Who was Mona Lisa? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo

Lisa Gherardini (1479-1542) was her maiden name, del Giocondo was her husband's Francesco last name. Giocondo is an adjective meaning happy, cheerful. In Italy the famous painting is called "La Gioconda", and in France as well it is "La Joconde".

Answer: The equivalent of the English Madam

Monna was a Florentine courteous form of addressing a lady, originating as madonna or my lady, similar to Madam. This contracted to Monna, and in English it lost an "n".

Answer: A dowry

The amount of dowries in Florence at the time had become extravagant and a problem, so much so that the government (la Signoria) intervened to limit the amount to 1,600 florins, down from 3,000 (about $400,000), which had become customary. If a father could not provide an adequate dowry, the only possibilities for a daughter were entry in a convent or marrying below her social class.

Answer: Merchant

He was a prosperous and hard driving silk merchant, who also dabbled in other activities, such as dealing with currency exchange, serving in a political office as a prior in the Signoria. He could count as his customer the powerful Giuliano de' Medici, by supplying the most sumptuous fabrics for his household.
Those were turbulent times in Florence with the French and Spanish kings and the Pope fighting one another, plus the internal strife between the Guelphs (supporters of the Pope) and the Ghibellines (supporters of the Emperor). Francesco's fortunes rose and fell in conjunction with those of the de' Medici
family.

Answer: Her dowry

The Gherardini family had been very prominent in Florence with a highly prestigious past. But some of the luster and wealth had faded, and two of Lisa's sisters had entered a convent for lack of funds and suitors.
Lisa's dowry consisted of a small farm and livestock, worth only about 400 florins, but Francesco, being a prosperous businessman, needed a higher social status more than money.
He married Lisa in 1495, when she was 16 and he was 30.

Answer: True

In the first 12 years of her marriage, Lisa had six children: Piero, Piera, Camilla, Marietta, Andrea and Giocondo.
Piera and Giocondo died in infancy, Camilla and Marietta became nuns, and both died very young.
Lisa also had a stepson, Bartolomeo, from Francesco's first marriage to Camilla Rucellai, who had died.

Answer: It is not known for sure

There are several theories about this, but none can be proved. The most likely reason seems to be that her husband commissioned Lisa's portrait in 1503 to honor the mother of his children, or to celebrate moving into a new home. If so, he never received delivery of it.

Answer: Francis I bought it

Like all the artists of the time, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1514) needed a wealthy patron to pursue his vocation. Because of the wars and upheavals, he had to move wherever he found a sponsor, all his life. From Florence he moved to Milan, with Ludovico Sforza as his patron, and later as a guest of Francis I, to Amboise in the Loire valley in France, where he died.

He kept the Mona Lisa painting with him all his life. At his death, it went with other possessions to his long time protege' Salai', who sold it to king Francis I for the incredible sum of 12,000 francs (about $10 million today).

Answer: Francis I

This was no ordinary bathroom at Fontainebleau, but more similar to a spa, consisting of several rooms. Nevertheless, the steam must have caused some damage to the painting, because a Dutch restorer applied a coat of varnish to it. This later cracked, causing a hairlike network of fissures on the surface, what the French call "craquelure". Louis XIV kept Lisa's portrait in his bedroom at Versailles, the revolutionaries hung it in the Louvre, which housed "the people's art", and Napoleon moved it to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace and called her "Madame Lisa". Back in the Louvre, in 1911 an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, stole it and kept it for two years, wanting to return it to Florence, but the Italian government sent it back to the Louvre, where now it is viewed every year by 9 million people.

Answer: In a convent

Lisa died at 63 in 1542. After being widowed, she spent the last three years of her life in the Monastero di Sant'Orsola, and she chose to be buried there, rather than in the family tomb, next to her husband, as was the custom.
One of her grandchildren, Guaspari del Giocondo, lost money gambling and went bankrupt, bringing disgrace to the family.