Mona Lisa: The mysterious truth

Have you ever thought about the painting known to be ‘Mona Lisa’ that comes under the most valuable painting of the world! Why the painting is so expensive and people went to the museum only for seeing the painting? There is a mysterious story behind the painting and definitely, the painting deserves the valuer. We will see the whole explanation in the topic and try to reveal all the facts.

Mona Lisa

In Musee du Louvre, named a museum in Paris,” The most well-known painting has to be and that is, 'Mona Lisa', which was painted by an Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci, during the Renaissance period. Leonardo was born in the village of Vinci, Florence, Italy, in 1452. He was an illegitimate child and was raised under the care of his stepmother and grandfather. In October 1468, he moved to Florence with his father. He was sent to the studio of Verrocchio, to be an apprentice. Since then, the 16-year-old da Vinci began his life of apprenticeship in Art. In the history of science and culture, Leonardo is a legend.  Not only was he a great painter, sculptor, architect, poet, philosopher, and musician, he was also a scientist contributing in the fields of anatomy, mathematics, perspective, engineering and he also is an inventor of military weapons. 

Leonardo also shared a lot of his unique insight into the aspect of aviation, astronomy, geology, fluid dynamics, and more. The life of Leonardo is a legend, including his timeless classic "Mona Lisa, a renowned portrait masterpiece. This portrait represents Leonardo's highest achievement; his painting successfully illustrates the image of women in the propertied class during the rise of capitalism. The figure in the painting has a subtle smile and is sitting elegantly against the vastly deep landscape receding into vaporous mountains. Leonardo used his famous 'Sfumato' technique and placed special emphasis on the corners of her lips and eyes, softening the outlines to create a smoky effect. As a result, producing deliberate ambiguity in the subject; we have no real sense of who she is. That is why Mona Lisa smile and gaze looks enigmatic, which many art historians call "the mysterious smile". Her smile is fascinating; she seems radiant at one point but when you look from another angle her expression suddenly changes into looking serious. Her mysterious smile has intrigued many admirers and scholars. 

Under the influence of Renaissance humanism, Leonardo focused more on unwrapping the emotions of people. Leonardo went against the norm in the composition of this portrait. Rather than a full-length pose, he opted for a three-quarter length pose with her face facing towards you. His use of a pyramidal composition shows the subject making Mona Lisa seems more dignified and athletic. Mona Lisa's hands look soft and fatten, unwrapping her gentle side and class status. This demonstrates Leonardo's exquisite painting techniques. The value of this masterpiece is more than our hopes that couldn't say, the story behind this painting is even more entertaining and holds a bewildering secret. "Mona Lisa" had been in the collection of the Louvre since 1506, according to the official history records. On the 21st August 1911, three cleaners discreetly stole this painting from a storage room inside the Louvre Museum of Art. The stolen "Mona Lisa" became a media sensation. Not long after, there were at least six Americans who paid $300,000 each and bought a "Mona Lisa." Each of them convinced that the painting they bought was genuine. However, no one could confirm whether which one was the original piece. For the past 500 years, historians had continuously debated who the mysterious sitter in the painting was?

 

A traditional belief was that she was the wife of a Florentine banker. According to a biography of Vasari, Leonardo's friend wrote, "Leonardo took 3 years to paint the portrait of the wife of banker”. Another speculation is that the sitter in "Mona Lisa” is the third wife of 一 an official in Florence, Italy. In 1986, an American art magazine disclosed the most daring claim that "Mona Lisa” is actually Leonardo's self-portrait. They stack his self-portrait and "Mona Lisa" together. According to proportion and discovered that the eyes, hair, contour line, cheeks, and nose are exactly the same in these two paintings. The subtle smile in "Mona Lisa" is very much similar to the image of Leonardo's self-portrait that he drew in front of a mirror in 1518. In recent years, a teacher from Florence, Giuseppe Pallanti, proposed a new argument.  He spent 25 years researching the archives in Florence city and looked through almost all the biographies and letters of Leonardo, his friends, and relatives. Finally, he found some clues and led to his conclusion: he sitter in “Mona Lisa” was the wife of a friend of Leonardo's father. Her name was Lisa Gherardini and a mother of five children. According to Pallanti's research, Lisa married in 1495 at the age of sixteen to a Florence silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. Leonardo's father was a friend of del Giocondo. Lisa was Francesco's second wife. This couple shared a very good relationship and raised five children together.

 

An extract from Francesco's will state that Lisa has always acted with a noble spirit and was a faithful wife. Pallanti believes the portrait "Mona Lisa" was completed when Lisa was 24 years old. Leonardo's father commissioned it so his friend could get a portrait of his wife. At that time, Leonardo was troubled by a financial dispute. His father probably thought of this way to help his son. Amongst the documents of Francesco's will, he left a note stating that Leonardo was as great as the ancient Greek artists Apelles and that Leonardo was creating three artworks simultaneously, one of which was the portrait of Lisa Gherardini. That document dated back to October 1503, which coincides with the expert's estimate that the portrait was completed between 1503 and 1506. That is why “Mona Lisa”, the most notable painting in the Louvre today, is also known as "Mrs. del Giocondo”.

According to the records, Lisa passed away in Florence in 1542 and was buried at a cemetery inside the convent of Sant Orsola. After a few hundred years had passed, the monastery was long gone. A tobacco factory and a university were later built on this land. The tobacco Factory and a university was later built on this land. Tobacco Factory and a university was later built on this land tobacco factory and a university was later built on this land. In the 1980s, it became the Italian police quarters. Italian art historian spent several decades of research archival data and he believes that the remains of Mona Lisa should no longer exist. In 2012, Italian archaeologist Professor Silvano Vinceti led a team and went to the abbey and excavated eight female bodies.

The scientists did a comparison and confirmed that three of the bodies died roughly the same age as Lisa Gherardini. Vinceti added that if one of the women remains matches the DNA of the Gherardini family, then he could make sure she is Lisa Gherardini. Once the remains of Gherardini has been confirmed, through technology the outline of her face can be generated from the skull, and compared with the image of the Mona Lisa in the painting. Then the true identity of Mona Lisa can finally be revealed. There are many mysteries in Da Vinci's works but “Mona Lisa” is always bringing new discoveries to the world.

In 2010, the Italian National Cultural Heritage Committee announced that they found tiny letters and numbers in the eyes of Mona Lisa. “By the help of magnifying glass the painting can clearly be seen, to the naked eye the symbols are not visible”, said Silvano Vinceti (president of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage). There is a letter visible LV (Leonardo Da Vinci) that could stand for the artist's initials seen in the right eye. In the left eye, there are also symbols but they are not as defined but it looks like CE or CB. On the 6th December 2011, an American painter claimed he had cracked the code of "Mona Lisa" that had been hidden for 500 years. He found three animals wandering in the background including a lion, ape, and buffalo. This painter is called Ron Piccirillo. He accidentally spotted the buffalo when turning the painting on its side. 

In the next two months, he poured over da Vinci's journals and came to a conclusion about the meaning of these hidden animals. He claims this painting is a representation of envy, one of the seven sins. This is surprising to a lot of people; because everyone thought Leonardo never leaves any cue relating to Mona Lisa, but now it is obvious that he did leave a clue behind. In his further claims, Piccirillo has found similar hidden images in other famous Renaissance painters like Titian and Rafael. For centuries, people have been debating about this masterpiece. One day, we might be able to completely understand everything about the portrait. Maybe one day a new mystery will surface again and set the art world alight. Perhaps her subtle smile is to tell the world. I will always be a mystery.