masterpiece of Italian renaissance. Mona Lisa is the most famous, most visited, most watched, most written about, most sung about, most investigated about and most appreciated painting of all time. Mona Lisa is believed to be worth more than $850 million. This painting represents the hard work and artistic skills of Leonardo da Vinci. King Francis of France acquired Mona Lisa and it became the property of France Republic and it is permanently displayed in the Louvre Museum, Paris. It is believed that it was created between 1503 to 1506. And perhaps Leonardo continues working on it till 1517.
The story of the Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a painting of French Nobel women Lisa del Giocondo , the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Based on the mid-sixteenth century biography of Leonardo da Vinci by Giorgio Vasari, Mona Lisa was believed to be the painting of Lisa Del Giocondo. Lisa belongs to Gherardini family of Florentine merchants. It is believed that Leonardo painted Mona Lisa for Francesco del Giocondo as the celebration of the birth of their second child. Due to some reasons Leonardo couldn’t give the painting to Francesco and instead he took the unfinished painting to France where the French king himself invited him. Leonardo completed the painting and Many believed that Leonardo gave the Painting to his student in his will. you would not believe that Mona Lisa was never famous in the beginning and couldn’t grab the viewer’s attention. Until one Italian man name Vincenzo Peruggia who worked as the Louvre worker stole Mona Lisa from the wall of museum and take it with him to Italy. This created suspense in the people and they visited Louvre Museum to watch the empty places and suspect that what would possibly be thereason of behind his theft. This news of theft made Mona Lisa famous among the people. After Almost 2 years Mona Lisa recovered from the hotel room of Vincenzo Peruggia in Florence. In the investigations Vincenzo stated that he stolen Mona Lisa to return it back to Italy because Leonardo is Italian and Mona Lisa belong to Italy. Mona Lisa returned to Louvre Museum and it is on display from that day. Mona Lisa gain popularity after that and people conduct researches on it.
Mona Lisa is indeed the world’s best and most realistic portrait. The soft appearance and shadows on the face of the Mona Lisa is what make it one in a million Portrait. The highly skilled work of Leonardo can be clearly seen in the way he painted the curves, texture and colors combination and most importantly how does he painted a face in a way that you can feel the bones shape of the skull behind the skin. The Eyes of Mona are painted in a way that it seems like her eyes are following the viewer in all directions. Her mysterious smile is the reason of her immense popularity. Leonardo stunned almost everyone by his skills and he is no doubt one of the greatest painters in the history.
Another mystery in the painting is that why Mona Lisa had no eyebrows. But it was proven that originally Mona Lisa had eyebrows but with the passage of time it gets light and then slowly disappears from the naked eye. Pascal cotte, a French engineer discovered in October 2007 that there are some light traces of Mona Lisa’s eyebrows that can be seen by high definition cameras.
Mona Lisa is displayed behind the bulletproof glass after an incident of a visitor who poured Acid on it in 1950s. MonaLisa represents the happiness and joy of life. Although there were some restoration work has been done on it in 1809 and that cause the removal of some layers and giving it a washed out look but still you can observe Leonardo’s best work being displayed. It will continue smiling to the visitors who visit louvre to watch it.
