Mona Lisa was ‘The Tigress’

The scientists of history still can not settle down about Mona Lisa’s mysterious face. A lot of them spent years to find out, who that woman on the painting was. Another version has come up recently.

Magdalena Soest from Germany’s Leverkusen spent ten years of her life, studying Leonadro da Vinci’s painting. He came to conclusion that Mona Lisa was a courtesan, who had the nickname “The Ttigress.” Many experts are sure that Soest’s research will put an end to the never-ending dispute about the woman on the painting. There were alternative versions set forth for that. The most known one of them says that the painting depicts a Florentine woman, named Lisa di Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini, - the wife of one of the noblest citizen of Florence, Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo. Extraordinary versions say that Mona Lisa was a woman of easy virtue, another one says that the painting depicts a transvestite, or even Da Vinci himself, wearing women’s clothes.

Magdalena Soest believes that Mona Lisa was the Duchess of Forli. Soest thinks that her theory can be proved with another paining of the Italian artist Lorenzo di Credi, who painted a woman in 1487 that looked very much like Mona Lisa. There is a big similarity between those two paintings, in spite of the fact that the woman on the earlier painting is about 25 years old, and on the older one – 40 years of age. Both of the painted women have the proud bearing, their hands are resting in the same position and they both have mysterious smiles.

The German newspapers hurried to publish the photographs of those two paintings so that the readers could compare. Soest examined very carefully every little detail before coming out with her conclusion. According to Soest’s theory, Mona Lisa’s name is Caterina Sforza, who was born in 1462, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan. She was considered to be one of the most beautiful women, and was noticeable for her incredible courage.

Together with her first husband Girolamo Riaria she led their troops in storming one of Rome's greatest citadels, the Castel Sant'Angelo, in a bid to install their candidate as the Pope when Sixtus IV died in 1484. Caterina Sforza was married three times, she has eleven kids and a lot of lovers. In 1499 she was imprisoned for one year for her participation in the plot, the goal of which was to poison Alexander VI, the Pope. After that she secluded herself in Florence, where she died at the age of 46.

Sergey Borisov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov