Answer:
It is generally believed that the painting is of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. The word mona is a colloquial version of the Italian word for madam or ma'am, hence the title Mona Lisa. The work's alternate title is La Giaconda. It is believed that the painting was commissioned by Giocondo to commemorate the birth of the couple's second child.
people have theorized that Lisa Gherardini was not in fact the model in this painting. Speculation abounds that the mysterious woman in the image could be any one of a dozen Italian noblewomen of the time
there was a theory that Mona Lisa could have even been the feminized version of Leandro himself
However, according to a letter recorded in 1503 by Agostino Vespucci, an Italian clerk and Niccol Machiavelli's assistant, Leonardo told Vespucci that he was working on a picture of del Giocondo's wife. Art historians generally agree that the Mona Lisa is Lisa Gherardini.
