by Linda Gaudio Binkley
Italian American Heritage Foundation News
Florence is a magical city. Upon receiving my college degree, I was fortunate to have won a generous scholarship from the Patrons of Italian Culture in Los Angeles and studied in Florence for a summer program. It was there I learned to speak the language of my ancestors and fully embraced the beautiful Italian culture. For anyone who loves Florence, Mona Lisa, a Life Discovered is the book for you.
Dianne Hales, an accomplished and prolific writer, has produced for us an outstanding non-fiction immersion into the life and times of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the nearly mystical muse who possesses the world’s most famous smile, Mona Lisa. As the book flap says, “Everyone knows her smile, but no one knows her story.” The author set out passionately to discover Lisa’s story and share it with us.
What a revelation this heavily researched book is! The twenty pages of notes following the story attest to the hundreds of hours the author spent researching the life of this archetypical renaissance woman of the semi-noble merchant class. The book defies identification … it’s a history. a biography, a memoir and it is written all together with great humor; the personality of the author shines through on every page.
The reader is fully immersed in the realities of renaissance Florence. We trek with the author to every street and every building occupied by Lisa and also those occupied by da Vinci. For those who know Florence, the author kindly always gives the present name of the streets as well as the renaissance name.
We travel back into the origins of the Gherardini family and end up in present time. All the great figures of cinquecento history are woven into Mona Lisa’s story. The magnificent and legendary Renaissance figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Savanarola, the Dukes of Ferrara and Urbino and the Medicis are all memorably presented in very real terms. The kings of France and Napoleon enter the tapestry as well.
So we have the story of Lisa and her family and we also have the history of the painting itself. It’s a lot to take in, but it is so masterfully written, the pages just fly by.
I got a big kick out of one particular piece of Hales’ research. Three of Lisa’s ancestors, three brothers, all knights, travelled to England in the 1100’s to help King Henry II in his attempt to conquer Hibernia. As a reward the three Gherardini brothers were given land in Ireland where they lived under the anglicized family name of Geraldini. Their children were Fitzgerald (Fitz means son of) The family claims President Kennedy (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) as their favorite descendant. What a surprise to learn President Kennedy had Italian blood in his veins!
Poor Lisa apparently never did get her portrait so lovingly ordered by her husband. There is no record of Mr. Giocondo having paid for it either. In any case, Da Vinci kept it with him wherever he went. It was unquestionably special to him.
The Mona Lisa painting is also called La Gioconda, identifying the sitter as the wife of Francesco Giocondo. Interestingly, because the paining is famous for its smile, gioconda also means joyous. So Mona Lisa is La Gioconda on two levels!
In an era thoroughly dominated by men, an era when women were confined to their homes or placed in convents, when one in four died in childbirth, it’s so lovely that this gentle woman, mother of seven, with her enigmatic smile, has become the very symbol of the renaissance.
Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language, MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World. For more information, visit diannehales.com.
