Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa
Italian: La Gioconda, French: La Joconde
Artist	Leonardo da Vinci
Year	c. 1503–1519
Type	Oil on poplar
Dimensions	76 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in)
Location	Musée du Louvre, Paris

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a 16th-century portrait. It was painted in oil by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence, Italy. Many people think Mona Lisa's smile is mysterious.^[1] Mona Lisa also has no eyebrows, It is believe this was because they were accidentally removed during a restoration.^[2][3] Because it is so often studied, recognized, and copied, it is considered to be the most famous painting in the world.^[4][5][6] The Louvre says that about 80 percent of its visitors come to see the painting of Mona Lisa.^[6] According to art experts, the Mona Lisa is the best known, most visited, and overall most famous work of art in the entire world.

Acquired by King Francis I of France, the Mona Lisa is now the property of France. It is on permanent display in Paris at the Louvre museum. Millions of visitors come to Paris every year to see the enigmatic smile on Mona Lisa's lips.^[7] Giorgio Vasari, who was Leonardo's first biographer (a person who writes about the life of another person), thought the painting was of a person named Lisa Gherardini. Speculation over the painting's model was solved in 2008 by Dr Armin Schlechter, a manuscript expert. Notes discovered in Heidelberg University Library which were written by Agostino Vespucci, a Florentine city official, reinforced Vasari's earlier identification of the model. Lisa was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo a rich silk merchant, who lived in Florence.

Although the sitter has traditionally been identified as Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories, including Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory and glorified as the Virgin Mary as the painting’s subject. According to this theory, at the time that Leonardo painted the portrait of his mother, whom he adored, she was not among the living. She died in 1495. The idea is that she was alive in Leonardo's imagination. Lisa del Giocondo's job was to be the model only.^[8]

Leonardo began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy.^[9] According to Da Vinci's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "...after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished....". The painting was brought to France by Leonardo in 1516 and it was bought by Francis I of France.

The Mona Lisa used to hang in the Chateau Fontainebleau and was then moved to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, Napoleon I of France had it hanging in his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, but it was later moved to the Louvre where it is still hanging today.

1. ↑ "Noisy secret of Mona Lisa's smile - 23 June 2004 - New Scientist". newscientist.com. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
2. ↑ "Mona Lisa Once Had Eyebrows, Says Expert - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2024-08-25.
3. ↑ Charney, Noah (2024-02-06). The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: The Complete Story of the World's Most Famous Artwork. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-8137-9.
4. ↑ Henry Thomas and Dana Lee Thomas, Living biographies of great painters, Garden City Books, 1959, p.50.
5. ↑ Charles Donald O'Malley, Leonardo's legacy: an international symposium, University of California Press, 1969, p.121.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Riding, Alan (6 April 2005). "The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > In Louvre, New Room With View of 'Mona Lisa'". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
7. ↑ Studio's, Paintings. "Mona Lisa is arguably the most recognizable image in Western art". Retrieved 2021-11-19.
8. ↑ Roni Kempler: Who the Mona Lisa Is 2017, TXu 2-064-715, Google Site. Mona Lisa, painting by Leonardo da Vinci, View article history, Roni Kempler's contributions, Encyclopædia Britannica
9. ↑ Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (2005). An Age of Voyages, 1350-1600. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-19-517672-8.