Isabella of Naples

:"(Not to be confused with Isabella of Aragon, Queen of France.)"

Isabella di Aragona (October 2 1470 – February 11 1524) was born a princess of Naples, granddaughter of King Ferdinand I of Naples and daughter of King Alphonse II of Naples by his wife, Ippolita Sforza. From 1489 to 1494 she was the Duchess Consort of Milan, and from 1499 to 1524 the Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano. After her brother Ferdinand II's death, she was the heir of the Brienne claim to the title King of Jerusalem.

She married her first cousin Gian Galeazzo Sforza, who at the time was the "de facto" Duke of Milan, and with him had one son and two daughters: Francesco, later Duke of Milan, Bona, who married King Sigismund I of Poland, and Ippolita Maria, who died in 1501 at the age of seven. Isabella also outlived Francesco, who was killed in 1512 by falling from his horse. Of her three children, only Bona survived her.

In the mid 20th century a theory arose that Isabella was the subject of the "Mona Lisa", the portrait by Leonardo da Vinci whose subject was traditionally thought to be Lisa del Giocondo. Art historian Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argued that the subject was a member of the house of Sforza because of the pattern on the subject's dark green dress. Later research (and especially a 2005 discovery of a note by Amerigo Vespucci written shortly after the painting was completed) has established that this theory is without merit, and that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of the portrait.cite web|title=Mona Lisa – Heidelberger Fund klärt Identität (English: Mona Lisa – Heidelberger find clarifies identity)|language= German|url=http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/news/monalisa.html|publisher=University of Heidelberg|accessdate=2008-01-15] Isabella was painted in the style of the Mona Lisa by Raphael; the portrait shows her as a young woman even though the work was completed when Isabella was in her mid-fifties.

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* [http://www.scultura-italiana.com/Galleria/Laurana%20Francesco/imagepages/image14.html Bust of Isabella di Aragona] by Francesco Laurana at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna