When was the Mona Lisa painted?
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci is thought by some to have begun painting the "Mona Lisa" in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506", the art historian Martin Kemp says there are some difficulties in confirming the actual 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. Other academics argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo would have painted the work from 1513. According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished". Leonardo, later in his life, is said to have regretted "never having completed a single work".
Circa 1504, Raphael executed a pen and ink sketch, today in the Louvre museum, in which the subject is flanked by large columns. Experts universally agree it is based on Leonardo's portrait of "Mona Lisa". Other later copies of the "Mona Lisa", such as those in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo and The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, also display large flanking columns. As a result, it was originally thought that the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre had side columns and had been cut. However, as early as 1993, Zöllner observed that the painting surface had never been trimmed. This was confirmed through a series of tests conducted in 2004. In view of this, Vincent Delieuvin, curator of 16th-century Italian painting at the Louvre museum states that the sketch and these other copies must have been inspired by another version, while Frank Zöllner states that the sketch brings up the possibility that Leonardo executed another work on the subject of Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa
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."
Mona Lisa
At some point, the "Mona Lisa" was removed from its original frame. The unconstrained poplar panel warped freely with changes in humidity, and as a result, a crack developed near the top of the panel, extending down to the hairline of the figure. In the mid-18th century to early 19th century, two butterfly-shaped walnut braces were inserted into the back of the panel to a depth of about one third the thickness of the panel. This intervention was skilfully executed, and successfully stabilized the crack. Sometime between 1888 and 1905, or perhaps during the picture's theft, the upper brace fell out. A later restorer glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth.
Isabella d'Este
Isabella d'Este has been proposed as a plausible candidate for Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" of c. 1503–1506, usually considered a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. (Lisa was the wife of a merchant in Florence and Giorgio Vasari wrote of her portrait by Leonardo – it remains open whether this is the portrait now known as the 'Mona Lisa'.) Evidence in favor of Isabella as the subject of the famous work includes Leonardo's drawing 'Isabella d'Este' from 1499 and her letters of 1501–1506 requesting the promised painted portrait; further arguments are the mountains in the background and the armrest as a Renaissance symbol for a portrait of a sovereign.
Mona Lisa
Before its completion the "Mona Lisa" had already begun to influence contemporary Florentine painting. 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" (c. 1506), and "Portrait of Maddalena Doni" (c. 1506). Celebrated later paintings by Raphael, "La velata" (1515–16) and "Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione" (c. 1514–15), continued to borrow from Leonardo's painting. Zollner states that "None of Leonardo's works would exert more influence upon the evolution of the genre than the "Mona Lisa". It became the definitive example of the Renaissance portrait and perhaps for this reason is seen not just as the likeness of a real person, but also as the embodiment of an ideal."
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Joos van Cleve, a Flemish artist active in the years following "Mona Lisa"'s creation, also painted a nude titled "Mona Vanna". Though the figure portrayed in van Cleve's painting bears no resemblance to Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", the artist was known to mimic themes and techniques of Leonardo da Vinci, in this case the positioning of the figure and the delicate brushwork reminiscent of Leonardo's sfumato. The artwork, dating to the mid-16th century, is in the collection of the National Gallery, Prague.
Mona Lisa
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal. During World War II, "Mona Lisa" was again removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d'Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord, then finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban.
Gopal Swami Khetanchi
Khetanchi has reinterpreted the Mona Lisa in two oil-on-canvasses painted in 2006: "Devashree" (24 by 36 inches) and "Bani-Thani" (20 by 30 inches), of which the latter is a combination of the Mona Lisa and the eponymous painting Bani Thani by Nihal Chand. "Bani-Thani" was used in the promotion for "Le Festival des Écrivains du monde: Écrivains de l’Inde" held in Paris in 2014 and on the cover of the November–December 2014 edition of "Nouvelles De L'Inde", the bimonthly publication of the Indian embassy in Paris.
Mona Lisa
In 2014, a France 24 article suggested that the painting could be sold to help ease the national debt, although it was noted that the "Mona Lisa" and other such art works were prohibited from being sold due to French heritage law, which states that "Collections held in museums that belong to public bodies are considered public property and cannot be otherwise."
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
A student and companion of Leonardo da Vinci known as Salaì painted one of the nude interpretations of "Mona Lisa" known, titled "Mona Vanna".
