What is the name of the husband who commissioned the Mona Lisa?

What is the name of the husband who commissioned the Mona Lisa? The answer is Francesco del Giocondo.

Francesco del Giocondo was a Florentine cloth and silk merchant who married Lisa Gherardini in 1495. According to the traditional account, he commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife around 1503, probably in connection with the family’s new home and the birth of their son Andrea.

The commission explains the painting’s alternate Italian title, La Gioconda, the feminine form of Giocondo. In French, the work is called La Joconde. Leonardo apparently never delivered the portrait to the Giocondo family, and he continued carrying and working on it for years.

The commission is strongly supported by Giorgio Vasari’s account and a 1503 marginal note by Agostino Vespucci referring to Leonardo’s portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Some scholars have debated the painting’s exact history and completion date, but Francesco remains the standard answer for its husband-commissioner.