Mona Lisa

(visible at right) discovered in a book at Heidelberg University. Dated 1503, it states that Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The title of the painting, which is known in English as Mona Lisa, is based on the presumption that it depicts Lisa del Giocondo, although her likeness is uncertain. Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote that "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife." in Italian is a polite form of address originating as —similar to ''Ma'am, Madam, or my lady in English. This became , and its contraction . The title of the painting is spelled in Italian as Monna Lisa (mona being a vulgarity in Italian), which is rare in English, where it is traditionally spelled Mona''. Lisa del Giocondo was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea. The Italian name for the painting, , means "jocund" ("happy" or "jovial"), or literally "the jocund one", a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, Giocondo. In response to the announcement of the discovery of this document, Vincent Delieuvin, the Louvre representative, stated "Leonardo da Vinci was painting, in 1503, the portrait of a Florentine lady by the name of Lisa del Giocondo. About this we are now certain. Unfortunately, we cannot be absolutely certain that this portrait of Lisa del Giocondo is the painting of the Louvre." The catalogue raisonné Leonardo da Vinci (2019) confirms that the painting probably depicts Lisa del Giocondo, with Isabella d'Este being the only plausible alternative. Scholars have developed several alternative views, arguing that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait, and identifying at least four other paintings referred to by Vasari as the Mona Lisa. Several other people have been proposed as the subject of the painting, including Isabella of Aragon, Cecilia Gallerani, Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla, Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud theorized that Leonardo imparted an approving smile from his mother, ==Description==

The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood. The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to late 15th-century works by Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere. Frank Zöllner notes that the sitter's general position can be traced back to Flemish models and that "in particular the vertical slices of columns at both sides of the panel had precedents in Flemish portraiture." Woods-Marsden cites Hans Memling's portrait of Benedetto Portinari (1487) or Italian imitations such as Sebastiano Mainardi's pendant portraits for the use of a loggia, which has the effect of mediating between the sitter and the distant landscape, a feature missing from Leonardo's earlier portrait of ''Ginevra de' Benci''. The painting was one of the first Italian portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape, although some scholars favour a realistic description, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains, winding paths and a distant bridge, giving only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo chose to place the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with ''Ginevra de' Benci, but on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and emphasizing the mysterious nature of the painting. Other bridges with similar arches suggested as possible locations had more arches. In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte announced that his ultra-high resolution scans of the painting provide evidence that Mona Lisa'' was originally painted with eyelashes and eyebrows but that these had gradually disappeared over time, perhaps as a result of overcleaning. Cotte discovered that the painting had been reworked several times, with changes made to the size of the face and the direction of gaze. He also found that in one layer the subject was depicted wearing numerous hairpins and a headdress adorned with pearls which was later scrubbed out and overpainted. There has been much speculation regarding the painting's sitter and landscape background. For example, Leonardo probably painted his sitter's appearance faithfully since her beauty is not seen as being among the best, "even when measured by late quattrocento (15th century) or even twenty-first century standards." Some historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings; Research in 2003 by Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University said that Mona Lisas smile disappears when observed with direct vision, known as foveal. Because of the way the human eye processes visual information, it is less suited to pick up shadows directly; however, peripheral vision can pick up shadows well. Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed that Mona Lisas landscape was similar to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro and Urbino, and Rimini. Research in 2023/2024 by geologist and art historian Ann Pizzorusso suggests that the landscape contains "several recognisable features of Lecco, on the shores of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of northern Italy." ==History==