Salai's version is thought by some to have been "based on" the nude sometimes attributed to Leonardo, which is considered a lost work. Discussion among experts exists as to whether Salai, known to have modeled for Leonardo, may in fact have been the sitter represented in the original "Mona Lisa".
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
By the 20th century, "Mona Lisa" had already been a victim of satirical embellishment.
"Sapeck" (Eugène Bataille), in 1883, depicted "Mona Lisa" smoking a pipe ("shown above"). Titled "Le Rire" (The Laugh), the artwork was displayed at the "Incoherents" exhibition in Paris at the time of its creation, making it among the earliest known instances of "Mona Lisa"'s image being re-interpreted using contemporary irony.
Further interpretations by avante garde artists beginning in the early 20th century, coinciding with the artwork's theft, attest to "Mona Lisa"'s popularity as an irresistible target.
Dadaists and Surrealists were quick to modify, embellish and caricature "Mona Lisa"'s visage.
Mona Lisa (Prado's version)
Although there were elements that clearly distinguished the replica from the Louvre's version, the most striking point was the fact that until the restoration of the Prado's version, no landscape background was visible. That landscape was fully recovered through the restoration carried out by the Prado between 2010 and 2012, for a request to include the Prado's work in a temporary exhibition in the Louvre called "Leonardo's last masterpiece: The Sainte Anne", from 29 March to 25 June 2012. The oxidized varnishes indicated that the black repaint had been made 200 years after the copy was painted, that is to say, not before 1750. During this restoration process, the copy was also submitted to a study of infrared reflectography and radiography, where the results revealed that the painting had been made in the workshop of Leonardo da Vinci at the same time as the original "Mona Lisa" was painted. The "key" of this discovery was the underlying drawing, as it is the same but with different style in both paintings, as well as the drawing's corrections.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In December 2010, Italian art historian Silvano Vinceti reported that the Mona Lisa appears to have tiny letters and numbers in her eyes which are only apparent when viewed with a magnifying glass and shortly afterwards said that the model was Leonardo's male apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti (known as Salaì) and that the letters were clues to his identity. The Louvre, pointing out that he had had no access to the actual painting, said that after "every laboratory test possible" in 2004 and 2009 that "no inscriptions, letters or numbers, were discovered during the tests." and that "The ageing of the painting on wood has caused a great number of cracks to appear in the paint, which have caused a number of shapes to appear that have often been subject to over-interpretation".
Yves Chaudron
Decker asserts that six Chaudron copies had already been sent to the United States ahead of the theft and while the stolen original remained in France, Valfierno followed his fakes and sold each for up to 300,000. The original remained hidden for two years until Peruggia, presenting himself as Leonardo Vincenzo, tried to sell it in Florence, Italy. A museum administrator there was suspicious, reported the attempted sale and Peruggia was arrested. The original "Mona Lisa" was returned to the Louvre in 1913. 
More than 100 years later, none of these six paintings has ever surfaced, bringing into question if they ever in fact existed. Further, the only evidence that the "famed forger" Yves Chaudron even existed is Karl Decker's 1932 "Saturday Evening Post" article. There are no known photos of the man or relatives or any biographical details outside of this incident. None of his other forged works has ever come to light, and it is quite impossible to be a 'famed forger' if none of your forgeries is discovered. Decker's entire 1932 article may be a work of fiction that, much like forgeries in the art world, has fooled many who have read it.
L.H.O.O.Q.
The subject of the Mona Lisa treated satirically had already been explored in 1887 by (aka Sapeck) when he created "Mona Lisa smoking a pipe", published in "Le Rire". It is not clear, however, if Duchamp was familiar with Sapeck's work.
Ronald Lauder
On June 18, 2006, he purchased from Maria Altmann and her family, the painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" by Gustav Klimt for $135 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting at that time. Lauder called the painting "Our Mona Lisa". He reportedly saw Klimt's portrait as a youth in Vienna and had admired it since. The painting, a Nazi-looted art piece which had just been restored to Altmann following years of negotiation and litigation with the Austrian government, now forms the centerpiece of the museum's collection.
Beatrice von Dovsky
Beatrice von Dovsky (14 November 1866, Vienna – 18 July 1923, Vienna) was an Austrian poet, writer, and actress. She is best known for writing the libretto for Max von Schillings's opera "Mona Lisa" which she presented to the composer in the spring of 1913. The subject was very topical at the time, because the painting by Leonardo da Vinci had been stolen from the Louvre in 1911, and rediscovered in Florence in 1913. The opera premiered successfully at the Staatsoper Stuttgart in September 1915, and, while not part of the standard opera repertory, has been commercially recorded three times and revived numerous times by major opera houses throughout the 20th century.
