Lisa Gherardini

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Lisa Gherardini

Lisa Gherardini was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. She was believed by most historians to be the model for the Mona Lisa. (PROSE: The Time Lord Letters)

According to the human Mona Lisa animated in the International Gallery, the mode of Leonardo da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa was an Italian housewife from the 16th century. When the Mona Lisa came to life in the early 21st century, she called her model a dreary woman who "laughed like a camel and farted like a donkey." The animated painting also asserted that her so-called enigmatic smile was due to her model experiencing flatulence during the portrait sittings. (TV: Mona Lisa's Revenge) Another account indicated that Clara Oswald was the painting's model. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali) In any event, the Twelfth Doctor remembered her as "that dreadful woman with no eyebrows who would not sit still." (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Loading...["A History of Humankind (novel)"])

Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Fourth Doctor's offer of jelly babies to "Mo" prompts a very familiar smile… (COMIC: Who Was 'Ere!)

Who Was 'Ere!, one of the parodical comic stories in The Doctor Who Fun Book, which took a comedic look at the Doctor's influence on Earth's history and on popular culture and mythology, featured a panel showing the Fourth Doctor bedeviling Leonardo during the painting of the Mona Lisa by offering the unnamed model jelly babies. This constitutes the only appearance of Mona Lisa's model in the flesh in a Doctor Who story (albeit not one considered valid on this Wiki) to date, except, of course, insofar as she may be Clara Oswald. In that story, the Doctor lovingly calls her "Mo", seemingly confirming that her name was in fact Mona Lisa.