Early in 1503 he was back again in Florence, and set to work in
earnest on the "Portrait of Mona Lisa" (Plate I.), now in the Louvre
(No. 1601). Lisa di Anton Maria di Noldo Gherardini was the daughter
of Antonio Gherardini. In 1495 she married Francesco di Bartolommeo de
Zenobi del Giocondo. It is from the surname of her husband that she
derives the name of "La Joconde," by which her portrait is officially
known in the Louvre. Vasari is probably inaccurate in saying that
Leonardo "loitered over it for four years, and finally left it
unfinished." He may have begun it in the spring of 1501 and, probably
owing to having taken service under Cesare Borgia in the following
year, put it on one side, ultimately completing it after working on
the "Battle of Anghiari" in 1504. Vasari's eulogy of this portrait may
with advantage be quoted: "Whoever shall desire to see how far art can
imitate nature may do so to perfection in this head, wherein every
peculiarity that could be depicted by the utmost subtlety of the
pencil has been faithfully reproduced. The eyes have the lustrous
brightness and moisture which is seen in life, and around them are
those pale, red, and slightly livid circles, also proper to nature.
The nose, with its beautiful and delicately roseate nostrils, might be
easily believed to be alive; the mouth, admirable in its outline, has
the lips uniting the rose-tints of their colour with those of the
face, in the utmost perfection, and the carnation of the cheek does
not appear to be painted, but truly flesh and blood. He who looks
earnestly at the pit of the throat cannot but believe that he sees the
beating of the pulses. Mona Lisa was exceedingly beautiful, and while
Leonardo was painting her portrait, he took the precaution of keeping
some one constantly near her to sing or play on instruments, or to
jest and otherwise amuse her."
Leonardo painted this picture in the full maturity of his talent, and,
although it is now little more than a monochrome owing to the free and
merciless restoration to which it has been at times subjected, it must
have created a wonderful impression on those who saw it in the early
years of the sixteenth century. It is difficult for the unpractised
eye to-day to form any idea of its original beauty. Leonardo has here
painted this worldly-minded woman--her portrait is much more famous
than she herself ever was--with a marvellous charm and suavity, a
finesse of expression never reached before and hardly ever equalled
since. Contrast the head of the Christ at Milan, Leonardo's conception
of divinity expressed in perfect humanity, with the subtle and
sphinx-like smile of this languorous creature.
The landscape background, against which Mona Lisa is posed, recalls
the severe, rather than exuberant, landscape and the dim vistas of
mountain ranges seen in the neighbourhood of his own birthplace. The
portrait was bought during the reign of Francis I. for a sum which is
to-day equal to about L1800. Leonardo, by the way, does not seem to
have been really affected by any individual affection for any woman,
and, like Michelangelo and Raphael, never married.
In January 4, 1504, Leonardo was one of the members of the Committee
of Artists summoned to advise the Signoria as to the most suitable
site for the erection of Michelangelo's statue of "David," which had
recently been completed.