Dovsky's other works include poems, short stories and works for children. Her fairy tales are among her more well known works, including "Der Wiener Fratz", "Die Gnä' Frau", and "Zwölf Märchen aus der Ostmark" among others. She was also active as a stage actress in Vienna. She died in 1923 at the age of 57 and is buried in the Hietzinger Cemetery.
Mona Lisa
In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King François I to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. It is believed that he took the "Mona Lisa" with him and continued to work after he moved to France. Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that Leonardo probably continued refining the work until 1516 or 1517.
Vincenzo Peruggia
There are currently two predominant theories regarding the theft of the "Mona Lisa".
Peruggia said he did it for a patriotic reason: he wanted to bring the painting back for display in Italy "after it was stolen by Napoleon". Although perhaps sincere in his motive, Vincenzo may not have known that Leonardo da Vinci took this painting as a gift for Francis I when he moved to France to become a painter in his court during the 16th century, 250 years before Napoleon's birth.
Lifelike experience
Lifelike experience is an idea which has evolved since the time when a painting was considered lifelike. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is famous for the ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism which contributed to the continuing fascination of the work. A whole painting technique has been created pursuing the goal of the lifelike art form, called trompe-l'œil, involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
German imaging researchers Claus-Christian Carbon of the University of Bamberg and Vera Hesslinger of the University of Mainz performed further analysis of the Museo del Prado version, comparing it to Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", and in May 2014 speculated that, based on perspective analysis of key features in the images, the two images were painted at the same time from slightly different viewpoints. They further proposed that two images may therefore form a stereoscopic pair, creating the illusion of 3-dimensional depth, when viewed side by side. However, a study published in 2017 has demonstrated that this stereoscopic pair in fact gives no reliable stereoscopic depth.
Lisa del Giocondo
The "Mona Lisa" fulfilled 15th- and early 16th century requirements for portraying a woman of virtue. Lisa is portrayed as a faithful wife through gesture—her right hand rests over her left. Leonardo also presented Lisa as fashionable and successful, perhaps more well-off than she was. Her dark garments and black veil were Spanish-influenced high fashion; they are not a depiction of mourning for her first daughter, as some scholars have proposed. The portrait is strikingly large; its size is equal to that of commissions acquired by wealthier art patrons of the time. This extravagance has been explained as a sign of Francesco and Lisa's social aspiration.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In January 2012 Museo del Prado in Madrid announced that it had discovered and almost fully restored a copy of the painting by a pupil of Leonardo, very possibly painted alongside the master. The copy gives a better indication of what the portrait looked like at the time, as the varnish on the original has become cracked and yellowed with age.
Lai Kui Fang
His talents were furthermore
regconised when an Italian government scholarship was awarded.
Lai's devotion to art was rewarded when he was engage to
research on the historical paintings at the Musée du Louvre, done 
by grand masters in the past,paintings like Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
After restoration, the Prado's "Mona Lisa" revealed details covered by previous restorations and layers of varnish.
Furnishings and fabrics were enhanced, as well as landscape and facial features.
It is anticipated that such revelations may offer further insight into Leonardo's original.
Experts at the Louvre reportedly supported the Prado museum's findings.
The Prado replica was subsequently transported to the Louvre in 2012 to be displayed next to "Mona Lisa" as part of a temporary exhibition.
Two nude paintings bearing similarities to Leonardo da Vinci's original were part of a 2009 exhibition of artwork inspired by "Mona Lisa".
Displayed at the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's hometown of Vinci, near Florence, some believe one of the paintings – dating from Leonardo's time – to be the work of Leonardo himself, and it has at times been credited to him.
Other experts theorize the painting, one of at least six known to exist, may be just another copy painted by "followers" of Leonardo.
Scholarly dispute persists as to artist, subject and origin.
The nude in question, discovered behind a wall in a private library, reportedly belonged to an uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte, who owned another of Leonardo's paintings.
Facial features bear only vague resemblance, but landscape, compositional and technical details correspond to those of the "Mona Lisa" known worldwide today.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
A version of the "Mona Lisa" known as the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" and also known as the "Earlier 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.
