Why is the Mona Lisa a Big Deal? | Jones Gallery Lecture Series 

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The character seen in the famous portrait at the Louvre is not that of Lisa del Giocondo or Mona Lisa, but that of Isabelle d'Aragon and Sforza, the daughter of the King of Naples Alphonse II d'Aragon. Isabelle married her cousin Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the heir to the Duchy of Milan, to consolidate the ties between the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan. So, it is the portrait of a princess and not a commoner. Leonardo da Vinci was at that time in the service of Ludovico Sforza, the uncle of Gian Galeazzo who exercised regency at the court of Milan. Isabelle's young husband disappeared prematurely at the age of 25 without being able to exercise power, allegedly assassinated on the orders of his uncle. German historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen tells us that after her widowhood, Isabelle and Leonardo formed a secret couple and had 5 children. Therefore, it was his beloved's portrait that Leonardo da Vinci painted, which explains why he took it to Amboise in France and kept it until the end of his life, like keeping a family photo nowadays. There was thus an emotional connection with Isabelle that did not exist with Lisa del Giocondo, whose portrait was only a commission. The research I myself have done on the landscape indicates that it is based on an authentic location, which would confirm Maike Vogt-Luerssen's theory, as it undoubtedly pays homage to Isabelle d'Aragon's family origins. It seems obvious to me that the identity of the character in this portrait has been confused between an actually received commission, that of the silk merchant's wife, and the portrait of Leonardo's partner, which is the one seen today at the Louvre. All of this is probably now well known to the so-called specialists of Leonardo da Vinci, who do not want to acknowledge the inconsistencies of the official version because they have spent their entire lives defending a version they now know to be outdated. As Mark Twain said, "It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." www.kleio.org/de/geschichte/renaissance/monalisa/ml_fakten/ www.equinoxmagazine.fr/2021/11/28/la-joconde-serait-catalane/