 Mona Lisa fulfilled 15th- and early 16th century requirements for portraying a woman of virtue . Lisa is portrayed as a faithful wife through gesture — her right hand rests over her left . Leonardo also presented Lisa as fashionable and successful , perhaps more well @-@ off than she was . Her dark garments and black veil were Spanish @-@ influenced high fashion ; they are not a depiction of mourning for her first daughter , as some scholars have proposed . The portrait is strikingly large ; its size is equal to that of commissions acquired by wealthier art patrons of the time . This extravagance has been explained as a sign of Francesco and Lisa 's social aspiration . 