Mona Lisa
Before the 1962–1963 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance at $100 million. The insurance was not bought. Instead, more was spent on security. Adjusted for inflation using the US Consumer Price Index, $100 million in 1962 is around $782 million in 2015 making it, in practice, by far the most valued painting in the world.
Mona Lisa
However, this portrait does not fit with the description of the painting in the historical records: Both Vasari and Gian Paolo Lomazzo describe the subject as smiling; the subject in Cotte's portrait displays no smile. In addition, the portrait lacks the flanking columns drawn by Raphael in his c.1504 sketch of "Mona Lisa". Moreover, Cotte admits that his reconstitution had been carried out only in support of his hypotheses and should not be considered a real painting; he stresses that the images never existed. Kemp is also adamant that Cotte's images in no way establish the existence of a separate underlying portrait.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
""Mona Lisa" (Two Times)," "Four "Mona Lisa"s," and "Thirty Are Better Than One" illustrate Warhol's method of silkscreening an image repetitively within the same work of art.
Also in 1963, Fernando Botero – who had already painted ""Mona Lisa", Age Twelve" in 1959 – painted another, this time in what would become his trademark "Boterismo" style of rendering figures disproportionately "plump".
"Mona Lisa" is also referenced in artwork by Contemporary art luminaries such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, adding to the veritable "who's who" list of artists putting their own spin on the portrait.
A paint by numbers version of "Mona Lisa" accompanied artist Suzanne Lacy during her 1977 travelogue "Travels with Mona", documenting the painting process at landmark locations throughout Europe and Central America.
From the 1980s through the end of the 20th Century, "Mona Lisa" continued to be the subject of re-interpretation among a new generation of emerging artists.
Street artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, who came into prominence in the 1980s, created "Federal Reserve Note" and "Apocalipse 7", respectively, juxtaposing "Mona Lisa" within compositions suiting their styles.
Ballpoint art pioneer Lennie Mace created his "Mona a'la Mace" replica in 1993, a ballpoint "PENting" commissioned by Pilot pen company and featured on CBS News.
Artist Sophie Matisse, great-granddaughter of artist Henri Matisse, in her 1997 "Monna Lisa (Be Back in Five Minutes)" faithfully replicated the setting of the original painting, but omitted Mona Lisa from the scene; a concept she would repeat using other iconic artworks.
Lisa del Giocondo
Centuries after Lisa's death, the "Mona Lisa" became the world's most famous painting and took on a life separate from Lisa, the woman. Speculation by scholars and hobbyists made the work of art a globally recognized icon and an object of commercialization. In 2005, Lisa was definitively identified as the model for the "Mona Lisa".
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In 2005 Heidelberg University academics discovered notes scribbled into the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503. These notes state that Leonardo is working "on the head of Lisa del Giocondo". This is seen by some as confirmation that a certain Lisa del Giocondo has been the sitter for the "Mona Lisa". However, these notes offer no description of the painting or drawing and could be attributed to any female portrait of that time.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci
No painting has been more imitated and satirised than the "Mona Lisa". Beginning possibly with a naked portrait of Diane de Poitiers by Clouet, the pose and expression have been freely adapted to many female portraits.
The avant-garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the "Mona Lisa's" popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, "Le rire," an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), 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 a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription, when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" literally translated: "she has a hot ass". This is a manner of implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability. This was intended as a Freudian joke, referring to Leonardo's alleged homosexuality. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face.
Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan
In 2012, anthropologists excavated the body of Isabella, and concluded that she had syphilis. Her teeth had a high level of mercury, which was used (ineffectively) to treat syphilis, and had given a black color to the tooth enamel, most of which had been removed by abrading. They concluded that she was poisoned by her own medicine. 
Isabella was first suggested as the subject of da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in 1979. This presupposes that the painting took place in the 1490s, during da Vinci's Milanese period. However, the painting has officially been dated as later, likely ruling Isabella out as the subject. Additionally, Isabella was never recognised during her lifetime as the subject of the painting. Those who viewed the "Mona Lisa" and were acquainted with Isabella such as Luigi d'Aragona and his secretary, Antonio de Beatis, did not make a connection.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
It has for a long time been argued that after Leonardo's death the painting was cut down by having part of the panel at both sides removed. Early copies depict columns on both sides of the figure. Only the edges of the bases can be seen in the original. However, some art historians, such as Martin Kemp, now argue that the painting has not been altered, and that the columns depicted in the copies were added by the copyists. The latter view was bolstered during 2004 and 2005 when an international team of 39 specialists undertook the most thorough scientific examination of the "Mona Lisa" yet undertaken. Beneath the frame (the current one was fitted to the "Mona Lisa" in 2004) there was discovered a "reserve" around all four edges of the panel. A reserve is an area of bare wood surrounding the gessoed and painted portion of the panel. That this is a genuine reserve, and not the result of removal of the gesso or paint, is demonstrated by a raised edge still existing around the gesso, the result of build up from the edge of brush strokes at the edge of the gesso area.
