about to move house, so the portrait, meant to hang in the family's home, is the closest thing to a love token.

How much was the portrait paid for?

We do not know. The question should be why a man who worked for a Duke and later for a King even accepted the commission to paint a portrait of a mere merchant's wife.

The answer is that if Francesco or Lisa threw a stone out of their window, it could have landed on the heads of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, or Michelangelo.

All these geniuses lived around the corner. Leonardo's father lived a few meters from the Giocondos and Gherardinis.

They knew each other, and it is possible the portrait was done as a favor.

A few months after Leonardo started working on the Mona Lisa, he received a far more prestigious commission—more on that with "Leonardo and Michelangelo painting in the same room."

Whatever Francesco paid for was a loss, as Leonardo abandoned the merchant's wife and kept the painting.

Paper trail proving that Mona Lisa is Mona Lisa

Most of what we know of Leonardo's life and the Mona Lisa comes from one source: Vasari, an artist who wrote a book about the lives of Italian artists.

Here are extracts of what Vasari says about the Mona Lisa:

For Francesco del Giocondo, Leonardo undertook the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, and after working on it for four years, he left the work unfinished, and it may be found at Fontainebleau today in the possession of King Francis.

Meaning, the painting today in the Louvre. He adds:

Anyone who looked very attentively at the hollow of her throat would see her pulse beating: to tell the truth, it can be said that portrait was painted in a way that would cause every brave artist to tremble and fear, whoever he might be.
Since Mona Lisa was very beautiful, Leonardo employed this technique: while he was painting her portrait, he had musicians who played or sang and clowns who would always make her merry in order to drive away her melancholy, which painting often brings to portraits.
And in this portrait by Leonardo, there is a smile so pleasing that it seems more divine than human, and it was considered a wondrous thing that it was as lively as the smile of the living original.

It is astounding to realize that Vasari never laid eyes on the Mona Lisa, as it was in France at the time.

Did Mona Lisa know her face was becoming famous?

*Copy painted at the same time as the original, the Prado Mona Lisa.*

Lisa del Giocondo died in 1542, and Vasari's book was published eight years later. Vasari never met Leonardo, and there is no written record of him meeting Lisa.

But, for nearly twenty years before he wrote the book, he navigated the same social circles as Lisa and Francesco.

Lisa lived forty years after she posed for Leonardo and would have known he was a great artist.

Unfortunately, neither Leonardo nor Lisa wrote anything about the encounter. And no preparatory sketch of the Mona Lisa is known to survive.

While we don't know what Lisa thought, her stepson and two children were alive when Vasari published his book.

Wherever feasible, Vasari interviewed witnesses—how he wrote so well about the Mona Lisa without having seen it.

Vasari published an amended version of his book eighteen years later, when two of Lisa's children were still alive.

And he did not change a word about Mona Lisa, while there were ample opportunities for Lisa's children or members of two notable Florentine families to complain about inaccuracies.

Hence, the story is trustworthy. Furthermore, definite proof was found in 2005.

Proof in an overlooked handwritten note

Vespucci handwritten note on Lisa del Giocondo Leonardo da Vinci Heidelberg — *Latin handwritten incription naming Lisa del Giocondo by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503.*

In this way Leonardo da Vinci makes it in all his paintings, for example the head of Lisa del Giocondo.

Dated 1503.

If one has to play the devil's advocate and insist that nowhere on the painting does it state "Lisa del Giocondo by Leonardo da Vinci," then yes, it is impossible to be 100% certain.

Yet, the Mona Lisa has over 500 years of history; it's not like it turned up out of nowhere at an auction in New Orleans.

There's another lady's portrait by Leonardo in the Louvre, and we do not know who she is. Aside from art historians, no one cares.

Her smile is her name

The story "When Paintings Smile At You" explains that out of 35,000 artworks on display in the Louvre, only about a dozen portraits bear smiles.

And for the Renaissance, the only paintings with smiles are by... Leonardo. Vasari mentions Leonardo's depiction of smiles:

Such considerations had their origin in Leonardo's intellect and genius.

Leonardo often provided clues as to the names of the ladies depicted. For Madonna Lisa del Giocondo, the feminine word la Gioconda means ‘agreeable, smiling, in a happy mood.'

Gioconda = happy. Her smile means "the happy lady," which is her name, la Gioconda.

One of the most important artworks of the Renaissance is behind bulletproof glass

There are many reasons why the Mona Lisa is a major masterpiece:

- Leonardo elevated a merchant’s wife to the level of the Madonna—the Virgin Mary.

- The pose—seated sideways, relaxed, smiling, and looking at the viewer straight in the eye—makes it the first modern portrait.

- Leonardo worked on it for almost the rest of his life, making it a Leonardo's Leonardo, not something done to pay the bills.

And what Vasari said about the Mona Lisa:

That portrait was painted in a way that would cause every brave artist to tremble and fear, whoever he might be.

When he writes about trembling, he means terrifying intensity, as in the sense of awe, fear, and wonder an artwork can create.

Of all the Italian artists, only five are 'divine,' and Leonardo is one of them. And of all Italian art, only three artworks have this terrifying, awe-inspiring intensity:

- the Duomo of Florence's cathedral.

- Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.

- the Mona Lisa.

In other words, the Mona Lisa is the only Renaissance portrait of the terrifying intensity of life itself.

Leonardo made Lisa del Giocondo eternal

Let us hear directly from Leonardo.

On fame:

The fame of the rich man dies with him; the fame of the treasure, and not of the man who possessed it, remains.
How many emperors and how many princes have lived and died and no record of them remains, and they only sought to gain dominions and riches in order that their fame might be ever-lasting.

Leonardo never made a portrait of an emperor or a king, but he wrote about the divine power of portraits to make the dead seem alive.

So much greater is the power of a painting over a man's mind that he may be enchanted and enraptured by a painting that does not represent a living woman.
How many paintings have preserved the image of a divine beauty which in its natural manifestation has been rapidly overtaken by time or death.
O, marvellous science, you keep alive the transient beauty of mortals and you have greater permanence than the works of nature.

For Leonardo, science and art were two sides of the same coin.

A Monumental Moment of Wonder

Hold on tight now:

Leonardo's science of painting allowed him to capture the intention of Lisa del Giocondo's mind. Leonardo explained:

The good painter has to paint two principal things, man and the intention of his mind. The first is easy and the second difficult.

He did it with the sfumato technique—Leonardo's signature transparent darkness. In his own words:

Light and shade blend without strokes and borders looking like smoke.

It means Lisa's facial features and smile have no beginning and no end. As a result, her mind's expression is constantly in motion.

That is the terribilità—the awe-inspiring, terrifying presence of life—that made Vasari grade the Mona Lisa one of three masterpieces possessing that quality.

The bulletproof glass is like a one-way mirror from where a Florentine woman looks at us, the living, from the great beyond.

Alone in this safe and humidity-controlled space, she wonders why a crowd forms before her.

Yet, she smiles.

If you get a chance to get close, take your time. Leave your phone in your pocket. Use your eyes and lock them with those of the lady behind the glass.

Feel her mental movements, and you will enjoy a Moment of Wonder.