Hi
Francesco del Giocondo commissioned da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa. Why didn’t he end up owning it?
I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
Because Leonardo never finished or delivered it to him, and was never paid for the work. After Leonardo died the King of France bought the painting, and who was del Giocondo to argue with him?
So Leonardo just took the money and ran?
This portrait was doubtless started in Florence around 1503. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. After his death, the painting entered François I’s collection.
What money? del Giocondo never paid for it. That’s why it stayed unfinished for so long - Leonardo was off working on higher-paying commissions.
Thanks Silenus. Very helpful.
davidmich
silenus knows his shit.
Comes from teaching European History for 20 years. Ask me how to install a fuel injection system and I cry like a baby.
Hey, silenus, how do you install a fuel injection system on a 2007 Accord?
<Sob!>
(You can pronounce that however you wish.) 
Silenus when people commissioned paintings in those days, was there any upfront payment? I was surprised to find out that there was no monetary transaction at all. Was that usual?
Don’t feel bad. Smarty pants Leonardo didn’t know either.
Yeah, and he was shit at database configuration.
A lot of the time, yes. Michelangelo did the Sistine Chapel basically on spec. The Pope even billed him for rent on his apartments during the commission.
The rich and the Church were pretty much the only game in town, so if you wanted to paint or sculpt, you waited for your money.
The only specific evidence about the arrangement is what Vasari says:
More is known about the contracts for some of Leonardo’s other commissions, most notably for The Virgin of the Rocks. Though that is complicated by a) the fact that the contract was for the whole alterpiece, not just the central painting and b) the reason it’s relatively well documented is that there was a dispute about it. But that was intended as a case where there was an advance payment, followed by monthly instalments as the work was done and then a final settlement on completion.
Huh, this is the first time I’ve heard of Mona Lisa being an “unfinished” work, whereas it looks pretty dang complete to me. Was Leo planning to add the eyebrows after he got paid?
Lisa had some work done in the meantime, so it wasn’t really a good likeness.
High resolution image hints at ‘Mona Lisa’s’ eyebrows.
I’ve seen the museum exhibition of his work - dozens of blow-ups and hidden layers - and it is convincing. The images show the way Leonardo was continually tweaking the final image. A moved finger here, an overpainted background there.
What he considered unfinished would not be so by others. The ultimate why - perfectionism, OCD, not geting paid, the death of the model - is probably unsolvable.
Are there any other paintings of her we could compare Leonardo’s version to?
Not that I am aware of. That’s part of the whole “mystery,” since up until the early 20th century there were are least 10 different theories as to who the model was and what painting the notes referred to.