Louis Béroud
Louis Béroud (January 17, 1852, Lyon-October 9, 1930, Paris) was a French painter of the late 19th, early 20th century. Some of his paintings are visible at the Musée Carnavalet and The Louvre in Paris. On August 22, 1911, Béroud came to The Louvre to sketch his painting "" but where the famous "La Joconde", by Leonardo da Vinci, should have stood, he found four iron pegs. Béroud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed for marketing purposes. A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the section head of the museum, and it was confirmed that the "Mona Lisa" was not with the photographers. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in investigation of the theft.
Italian Renaissance painting
More than any other artist, he advanced the study and painting of "atmosphere". In his paintings such as the "Mona Lisa" (c.1503-1517) and "Virgin of the Rocks" (1483-1486) (the earliest complete work fully of his hand), he used light and shade with such subtlety that, for want of a better word, it became known as Leonardo's "sfumato" or "smoke". He exhibited a revolutionary use of colour by defining the transition between figures by colour modulation instead of by actual lines. His work invited the viewer into a mysterious world of shifting shadows, chaotic mountains and whirling torrents. Another significant work of Leonardo's was "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne" (c.1503-1519); the monumental three-dimensional quality of the group and the calculated effects of dynamism and tension in the composition made it a model that inspired Classicists and the Mannerists in equal measure. Apart from the direct impact of the works themselves, Leonardo's studies of light, anatomy, landscape, and human expression were disseminated in part through his generosity to a retinue of students.
Louis Lépine
The theft on August 22, 1911 of the Mona Lisa from the Musée du Louvre was more of an embarrassment to Lépine although initially he acted with his usual decisiveness ordering the museum to be closed for a week whilst forensic analysis was carried out.
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated. The real thief was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia an Italian wishing to return it to Italy. He was caught with the painting two years later when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Mona Lisa
There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landscape. For example, Leonardo probably painted his model 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 art historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings, but this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence.
Isleworth Mona Lisa
In 1913 English connoisseur Hugh Blaker spotted and acquired the painting which had been hanging for over a century in a manor house in Somerset, having been bought in Italy as an original Leonardo. In a monograph published shortly thereafter, Blaker's stepfather, John R Eyre, proposed that two versions of the Mona Lisa had been worked on by Leonardo; the "Isleworth" picture (named after the location of Blaker's studio in Isleworth, west London) being the first.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci
Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted "Self portrait as Mona Lisa" in 1954. In 1963 following the painting's visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple "Mona Lisa"s called "Thirty are Better than One", like his works of Marilyn Monroe ("Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns", 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell's soup (1961–1962).
Isleworth Mona Lisa
In October 2013 Jean Pierre Isbouts published a book titled "The Mona Lisa Myth" examining the history and events behind the Louvre and Isleworth paintings and confirmed the latter's attribution to Leonardo. A companion film was released in March 2014. In April 2014, Albert Sauteur examined the perspective used to execute the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" and the "Mona Lisa" in the Louvre, and concluded that Leonardo painted both works. In July 2014 "The Mona Lisa Mystery" premiered on the PBS television station's series "Secrets of the Dead". This documentary investigated, at length, the authenticity of the Isleworth painting.
Mona Lisa
The use of bulletproof glass has shielded the "Mona Lisa" from subsequent attacks. In April 1974, while the painting was on display at the Tokyo National Museum, a woman sprayed it with red paint as a protest against that museum's failure to provide access for disabled people. 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. In both cases, the painting was undamaged.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Among the most common motifs for satirization, "Mona Lisa"'s face is embellished upon; adding a red Santa cap for Christmas, or, as Duchamp had done, simply adding a mustache.
Replacing "Mona Lisa"'s face or head altogether is another common motif; substituting the head of an animated character such as Betty Boop, for example.