Creation and date Of Leonardo da Vinci's works, the Mona Lisa is the only portrait whose authenticity has never been seriously questioned, and one of four ‌the others being Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, Adoration of the Magi and The Last Supper⁠‌whose attribution has avoided controversy. He had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the sitter for the Mona Lisa, by October 1503. Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506", Other academics argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo would have painted the work from 1513. According to Vasari, "after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished". Leonardo's right hand was paralytic , which may indicate why he left the Mona Lisa unfinished. 's drawing (), after Leonardo; today in the Louvre along with the Mona Lisa Circa 1505, Other later copies of the Mona Lisa, such as those in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design and The Walters Art Museum, also display large flanking columns. As a result, it was thought that the Mona Lisa had been trimmed. By 1993, Frank Zöllner observed that the painting surface had never been trimmed; this was confirmed through a series of tests in 2004. while Zöllner states that the sketch may be after another Leonardo portrait of the same subject. this was likely an error. A number of experts have argued that Leonardo made two versions (because of the uncertainty concerning its dating and commissioner, as well as its fate following Leonardo's death in 1519, and the difference of details in Raphael's sketch—which may be explained by the possibility that he made the sketch from memory). The hypothetical first portrait, displaying prominent columns, would have been commissioned by Giocondo , and left unfinished in Leonardo's pupil and assistant Salaì's possession until his death in 1524. The second, commissioned by Giuliano de' Medici , would have been sold by Salaì to Francis I in 1518, and is the one in the Louvre today. Others believe that there was only one true Mona Lisa but are divided as to the two aforementioned fates. At some point in the 16th century, a varnish was applied to the painting. In 1797, it went on permanent display at the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the painting was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal. In 1911, the painting was still not popular among the lay-public. On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre. The painting was first reported missing the next day by painter Louis Béroud. After some confusion as to whether the painting was being photographed somewhere, the Louvre was closed for a week for investigation. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion and was arrested and imprisoned. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated. The real culprit was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, who had helped construct the painting's glass case. He carried out the theft by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed that Leonardo's painting should have been returned to an Italian museum. Peruggia may have been motivated by an associate whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting's theft. After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery for over two weeks and returned to the Louvre on 4 January 1914. Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime and was hailed for his patriotism in Italy. Since the 1990s, the painting has been temporarily moved to accommodate renovations to the Louvre on three occasions: between 1992 and 1995, from 2001 to 2005, and again in 2019. On 30 December 1956, Bolivian Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the Mona Lisa while it was on display at the Louvre. He did so with such force that it shattered the glass case and dislodged a speck of pigment near the left elbow. The painting was protected by glass because a few years earlier a man who claimed to be in love with the painting had cut it with a razor blade and tried to steal it. After this attack, Salvador Dalí wrote in 1963 an essay titled "Why they attack the Mona Lisa", referencing earlier Freud theories. On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure. On 29 May 2022, a male activist, disguised as a woman in a wheelchair, threw cake at the protective glass covering the painting in an apparent attempt to raise awareness for climate change; the painting was not damaged. The man was arrested and placed in psychiatric care in the police headquarters, and an investigation was opened after the Louvre filed a complaint. On 28 January 2024, two attackers from an environmentalist group threw soup at the painting's protective glass, demanding the right to "healthy and sustainable food" and criticizing the contemporary state of agriculture; the painting was not damaged. Modern analysis In the early 21st century, French scientist Pascal Cotte hypothesized a hidden portrait underneath the surface of the painting. He analysed the painting in the Louvre with reflective light technology beginning in 2004, and produced circumstantial evidence for his theory. Cotte admits that his investigation was carried out only in support of his hypotheses and should not be considered as definitive proof. but it does not fit with historical descriptions of the painting. Both Vasari and Gian Paolo Lomazzo describe the subject as smiling, unlike the subject in Cotte's supposed portrait. ==Conservation==

The Mona Lisa has survived for more than 500 years, and an international commission convened in 1952 noted that "the picture is in a remarkable state of preservation". It has never been fully restored, so the current condition is partly due to a variety of conservation treatments the painting has undergone. A detailed analysis in 1933 by Madame de Gironde revealed that earlier restorers had "acted with a great deal of restraint." the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work. The picture is kept under strict, climate-controlled conditions in its bulletproof glass case. The humidity is maintained at 50% ±10%, and the temperature is maintained between and . To compensate for fluctuations in relative humidity, the case is supplemented with a bed of silica gel treated to provide 55% relative humidity. a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa. The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, albeit no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed. Since 2005, the painting has been illuminated by an LED lamp, and a new 20-watt LED lamp that was specially designed for this painting was installed in 2013. The lamp has a colour rendering index of up to 98 and minimizes infrared and ultraviolet radiation, which could otherwise degrade the painting. The renovation of the gallery where the painting now resides was financed by the Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television. As of 2019, about 10.2 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year. A new queuing system introduced in 2019 reduces the amount of time museum visitors have to wait in line to see the painting. After going through the queue, a group has about 30 seconds to see the painting. On the 500th anniversary of the master's death, the Louvre held the largest ever single exhibit of Leonardo's works from 24 October 2019 to 24 February 2020. The Mona Lisa was not included because it is in such great demand among visitors to the museum; the painting remained on display in its gallery. In 2024, it was decided to place the panel in a separate room. This change will require significant construction changes, including a new entrance to the Louvre and two rooms in the basement under the museum's square courtyard. Due to the renovation, visitors will be able to pass directly to the painting, which will reduce queues at the Louvre. ==Legacy==

