Lisa del Giocondo – the Mona Lisa

Florentine wife and mother who became a global icon

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa can be found
in the Louvre in Paris

Merchant’s wife Lisa del Giocondo, who has been identified as the model for the Mona Lisa, was born on this day in 1479 in Florence.

Her enigmatic beauty was immortalised by Leonardo da Vinci in the early part of the 16th century when he painted her portrait, a major work of art known as the Mona Lisa, which is now in the Louvre in Paris. 

The painting, sometimes known as La Gioconda, has become a global icon that has been used in other works of art, illustrations and advertising.

The face of the Mona Lisa belongs to a woman who was born as Lisa Gherardini into a well-off Tuscan family. When she was still in her teens she was married to Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo, a successful cloth and silk merchant who was much older than her. They had five children together. 

In 1503, when the couple were living in the Via della Stufa, it is thought Leonardo da Vinci started work on her portrait.

Francesco later became an official in Florence and is believed to have had connections with the Medici family.

In June 1537 he made provision for Lisa in his will, referring to the ‘affection and love of the testator towards Mona Lisa, his beloved wife.’

Lisa del Giocondo spent her final years at Florence’s Sant’Orsola convent, where she died in 1543 at the ago of 63.

In the painting, Leonardo portrays Lisa as a faithful wife, who is dressed fashionably to demonstrate her financial status.

He did not complete the portrait at the time because he started work on something else. It is thought he may have finished the painting in 1516 when he was living in France and that it was later acquired by King Francis I of France.

The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and taken to Asia and North America. It is now back in the gallery as part of the French national art collection and is visited by an estimated six million people a year.

The word 'Mona' in the title of the painting is a contraction 'Ma donna', a form of address similar to Madam or Ma'am or 'my lady' in English.  In Italian it is often spelled Monna.

No 23 Via della Stufa, which is thought to have
 been Lisa del Giocondo's home in Florence

Travel tip:

The house at number 23 Via della Stufa, where Francesco and Lisa lived with their children in Florence, is probably where Leonardo began work on the famous portrait. The street is just north of the Arno River, a short walk from the Basilica di San Lorenzo. 

Travel tip:

Lisa del Giocondo was known to have been buried in the grounds of Sant’Orsola convent after her death in Florence in 1542. The convent, which was built in 1309 as a satellite of San Lorenzo, has since been used as a factory and also a teaching facility for the University of Florence. In the 1980s the building was converted for the use of the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s finance police. Remains since found in a grave under the concrete floor of the building were compatible with the period of Lisa’s death, but there was no way of proving definitively that they belonged to the beautiful subject of Leonardo’s 
Mona Lisa.

More reading:

Leonardo da Vinci - painter and inventor

(Photo of No 23 Via della Stufa by Sailko CC BY-SA 3.0)

Home

Battle of Marengo

 

Napoleon works up an appetite driving out the Austrians

Napoleon was victorious in battle against the Austrians on this day in 1800 in an area near the village of Marengo, about five kilometres south of Alessandria in Piedmont.

Scene from the Battle of Marengo, captured by the artist
Louis-Francois, Baron Lejeune

A chicken dish named after the battle, Pollo alla Marengo, keeps the event alive by continuing to appear on restaurant menus and in cookery books.

It was an important victory for Napoleon, who effectively drove the Austrians out of Italy by forcing them to retreat.

Initially French forces had been overpowered by the Austrians and had been pushed back a few miles. The Austrians thought they had won and retired to Alessandria.

But the French received reinforcements and launched a surprise counter-attack, forcing the Austrians to retreat and to have to subsequently sign an armistice.

This sealed a political victory for Napoleon and helped him secure his grip on power.

Napoleon Bonaparte: detail from a portrait
by the artist Andrea Appiani

There are various stories about the origin of the chicken dish named after the battle. Some say Napoleon ate it after his victory, while others say a restaurant chef in Paris invented it and named it after the battle in Napoleon’s honour.

There is also a story that Napoleon refused to eat before the battle but eventually came off the field with a ferocious hunger. His chef had to whip up a meal from the only ingredients he had to hand, which is how the dish ended up as being made from chicken fried in oil, garlic and tomatoes, garnished with eggs and crayfish. 

Napoleon is said to have wolfed it down and then the battle turned in his favour. He therefore associated the dish with victory and insisted on eating it before every future battle.

Travel tip:

Alessandria is an historic city in Piedmont, situated to the south east of Turin. After the Battle of Marengo in 1800 it became part of French territory but was returned to Italy a few years later. It is now a major railway hub.

Travel tip:

The Museum of Marengo, Museo della Battaglia di Marengo, is at Spinetta Marengo, a suburb of Alessandria. To ensure his victory would not be forgotten, Napoleon ordered a column commemorating the date to be erected at the exact site of the battle. For more information and to find out about re enactment events visit www.marengomuseum.it.