British artist Caroline Shotton in 2007 produced a series of paintings replicating classical works of art as "cows", which she would go on to title her "Great "Moo"-sters" series.
The inspiration for the series, she says, came to her while watching a documentary about "Mona Lisa".
Having settled upon the cow motif, she then formulated puns befitting her chosen subjects; whereby "Mona Lisa" became "Moo"-na Lisa.
Lillian Schwartz
Schwartz used the works of Leonardo da Vinci extensively in experiments with computers. One notable work she created is "Mona/Leo", for which she compared the image of a Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait with the "Mona Lisa", matching the two faces feature by feature to show their underlying structural similarity. Specifically, she replaced the right side of the "Mona Lisa" with the flipped left side of a red chalk self-portrait of Leonardo. Superimposed lines drawn on the image showing the close alignments of the bottom of the eye, eyebrow, nose and chin prompted her to argue that the Mona Lisa is in part a cryptic self-portrait of the artist. In further experiments along these lines, she removed the gray tones in Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait and superimposed the "Mona Lisa" eye over it. Not everyone is convinced by her argument for the identity of Leonardo da Vinci and the "Mona Lisa"; one common counter-argument is that the similarities are due to both portraits having been created by the same person and therefore bearing the hallmarks of a characteristic style. Additionally, though the drawing on which Schwartz based the comparison is held to be a self-portrait, there is no firm historical evidence to support this theory.
Isleworth Mona Lisa
The Isleworth Mona Lisa is an oil-on-canvas painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". In 2015 and 2016, peer-reviewed academic publications concerning it confirmed its attribution to Leonardo da Vinci.
Salvator Mundi (Leonardo)
Furthermore, the extraordinary quality of the picture, especially evident in its best-preserved areas, and its close adherence in style to Leonardo’s known paintings from circa 1500, solidifies this consensus.
Yet, there are some respected experts on Renaissance art who question the attribution of the painting to Leonardo. Jacques Franck, a Paris-based art historian and Leonardo specialist, who has studied the "Mona Lisa" out of the frame multiple times, stated: "The composition doesn't come from Leonardo, he preferred twisted movement. It's a good studio work with a little Leonardo at best, and it’s very damaged. It’s been called 'the male Mona Lisa', but it doesn't look like it at all."
Mona Lisa
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 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." While exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting was almost drenched in water because of a faulty sprinkler, but the bullet-proof glass case which encased the painting protected it.
Mona Lisa
The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape, 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 give only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo has chosen 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.
Vincenzo Peruggia
In 1911, Peruggia perpetrated what has been described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century. It was a police theory that the former Louvre worker hid inside the museum on Sunday, August 20, knowing the museum would be closed the following day. But, according to Peruggia's interrogation in Florence after his arrest, he entered the museum on Monday, August 21 around 7 am, through the door where the other Louvre workers were entering. He said he wore one of the white smocks that museum employees customarily wore and was indistinguishable from the other workers. When the Salon Carré, where the "Mona Lisa" hung, was empty, he lifted the painting off the four iron pegs that secured it to the wall and took it to a nearby service staircase. There, he removed the protective case and frame. Some people report that he concealed the painting (which Leonardo painted on wood) under his smock. But Peruggia was only , and the "Mona Lisa" measures approx. , so it would not fit under a smock worn by someone his size. Instead, he said he took off his smock and wrapped it around the painting, tucked it under his arm, and left the Louvre through the same door he had entered.
Mona Lisa Smile
In 1953, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts), a 30-year-old graduate student in the department of Art History at UCLA and Oakland State, takes a position teaching "History of Art" at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts. At her first class, Katherine discovers that her students have already memorized the entire textbook and syllabus, so she uses the classes to introduce them to Modern Art and encourages discussion about topics such as what makes good art. Katherine comes to know her students and seeks to inspire them to achieve more than marriage to eligible young men.