The Mona Lisa began influencing contemporary Florentine painting even before its completion. Raphael, who had been to Leonardo's workshop several times, promptly used elements of the portrait's composition and format in several of his works, such as Young Woman with Unicorn (), and Portrait of Maddalena Doni (). Where earlier critics such as Vasari in the 16th century and André Félibien in the 17th praised the picture for its realism, by the mid-19th century, writers began to regard the Mona Lisa as imbued with a sense of mystery and romance. In 1859, Théophile Gautier wrote that the Mona Lisa was a "sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously" and that "Beneath the form expressed one feels a thought that is vague, infinite, inexpressible. One is moved, troubled ... repressed desires, hopes that drive one to despair, stir painfully." Walter Pater's essay of 1869 described the sitter as "older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in the deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her." By the early 20th century, some critics started to feel the painting had become a repository for subjective exegeses and theories. Jean Metzinger's Le goûter (Tea Time) was exhibited at the 1911 Salon d'Automne and was sarcastically described as "la Joconde à la cuiller" (Mona Lisa with a spoon) by art critic Louis Vauxcelles on the front page of Gil Blas. André Salmon subsequently described the painting as "The Mona Lisa of Cubism". The avant-garde art world has made note of the Mona Lisas undeniable popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. In 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Eugène Bataille (Sapeck), was shown at the "Incoherents" show in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and goatee. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face. Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas, called Thirty Are Better than One, following the painting's visit to the United States in 1963. The French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions of the Mona Lisa on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using a mosaic style. A 2014 New Yorker magazine cartoon parodies the supposed enigma of the Mona Lisa smile in an animation showing progressively more maniacal smiles. File:Raffaello Sanzio - Lady with unicorn.jpg|Young Woman with Unicorn by Raphael, File:Baldassare Castiglione, by Raffaello Sanzio, from C2RMF retouched.jpg|Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael, File:Sapeck-La Joconde fumant la pipe.jpg|Le rire (The Laugh) by Eugène Bataille (Sapeck), 1883 File:Jean Metzinger, Le goûter, Tea Time, 1911, 75.9 x 70.2 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art.jpg|Le goûter (Tea Time) by Jean Metzinger, 1911, oil on canvas, 75.9 × 70.2 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art File:Marguerite Agniel as Mona Lisa by Robert Henri.jpg|Marguerite Agniel "As Mona Lisa" by Robert Henri, Fame In the 21st century, the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in the world, a destination painting. Until the 20th century, it was one among many highly regarded artworks. Once part of King Francis I of France's collection, the Mona Lisa was among the first artworks to be exhibited in the Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution. Leonardo began to be revered as a genius, and the painting's popularity grew in the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia praised it as mysterious and a representation of the femme fatale. The Baedeker guide in 1878 called it "the most celebrated work of Leonardo in the Louvre", but the painting was known more by the intelligentsia than the general public. An article in a 1910 issue of ''Ladies' Home Journal declared it "the most famous portrait in the world". Ladies' Home Journal'' is notable for being the first American magazine to reach one million subscribers in 1903. The 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa and its subsequent return was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting. During the 20th century, it was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning, and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements". , Madeleine Malraux, André Malraux, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson at the unveiling of the Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art during its visit to Washington, D.C., 8 January 1963 From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C. It was shipped on the new ocean liner SS France. In New York, an estimated 1.7 million people queued "in order to cast a glance at the Mona Lisa for 20 seconds or so." In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow. In 2014, 9.3 million people visited the Louvre. Former director Henri Loyrette reckoned that "80 percent of the people only want to see the Mona Lisa." Financial worth Before the 1962–1963 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance at $100 million (equivalent to $1.08 billion in 2026), making it, in practice, the most highly valued painting in the world. The insurance was not purchased; instead, more was spent on security. In 2014, a France 24 article suggested that the painting could be sold to help ease the national debt, although it was observed that the Mona Lisa and other such art works were prohibited from being sold by French heritage law, which states that, "Collections held in museums that belong to public bodies are considered public property and cannot be otherwise." Cultural depictions Cultural depictions of the Mona Lisa include: • The 1915 Mona Lisa by German composer Max von Schillings. • Two 1930s films written about the theft, (The Theft of the Mona Lisa and Arsène Lupin). • The 1950 song "Mona Lisa" recorded by Nat King Cole. • The 1952 short story "The Smile" by Ray Bradbury, published in his 1959 collection A Medicine for Melancholy • The 1984 song "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" recorded by David Allan Coe. • The 2011 song "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" by American rock band Panic! at the Disco. • The 2018 song "Mona Lisa" by rapper Lil Wayne. • The 2022 mystery film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery depicts the destruction of the Mona Lisa, which has been borrowed from its location by a billionaire. • Lego released a set called Mona Lisa 31213 as part of their Lego Art theme. The set includes 1503 pieces to build it. • During the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony the Mona Lisa got "stolen" by the Minions from the Louvre museum and later ended up floating in the Seine river waters. ==Early versions and copies==

