The modern world cannot be imagined without the cultural aspect in all its

forms and manifestations. This is because it provides people with the ability to
think in paradigms that contravene conventional terms of outlook and perception
of life. Hence, art, being an extremely extensive concept that encompasses various
forms such as literature and cinematography, is a highly individualistic matter.
This makes people look at the same thing from completely different perspectives.
A prime example of such artwork is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The painting should have been completed in 1503, but the painter never let it
out of his sight; never truly ‘finishing’ the painting until his death in 1519. When
da Vinci left Italy to become King Francis I’s protégé, he took the Mona Lisa with
him. Shortly before his death, da Vinci sold the painting to King Francis I for
4,000 gold coins. It remained a part of the royal collections during the reign of
Louis XIV. Before it joined the permanent collection of the Louvre, Napoleon
Bonaparte requested the painting for Josephine’s personal apartments. Like the
majority of the museum’s pieces, the Mona Lisa had to be stored securely during
the two World Wars. The Louvre curator, René Huyghe, saved the painting from
the Nazis by hiding it under his bed. Despite her tumultuous travels in previous
years, André Malraux insisted the Mona Lisa leave Europe for the United States.
There, she was received by President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Now too fragile to
travel, the Mona Lisa remains in the Louvre where she is visited by thousands
every day.

The Mona Lisa, like the rest of Da Vinci’s paintings, was never signed or
dated. When it comes to the identity of the mysterious Mona Lisa, it is Giorgio
Vasari’s theory that is considered the most official. “Mona” derives from the
Italian term “Monna” meaning “lady,” suggesting Lady Lisa to have been Lisa
Gherdinini, the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo. It is widely believed that
Giocondo, a cloth and silk merchant, commissioned the painting of his wife but
never received it. This theory is, however, widely sceptical. Many are doubtful of
the story’s authenticity, and are still searching for the Mona Lisa’s true identity.
Italian historian, Roberto Zapperi, accused Giorgio Vasari of inventing this claim,
and that the Mona Lisa is actually a portrait of Pacifica Brandani. Brandani was the
mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici, son of Lorenzo de’ Medici. The identity of the
Mona Lisa remains an animated discussion among art historians, and has even
become the root of some more far-fetched theories. Some of the most creative
claims suggest the Mona Lisa is a harlot, da Vinci’s mother or even a man
( Leonardo’s apprentice, Salai). Others are convinced the Mona Lisa is a portrait of
the 15th century Duchess of Forli, Catherine Sforza. Attempts have even been
made to reconstruct Lisa Gherardini’s face from her skull, to then superimpose it
onto Da Vinci’s portrait. Even though these attempts were unsuccessful, Lisa
Gherardini was still formally identified as the Mona Lisa.

Her profound gaze follows you around the room, and her expression is a
source of fascination for many. After 500 years of watching her visitors, the Mona
Lisa has maintained ironclad eye contact with all those who let themselves be
absorbed by her mocking smile. Art historians have again proposed various
theories for this fascination with the Mona Lisa. Medical hypotheses are the most
common; where dental issues, facial paralysis and even thyroid problems are at the
root of the Mona Lisa’s captivating aesthetic. The particularity of the Mona Lisa’s
face could simply be due to fading colour over the centuries. One theory suggests
that the Mona Lisa’s facial expression is a result of entertainers who made the
model laugh during the painting; allowing da Vinci to capture this unique and
slightly stifled smile.

A major study at the beginning of the 21st century provided a better

understanding of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sfumato technique. “Sfumato”
means “soft” in Italian, which accurately describes the delicate, hazy and slightly
blurred effect of da Vinci’s painting. Subjects are veiled in a cloud of carefully
blended colour and subtle gradations. The Mona Lisa is made up of approximately
twenty light layers of paint, some of which are extremely thin. As a result of this
meticulous work, the surface of the painting shows absolutely no trace of brush
strokes. Despite its epic age, the Mona Lisa is rather well preserved. However,
infrared analyses have discovered that certain pigments and in particular Mona
Lisa’s eyebrows, have faded over the centuries.

An intriguing fact about this masterpiece is that one morning in 1911,

visitors were shocked to discover that the Mona Lisa had disappeared from the
Louvre. News of the painting’s disappearance spread like wildfire, and fingers
were quick to point at Pablo Picasso and his friend, Guillaume Apollinaire.
However, the Mona Lisa was actually stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian
carpenter, who kept the painting on his kitchen table for two years before it was
found. This had an astronomical impact on the public, all because Peruggia was
under the false impression that the Mona Lisa was one of the paintings stolen by
the Napoleonic army. Throughout the history of art, her smile has inspired artists
such as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Banksy and Okuda. Even
today, a considerable number of contemporary artists still appropriate this mythical
portrait in their works.

Leonardo da Vinci truly put his heart and soul into this iconic painting.
Many claim the portrait is physically aging, as the left side of her face appears
younger than the right. Perhaps this was intentional, and da Vinci’s mastery
managed to convey a painting that would quite literally age with the hundreds of
generations she observed.