The Incredible Adventures of Jack Flanders
There is a running joke concerning the Mona Lisa and in particular the artist Marcel Duchamp - famous for painting a parody of the Mona Lisa with a mustache and goatee. After Jack first encounters a Wanted poster for the sky pirate 'The Black Mona Lisa' and causes a mustache to appear on her image as a result, he tries to hide his own identity by using the pseudonym of Marcel Duchamp. Later he and the 'Marquis of Carumbas' are busking in the realm of the 'Never Mind' and the Marquis introduces Jack's act as "Nude Descending a Staircase", another work by Marcel Duchamp.Produced at the ZBS Studios, Fort Edward, NY
Yan Pei-Ming
In 2009, Yan Pei-Ming had solo exhibitions at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; the San Francisco Art Institute; and the Musée du Louvre. On February 10, 2009, it was announced that "The Funeral of Mona Lisa" will go on display at The Louvre on February 12, 2009 until May 18, 2009 in the room next to the original Mona Lisa. His first solo exhibition in the United States was displayed at David Zwirner in New York City, May 2007. Group exhibitions include the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2003; the Sevilla Biennale in 2006; the Istanbul Biennial in 2007, among others.
Madeline (video game series)
"Madeline 1st and 2nd Grade Math," was the final entry in the series, and was released as a two CD-ROM set on July 12, 1999. The discs were also sold separately as "Madeline 1st Grade Math" and "Madeline 2nd Grade Math". Set in the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, Madeline guides the player through nine works of art, each given a Madeline genre name change, such as the Mona Lisa being reimagined as "Mona Clavel" after Miss Clavel, the headmistress of Madeline's school. Each topic is organized around a painting teaching addition, subtraction, and multiplication. The game was released on the 60th anniversary of the publication of the first Madeline book ("Madeline") in 1939.
Timeline of fictional stories about the Mona Lisa
Here below is a chronology of fictional and semi-fictional stories (including films, episodes in TV series, as well as literary works) that revolve, either wholly or partially, around the famous "Mona Lisa", a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence. The years listed on the left refer to the year of release of these works of fiction.
Mona Lisa
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." This 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." Nevertheless, applications of varnish made to the painting had darkened even by the end of the 16th century, and an aggressive 1809 cleaning and revarnishing removed some of the uppermost portion of the paint layer, resulting in a washed-out appearance to the face of the figure. Despite the treatments, the "Mona Lisa" has been well cared for throughout its history, and although the panel's warping caused the curators "some worry", the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work.
Portrait of Dorothea Berck
Portrait of Dorothea Berck is a 1644 painting by Frans Hals that is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It depicts Dorothea Berck at age 51, the wife of the prosperous Haarlem merchant Joseph Coymans, whose portrait Hals also painted. Both paintings were executed on the occasion of their daughter Isabella's wedding, whose marriage pendants Hals also painted.
The painting, like many of Hals's portraits, is inscribed and signed, but there is no mention of the identity of the sitter, and it was only identified as Berck in 1908. 
The portrait is noted for its classical similarity to the Mona Lisa. Like the Mona Lisa, she sits upright in a dark chair and rests her hands on either a dark desk or perhaps a large dress that surrounds her. Her ungloved hand may be clasping a book or part of her sleeve. The loose brushwork is typical of Hals and shows a fleeting gesture with the casual way her finger is hooked over her wrist. Portraits of subjects with one glove on and one glove off are common in Dutch 17th-century marriage pendant portraits. Gloves symbolize the wedding vows where the husband and wife each hold one of a pair of gloves. In this case, her husband Joseph Coymans is wearing the "other glove" in his pendant portrait. In Hals' marriage pendant portraits, the husband is always situated on the left and the woman on the right, and the light always comes from the left, shining fully on the woman.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In 2004, historian Giuseppe Pallanti published "Monna Lisa, Mulier Ingenua" (published in English as "Mona Lisa Revealed: The True Identity of Leonardo's Model"). The book gathered archival evidence in support of the traditional identification of the model as Lisa. According to Pallanti, the evidence suggests that Leonardo's father was a friend of del Giocondo: "The portrait of "Mona Lisa", done when Lisa del Giocondo was aged about 24, was probably commissioned by Leonardo's father himself for his friends as he is known to have done on at least one other occasion." In 2007, genealogist Domenico Savini identified the princesses Natalia and Irina Strozzi as descendants of Lisa del Giocondo. Scan data obtained in 2004 suggested that the painting dated from around 1503 and commemorated the birth of the Giocondo's second son.
Dali's Mustache
Another photo shows Mona Lisa with the face of Dalí and one original $10,000 bill in each of his strong hands. In one way, this is an interpretation of the well-known ready-made L.H.O.O.Q. of the French-American painter Marcel Duchamp from the time of Dadaism, which shows the world-famous painting of the Mona Lisa with mustache and goatee. On the other hand, Dali – identified by his trademark mustache – is personified as the new icon in place of the (former) "art icon "La Gioconda"".
