Editing Isabella d'Este (section)

=== Relationship with Leonardo and ''Mona Lisa'' theory ===
[[file: Leonarda da Vinci - Isabella d'Este und Mona Lisa II.jpg|thumb|Leonardo: ''Isabella d'Este'' (1499) / Leonardo (workshop) ''[[Mona Lisa (Prado)]]'' (1506–1519) / Leonardo: ''[[Mona Lisa]]'' (1503–1506)|left]]
{{Main|Mona Lisa}}
In the current catalogue raisonné of Leonardo da Vinci (2019), only Isabella d'Este is documented as a plausible alternative as the subject  of Leonardo's ''[[Mona Lisa]]'', usually considered a portrait of [[Lisa del Giocondo]].<ref>Zöllner, Frank: ''Leonardo da Vinci&nbsp;— The Complete Paintings''. Taschen Verlag (Cologne) 2019, p. 241 (''Mona Lisa'' section).</ref> Lisa was the wife of a merchant in [[Florence]] and [[Giorgio Vasari]] wrote of her portrait by Leonardo,<ref>Vasari, Giorgio: ''Lebensläufe der berühmtesten Maler, Bildhauer und Architekten''. 1550 / Manesse Verlag (Zurich) 2005, p. 330.</ref>&nbsp;– in debate that persists about whether this is the portrait now known as the ''Mona Lisa''. Evidence in favor of Isabella as the subject of the famous work includes Leonardo's drawing 'Isabella d'Este' from 1499 and her letters of 1501–1506 requesting the promised painted portrait.<ref>Lewis, Francis-Ames: ''Isabella and Leonardo''. Yale University Press (New Haven) 2012, Appendix Letters pp. 223–240 (original letters in Italian and English).</ref> Further arguments focus upon the mountains in the background indicating the native origin of the subject,<ref>Florence/[[Tuscany]] versus Mantua/[[Dolomites]].</ref> and the armrest in the painting as a Renaissance symbol used to identify a portrait as that of a sovereign. The Louvre's reservation is that Isabella would be a "blonde", a feature that exists only in the widely circulated but uncertain representation ''[[Isabella in Black]]''.<ref>Sylvie Béguin (ed.): ''Le Studiolo d’Isabella d’Este''. Exhibition catalogue 1975, p. 4.</ref>