Lady with an Enigmatic Smile: Mona Lisa

One of the most famous art pieces by the maestro Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci is the “Mona Lisa”. It is a half-length portrait painting of an Italian noblewoman. People are aware of the popularity of this masterpiece but not many know the stories behind it.

The woman in the painting is believed to be Lisa del Giocondo, wife of the Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo of Italy. But some scholars believe the painting to be of Isabella d'Este, Margravine of Mantua, as the woman depicts an image of a noblewoman rather than a wife of a mere merchant, which raises many questions regarding the original identity of the woman in the painting. The painting was made for the new home of the Giocondo family, and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea. It is believed that da Vinci started the painting somewhere between 1503 to 1506 and might have continued painting it till late 1517. Leonardo never gave the painting to the Giocondo family and kept it with himself until he died on May 2, 1519. It is believed that, in his will, he left the painting to his beloved apprentice Salaì. King Francis I of France, purchased the “Mona Lisa” for 4,000 gold ducats either from Leonardo himself, or after his death from his heir, Francesco Melzi, and was believed to have hung the painting at the Chateau de Cloux near Amboise, along with da Vinci's "Virgin and St”.

The painting is considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance resembling strong depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood. It is painted on a white Lombardy poplar panel with oil paints. In the painting, the woman sits upright in a "pozzetto" armchair with her arms folded, a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer and she appears unusually alive, which Leonardo achieved by using his sfumato technique of soft, heavily shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile seems both alluring and aloof and has given the portrait Universal fame.

Leonardo was one of the first painters who used an aerial perspective to paint the sitter before an imaginary landscape, which was also one of the first of its kind. The woman in the portrait appears to be seated in an open loggia with dark pillars at its bases and behind her is a vast landscape that recedes to icy mountains. Leonardo chose to place the horizon line on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and intensifying the mysterious nature of the painting.

Mona Lisa has no clear eyebrows and eyelashes, although Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari describes the eyebrows in detail otherwise. In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte ran some high-resolution scans of the painting and concluded that Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyelashes and eyebrows, but disappeared over time perhaps as a result of over-cleaning. Cotte also found that the painting had been reworked several times with changes made to the size of the Mona Lisa’s face and the direction of her gaze.

Now, it is part of the French Republic protected under the French heritage law, and has been on permanent display at the Louvre, Paris since 1797. For a brief time, the painting spent some time in Napoleon’s bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, after the French revolution.

The painting was not famous, and less known among the general public outside the art world. It gained fame when it was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, one of the employees at the Louvre, on 21 August 1911. For many days, the newspapers kept spreading the story of the crime worldwide which resulted in significant global fame for the painting. After 2 years, on 4 January 1914, the Mona Lisa was returned to the Louvre after a two-week exhibition at Uffizi Gallery.

The painting is known to be the most celebrated art piece around the world as it has been an inspiration for many articles, and songs, and remains the most parodied work of art around the world. It is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world and holds the Guinness World Record for the highest-known insurance valuation ever at US$100 million in 1962, which is equivalent to $750 million to $1 billion, today.

In present times, the Mona Lisa has become a destination painting, and over 10.2 million people visit the Louvre every year amongst which the majority of the audience is there only to see the most famous painting in history.