Mona Lisa (1)

The Mona Lisa, a work of art by Leonardo da Vinci, is a portrait painting of Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The painting is famous for its enigmatic expression, monumental composition, subtle use of form, and atmospheric illusionism. It was created using oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, although Leonardo may have continued to work on it until 1517. The Mona Lisa was given to King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris since 1797. The painting gained worldwide fame and popularity when it was stolen in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed to be motivated by Italian patriotism. Its recovery in 1914 received widespread media attention, and the event inspired cultural depictions such as the 1915 opera Mona Lisa, two films about the theft in the 1930s, and the popular song Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole. The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world, holding the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation at $100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $870 million in 2021).

The painting known as the Mona Lisa is thought to depict Lisa del Giocondo, although this is not certain. Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote that Leonardo da Vinci painted the portrait for Francesco del Giocondo, Lisa's husband, as a celebration of the birth of their second son, Andrea, and for their new home. The Italian title of the painting, La Gioconda, means "happy" or "jovial" and is a play on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, Giocondo. In French, the title La Joconde has the same meaning. Lisa del Giocondo was a member of the Gherardini family and the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant. At the time of his death in 1524, Leonardo's assistant Salaì owned a portrait referred to as la Gioconda in his personal papers, which had been bequeathed to him by Leonardo. The information on the painting's provenance and the identity of the sitter comes from Vasari's biography of Leonardo, published 31 years after the artist's death.

It was confirmed in 2005 that Leonardo da Vinci had painted a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, also known as the Mona Lisa, after a scholar at Heidelberg University found a note written by Agostino Vespucci in a 1477 printing of a book by Cicero. The note, dated October 1503, compared Leonardo to the famous Greek painter Apelles and mentioned that Leonardo was working on a painting of Lisa del Giocondo at the time. Despite this confirmation, it is not certain that the Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre is the same portrait mentioned in the note. Some scholars have proposed that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait and have identified at least four other paintings referred to as the Mona Lisa by Vasari. There have also been several other people proposed as the subject of the painting, including Isabella of Aragon, Cecilia Gallerani, and even Leonardo himself. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud even suggested that Leonardo incorporated an approving smile from his mother, Caterina, into the Mona Lisa and other works.

The Mona Lisa has a striking resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was seen as the ideal for womanhood at the time. The woman in the painting is depicted sitting upright in an armchair with her arms folded, giving off an air of reserve. Her gaze is fixed on the viewer, creating a sense of intimacy. Leonardo achieved a sense of the woman being alive through his use of sfumato, a technique that involves blending colors together without the use of outlines. This soft blending creates an ambiguous mood, particularly in the corners of the mouth and eyes. The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to other works from the late 15th century by artists like Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere. The painting was one of the first portraits to show the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. In the painting, the woman is shown seated in an open loggia, with dark pillar bases on either side and a distant, winding landscape behind her. The horizon line is placed on a level with the woman's eyes, linking her to the landscape and adding to the enigmatic nature of the painting.

There is no evidence of eyebrows or eyelashes on the Mona Lisa, though Vasari does describe the eyebrows in detail. In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte claimed that high resolution scans of the painting showed that the Mona Lisa originally had eyebrows and eyelashes, which had disappeared over time due to overcleaning. Cotte also found that the painting had been altered multiple times, with changes made to the size of the Mona Lisa's face and the direction of her gaze. There is also evidence that the Mona Lisa was depicted wearing hairpins and a pearl-adorned headdress at one point, but these were later scrubbed out and overpainted. There has been much debate over the identity of the Mona Lisa's model and the landscape depicted in the painting. Some art historians have suggested that the landscape was influenced by Chinese paintings, but this theory lacks concrete evidence. Research by Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University found that the Mona Lisa's smile disappears when viewed with direct vision, but is visible when viewed with peripheral vision. Other research has identified similarities between the landscape in the painting and views in the Montefeltro region of Italy.

The Mona Lisa is the only portrait by Leonardo da Vinci whose authenticity has never been seriously questioned. It is believed that Leonardo began working on the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model for the Mona Lisa, in 1503 or 1504. While the Louvre museum states that the painting was likely completed between 1503 and 1506, some art historians believe it was finished later, possibly as late as 1516 or 1517. There is evidence that Leonardo continued to work on the painting even after he moved to France in 1516 at the invitation of King Francis I. It is also possible that Leonardo's paralysis in his right hand, which began in 1517, contributed to the painting being left unfinished. Some experts believe that there may have been two versions of the Mona Lisa, with one being commissioned by Giocondo around 1503 and the other by Giuliano de' Medici around 1513. Others believe there was only one true Mona Lisa, but are divided on what happened to it following Leonardo's death in 1519. The painting was kept at the Palace of Fontainebleau until it was moved to the Palace of Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV. It has been on permanent display at the Louvre museum since 1797.

After the French Revolution, the Mona Lisa was moved to the Louvre museum, but it was temporarily placed in the bedroom of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace. In the 1860s, the painting began to gain recognition as a masterpiece of Renaissance painting, but it was still not widely known outside the art world. During the Franco-Prussian War, the Mona Lisa was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal for safekeeping. In 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre. The theft was discovered the following day and the museum was closed for a week while an investigation was conducted. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire and artist Pablo Picasso were both briefly suspected of the theft, but they were eventually exonerated. The real thief was later revealed to be Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian patriot who believed the painting should be returned to an Italian museum. Peruggia kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years before attempting to sell it to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. He was caught and served six months in prison for the crime, but was hailed as a patriot in Italy. Some have speculated that the theft was actually masterminded by an associate of Peruggia who hoped to sell copies of the Mona Lisa at a higher price after the original was stolen. The painting was returned to the Louvre in 1914.

During World War II, the Mona Lisa was removed from the Louvre and taken to several locations in France for safekeeping, including the Château d'Amboise, Loc-Dieu Abbey, and Château de Chambord. It was finally placed in the Ingres Museum in Montauban. The painting has also been the target of several attacks over the years. In 1956, a man threw a rock at the painting, shattering the glass case and causing a small amount of damage. In 1974, a woman sprayed the painting with red paint as a protest against the Tokyo National Museum's lack of accessibility for disabled people. In 2009, a Russian woman threw a ceramic teacup at the painting in protest of being denied French citizenship. Despite these attacks, the painting has remained undamaged. In recent decades, the Mona Lisa has been temporarily moved for renovations to the Louvre on three occasions. In 2022, a male activist threw cake at the painting in a protest for climate change, but the painting was not damaged. The man was arrested and placed in psychiatric care.

In the early 21st century, French scientist Pascal Cotte claimed that there may be a hidden portrait underneath the surface of the Mona Lisa. Using reflective light technology, Cotte produced evidence for his theory, though he admits that it should not be considered definitive. According to Cotte, the underlying portrait shows a model looking to the side and lacks the flanking columns seen in the final version of the painting. However, historical descriptions of the Mona Lisa describe the subject as smiling, which is not reflected in Cotte's supposed portrait. In 2020, Cotte published a study suggesting that the painting has an underdrawing that was transferred from a preparatory drawing using the spolvero technique.

As the centuries passed, the Mona Lisa remained a testament to the skills of Leonardo da Vinci, surviving through wars and revolutions and even attacks from vandals. Despite being subjected to various conservation treatments over the years, the painting has remained in remarkable condition, a testament to the care it has received throughout its history. In the early 21st century, French scientist Pascal Cotte even claimed to have discovered a hidden portrait beneath the surface of the painting, though his theory has yet to be proven conclusively. Ultimately, the Mona Lisa has stood the test of time, remaining one of the most famous and beloved works of art in the world.