Is it true that Leonardo De Vinci paint Monalisa without knowing how a woman look like?

Question

Just wanted to know..

Answer 1

i wouldn't say that he didn't know what a woman looked like.  at the time, artists did not use female models, they used male models.  of course, if they were heterosexual they had females for girlfriends and as wives (although Leonardo was probably not heterosexual); certainly he knew what a woman looked like and had women sit for him (clothed); he may not have been as familiar with them nude, but that is not incredibly relevant for the Mona Lisa.  as it happens, he also dissected corpses, so he would have know the human body fairly well, male and female, even if he preferred males.  he was very true to nature always.  that was part of his creed.  so, in answer to your question, no.  it is not true.

Answer 2

Do What??? He wasn't blind so I am sure the knew what a woman looked like.  Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

Answer 3

No...although it is not known who the woman in the painting was (there is speculation). One thought is even that it might have been a painting of Leonardo himself, imagining himself as a woman.

Answer 4

As I recall, that was one of his last paintings.  He'd taken ill (probably a series of strokes) and still managed to paint it with his less dominant hand.  By that point in his life, he most certainly knew what a woman looked like.

Note to JD,

With all due respect, I've read quite a few volumes on the life and times of Leonardo, and none of those (books) which were written by repsected historians ever hinted that Leo was anything other than heterosexual.  Could it be possible that your sources are apologists attempting to rewrite history a bit to suit their own agendas?