File:Mona Lisa (copy, Thalwil, Switzerland).JPG|Copy of Mona Lisa commonly attributed to Salaì File:Gioconda (copia del Museo del Prado restaurada).jpg|Prado Museum La Gioconda File:Isleworthml.JPG|The Isleworth Mona Lisa File:Mona Lisa (copy, Hermitage).jpg|Hermitage Mona Lisa Prado Museum La Gioconda A version of Mona Lisa known as ("Woman by Leonardo da Vinci's hand", Museo del Prado, Madrid) was for centuries considered to be a work by Leonardo. Since its restoration in 2012, it is now thought to have been executed by one of Leonardo's pupils in his studio at the same time as Mona Lisa was being painted. The Prado's conclusion that the painting is probably by Salaì (1480–1524) or by Melzi (1493–1572) has been called into question by others. The restored painting is from a slightly different perspective than the original Mona Lisa, leading to the speculation that it is part of the world's first stereoscopic pair; however, a 2017 report demonstrated that this stereoscopic pair in fact gives no reliable stereoscopic depth. Isleworth Mona Lisa A version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation. It is a painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The current scholarly consensus on attribution is unclear. Some experts, including Frank Zöllner, Martin Kemp, and Luke Syson denied the attribution to Leonardo; professors such as Salvatore Lorusso, Andrea Natali, and John F Asmus supported it; others like Alessandro Vezzosi and Carlo Pedretti were uncertain. Hermitage Mona Lisa A version known as the Hermitage Mona Lisa is in the Hermitage Museum and it was made by an unknown 16th-century artist. ==Mona Lisa illusion==

If a person being photographed looks into the camera lens, the image produced provides an illusion that viewers perceive as the subject looking at them, irrespective of the photograph's position. It is presumably for this reason that many people, while taking photographs, ask subjects to look at the camera rather than anywhere else. In psychology, this is known as the "Mona Lisa illusion", which was named after the famous painting that also presents the same illusion. == Features of the golden ratio ==

The painting has features of the golden ratio and reveals several Golden triangles as well as the Golden spiral. In Figure 1, the point M (Mona Lisa's left eye) divides the lines [DK] and [EL] in the golden ratio. The triangles ABC, DEF, AFG, FBH, HGF and GHC are golden triangles, because in each of these six triangles base and legs are in the golden ratio to each other. The Golden spiral is shown in Figure 2. It is positioned so that it starts at Mona Lisa's right wrist and touches the top of her head. The tip of her nose then forms the point towards which the spiral converges. There is little evidence to suggest that Leonardo intentionally used the golden ratio in the painting according to Walter Isaacson. ==See also==