Mona Lisa trivia | 50 facts about the famous painting

Mona Lisa is the most popular painting of Leonardo Da Vinci, and one of the most famous paintings in the world.

How many things do you know about Mona Lisa though? If not enough, then keep on reading!

1. The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci.
2. It is considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.
3. It as been described as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world”.
4. The painting’s novel qualities include the subject’s expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic.
5. The monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism.
6. The painting is likely of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini.
7. The painting’s subject is commonly thought to be Lisa Gherardini, whose wealthy—and presumably adoring—husband Francesco del Giocondo commissioned the work in Florence, Italy around 1503.
8. This explains the less prevalent title for the painting, La Gioconda, or La Joconde in French. The name Mona Lisa (or Monna Lisa, as the Italians prefer) roughly translates to “My Lady Lisa.”
9. Leonardo da Vinci never completed the portrait though.
10. He died in 1519, and it was one of many unfinished works that were left to his assistant.N
11. It is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel.
12. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506.
13. However, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. Recent academic work suggests that it would not have been started before 1513.
14. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic itself, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.
15. The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world.
16. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history.
17. More specifically it is estimated at US$100 million in 1962 (equivalent to $650 million in 2018).
18. Napoleon Bonaparte once had Mona Lisa hanging in his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace for about four years, beginning in 1800.
19. It’s said his fascination with the painting inspired his affection for a pretty Italian named Teresa Guadagni, who was actually a descendant of Lisa Gherardini.
20. The oil-on-wood panel painting measures just 30 inches by 21 inches.
21. It weighs 18 pounds.
22. Some claim the subject’s lack of eyebrows is representative of high-class fashion of the time.
23. Others insist her AWOL eyebrows are proof that Mona Lisa is an unfinished masterpiece.
24. But in 2007 ultra-detailed digital scans of the painting revealed da Vinci had once painted on eyebrows and bolder eyelashes.
25. Both had simply faded over time or had fallen victim to years of restoration work.
26. You can see the painting in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
27. Leonardo da Vinci had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model of the Mona Lisa, by October 1503.
28. The Louvre states that it was “doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506”.
29. Art historian Martin Kemp says that there are some difficulties in confirming the dates with certainty. In addition, many Leonardo experts, such as Carlo Pedretti and Alessandro Vezzosi, are of the opinion that the painting is characteristic of Leonardo’s style in the final years of his life, post-1513.
30. Other academics argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo would have painted the work from 1513.
31. In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King Francis I to work at the Clos Lucé near the Château d’Amboise. It is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work on it after he moved to France.
32. Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that Leonardo probably continued refining the work until 1516 or 1517.
33. Leonardo’s right hand was paralytic circa 1517, which may indicate why he left the Mona Lisa unfinished.
34. The portrait was first put on public display in the Louvre in 1815.
35. Back then it inspired admiration, as a string of “suitors bearing flowers, poems and impassioned notes climbed the grand staircase of the Louvre to gaze into her ‘limpid and burning eyes.'”
36. In 1852, an artist named Luc Maspero supposedly threw himself from the fourth floor of a Parisian hotel, leaving a suicide note that read: “For years I have grappled desperately with her smile. I prefer to die.”
37. In 1910, one enamored fan came before her solely to shoot himself as he looked upon her.
38. In the 1960s, the painting went on a tour where it was given an insurance valuation of $100 million (factoring in inflation, more recent assessment estimated it’s worth $2.5 billion).
39. But the policy was never taken out because the premiums were more than the cost of the best security.
40. Mona Lisa hangs in the center of the Louvre’s Grand Gallery.
41. But why is Mona Lisa located there? It is located there because it is climate-controlled to keep her in the ideal environment.
42. Additionally, the work is encased in bulletproof glass to prevent threat and injury.
43. If you look closely at the subject’s left elbow, you might notice the damage done by Ugo Ungaza Villegas, a Bolivian who chucked a rock at the portrait in 1956.
44. A few months before, another art attacker pitched acid at the painting, which hit the lower section.
45. These attacks inspired the bulletproof glass, which in 2009 successfully rebuffed a ceramic mug hurled by an enraged Russian woman who’d been denied French citizenship.
46. On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre.
47. And the authorities suspected… Pablo Picasso!
48. It turned out it took 3 men to steal Mona Lisa.
49. Years later, a man who called himself the Marquis of the Vale of Hell confessed to American reporter Karl Decker that he was the true mastermind behind the theft of Mona Lisa. On the condition his story be kept secret until his death, he revealed Peruggia was one of three men paid handsomely to snatch her.
50. In 2000, Harvard neuroscientist Dr. Margaret Livingstone applied a scientific method to why Mona Lisa‘s smile seems to shift. It’s all about where your focus is and how your brain responds.