“She’s our great-grandmother, we have the same blood running through our veins”
Natalia and Irina Strozzi, two Italian sisters, claim to be the last living descendants of the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa.
The sisters say they are relatives of the woman painted by Leonardo da Vinci, who, according to them, is Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, married to businessman Francesco Giocondo.
To 'NBC', the two told that their grandmother always told them about the family connection with the woman in the painting. The real curiosity about the case arose after Domenico Savini, an Italian historian, decided to study that family's family tree. After analyzing the family connections, the expert assured that he had proof of the family connection between the women and the woman painted in the painting.
Regarding why Mona Lisa was painted by the Italian master, they explained to the same television channel that the painter's father was a notary who worked with Francesco, who asked Leonardo to paint the woman.
Natalia (left) and Irina Strozzi pose for a photo with Mona Lisa in the background. (Photo: GAMMA-RAPHO)
The statements of the two sisters are supported by Rab Hatfield, professor of History of Art, at the University of Syracuse, in Florence. “I can say, with complete certainty, that the model for the famous painter is Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo,” he said.
According to the British newspaper 'Dailyn Mail', the evidence was discovered 20 years ago in a library at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, where a book was found that contained an annotation referring to Da Vinci and a painting by Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo.
Despite the new revelation, the mystery of Mona Lisa seems far from being truly solved.
Some experts believe that the woman in the painting was married to a silk merchant, while others claim that it was merely a portrait of a woman the painter knew. There is also another theory that suggests that the painting is, in fact, a self-portrait of the artist, born in Anchiano.
The painting, which da Vinci began in 1503, is now in the Louvre in Paris, and the Strozzi sisters say they visited their grandmother many times. “She IS our great-grandmother, we have the same blood running through our veins,” said Irina.