More reading:

Napoleon becomes King of Italy

Home

Saint Anthony of Padua

Pilgrims honour the saint famous for his miracles

The Basilica di Sant'Antonio in Padua

The feast of Saint Anthony of Padua (Sant’Antonio da Padova) will be celebrated  by thousands of pilgrims visiting the northern Italian city today.

Special services will be held in the Basilica di Sant’Antonio and a statue of the saint will be carried through the streets of Padua.

Over the next few days pilgrims from all over the world will visit the Basilica, to see the saint’s tomb and relics.

Anthony was born in Portugal where he became a Catholic priest and a friar of the Franciscan order. He died on 13 June, 1231 in Padova and was declared a saint by the Vatican a year after his death, which is considered a remarkably short space of time.

Anthony is one of the most loved of all the saints and his name is regularly invoked by Italians to help them recover lost items.

It is estimated that about five million pilgrims visit the Basilica every year in order to file past and touch the tomb of the Franciscan monk, who became famous for his miracles, particularly relating to lost people or things.

The magnificent basilica in Piazza del Santo is an architectural masterpiece created between the 13th and 14th centuries, but it was later enriched with works of art by masters such as Titian, Tiepolo and the sculptor Donatello.

Saint Anthony’s Basilica is an imposing sight in Padova’s skyline even from a distance as it has seven domes around a cupola, two campanili (towers) and tapering spires like the minarets of a mosque.

Inside, the church is in the plan of a Latin cross with a nave and aisles in the gothic tradition. The Saint’s body lies in a marble tomb in the area known as the Chapel of the Tomb in the left transept.

The walls around the tomb are decorated with large 16th century marble reliefs that depict scenes from Saint Anthony’s life. These are overshadowed by the impressive amount of offerings and photographs on display from people wishing to give thanks after surviving car crashes or serious illnesses thanks to what they believe was the intervention of Sant’Antonio.

In a separate chapel, visitors can see relics of Saint Anthony and other important objects, such as a tunic believed to have been worn by the saint.

The Scrovegni Chapel is home to magnificent
frescoes by Giotto

Travel tip:

Padova in the Veneto is also one of the most important centres for art in Italy and home to the country’s second oldest university. Padova has become acknowledged as the birthplace of modern art because it is home to the Scrovegni Chapel, the inside of which is covered with frescoes by Giotto, a genius who was the first to paint people with realistic facial expressions showing emotion. His scenes depicting the lives of Mary and Joseph, painted between 1303 and 1305, are acknowledged as his greatest achievement and are one of the world’s most important works of art. At Palazzo Bò, Padova’s university founded in 1222, you can still see the original lectern used by Galileo and the world’s first anatomy theatre, where dissections were secretly carried out from 1594.

Travel tip:

The enormous Basilica di Sant’Antonio da Padova, or Basilica del Santo as it is known to local people, is one of the most important places of Christian worship in the world. To reach it from the railway station in Piazzale Stazione, take the tram and get off at the stop called simply, Santo. Buses also run between the station and the Basilica. If you are on foot, walk down Corso del Popolo, Corso Garibaldi, Via Eremitani, Via Zabarella and Via del Santo. The Basilica is open from 06.20 to 19.00 in the winter and 06.20 to 19.45 in the summer. Admission is free.

Home

Margherita Hack – astrophysicist

TV personality made science more popular

Margherita Hack, pictured in Rome in 2007

Writer and astrophysicist Margherita Hack was born on this day in 1922 in Florence.

She studied stars by analysing the different kinds of radiation they emitted and frequently appeared on television to explain new findings in astronomy and physics.

Hack, whose father, Roberto Hack, was of Swiss origin, graduated in physics from the University of Florence in 1945. She worked at the Brera Astronomical Observatory just outside Milan and then became a professor at the University of Trieste.

She spent more than 20 years as director of the observatory in Trieste, the first woman in Italy to hold such a position. Under her leadership, the observatory became one of the foremost research centres in Italy.

Hack wrote many scientific papers and books, winning awards for her research. Her television appearances helped make science more popular with ordinary people.

Hack was also known for her strong political views and for her criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church, which she believed had an unscientific outlook.

Hack was awarded the honour of Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2012 and the asteroid 8558 Hack, discovered in 1995, was named after her.

Margherita Hack died in Trieste in 2013 at the age of 91.

Travel tip:

The University of Florence can trace its origins back to the 14th century, but the modern University, where Margherita Hack studied Physics, dates back to 1859, when a number of higher studies institutions were grouped together. The resulting Institute was officially recognised as a University by the Italian parliament in 1923.

Trieste's own Grand Canal has echoes of Venice

Travel tip:

Trieste, where Margherita Hack worked for many years, is the main city of the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and lies close to the Slovenian border. It was once the main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is a fascinating mix of styles, with the seafront, canals and imposing squares reminiscent of Venice and the coffee houses and architecture showing Austrian influence from the era of Habsburg domination.

Home