louvre

Yes, that Mona Lisa!

It is the considered opinion of some art historians that the main influence and model for Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was, in fact a male apprentice named Gian Giacomo Caprotti, and known as Salai.  He worked with Leonardo for 25 years starting in 1490, and most art historians agree Salai was a lover of Da Vinci’s.

It has commonly been accepted that the woman who sat for the portrait is Lisa Gheradini, the wife of a merchant who supposedly commissioned the painting.

But, Silvano Vinceti, chairman of the Italian National Committee for Cultural Heritage and head of a team of researchers who have studied the painting, believes this long-held theory isn’t correct.