Mona Lisa (Prado's version)
After the restoration, it was suggested that two of Leonardo's pupils, Francesco Melzi or Salaì, were among the probable painters, though others questioned this assumption; they suggest the author could have been a Spanish student of Leonardo, namely Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina or Hernando de los Llanos. The painting cannot be considered as a typical workshop copy due to its careful and thorough execution, as well as its use of materials such as lapis lazuli or red lacquer.
Jean Delville
Whatever its interpretation, this very unusual portrait has had a strong effect on viewers. It can be seen as eerie and supernatural (Bade, Femme Fatale, 1979), or as "a positively magical vision" (Jullian, "Dreamers of Decadence", 1974). It is sometimes referred to as the Mona Lisa of the 1890s, and is also given the title La Mysteriosa . Today, few details are available about the sitter, and even her first name goes unmentioned in the literature. The most extensive information on her identity is given by Delville’s son Olivier in his biography of the painter. It is not a first-hand account, however, as Olivier was born at least ten years after the picture was executed. According to him, Stuart Merrill (a Symbolist poet who published his works in Paris and Brussels) had a house near to the Delvilles in Forest at that time. Olivier adds that "the young Mrs Merrill-Rion" was a Belgian, and that Delville was struck by her strange beauty and depicted her with a mediumistic character. It is likely that Delville painted other portraits of Mrs Stuart Merrill and the 1893 drawing 'Medusa', in the same media is undoubtedly one of these.
Cesare Maccari
In 1863, Maccari painted "Leonardo che ritrae la Gioconda" (commonly translated "Leonardo [da Vinci] painting the Mona Lisa") which won an award in 1865. In his home town Siena he decorated the "Sala del Risorgimento" in the public palace with frescoes that were well received by critics.
I, Mona Lisa
It's an intricately woven tale of betrayal, love, and loss, which unravels the mysteries surrounding Leonardo da Vinci's most famous portrait, "Mona Lisa", and its links with the main character Lisa Gherardini, with added plot twists.
Clos Lucé
In 1516, King Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise and provided him with the Clos Lucé, then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo, a famous painter and inventor, arrived with three of his paintings, namely the "Mona Lisa", "Sainte Anne", and "Saint Jean Baptiste". Leonardo lived at the Clos Lucé for the last three years of his life, and died there on 2 May 1519.
Isleworth Mona Lisa
In 2017, Gérard Boudin de l'Arche published a comprehensive historical account and stated that Leonardo painted the "Isleworth Mona Lisa" before the Louvre "Mona Lisa".
Gloria Porcella
Not long after opening Galleria Ca’ d’Oro in Miami, Gloria orchestrated “Mona Lisa Unveiled” at Miami’s Freedom Tower in 2011. The exhibition included 16th-19th century works and a variety of 20th century reinterpretations of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, including pieces by Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, and Brazilian Neo-pop artist Romero Britto.
David Feldman (philatelist)
In 2004 Feldman was mandated by Elizabeth Meyer to make research, scientific and physical examinations of her painting which had been known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa. In 2010, he formed, together with Markus Frey and Daniel Kohler, The Mona Lisa Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which absorbed decades of previous research concerning that painting, and initiated new expertises, scientific tests and physical examinations. The work culminated in the publication of 'Mona Lisa – Leonardo's Earlier Version', a 320-page volume published in 2012. The exact status of the painting, however, continues to be debated by art historians.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
"Mona Lisa" is in the public domain and free to be exploited, explaining its reproduction on everything from postcards to coffee mugs, with no legal repercussions.
Artistic replicas and reinterpretations as a whole – demonstrating adequate modification – are considered "new" works eligible for copyright protection.
A fine example is artist Marcel Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q.", a 1919 work of art in which Duchamp embellished existing print-reproductions of Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" by merely adding a goatee ("shown below").
While copyright laws do not protect Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q." falls within parameters of copyright law constituting "new" works.
For such reasons, "Mona Lisa" is commonly referenced academically in copyright courses.
Lisa del Giocondo
During the spring of 1503, Leonardo had no income source, which may in part explain his interest in a private portrait. But later that year, he most likely had to delay his work on "Mona Lisa" when he received payment for starting "The Battle of Anghiari", which was a more valuable commission and one he was contracted to complete by February 1505. In 1506 Leonardo considered the portrait unfinished. He was not paid for the work and did not deliver it to his client. The artist's paintings traveled with him throughout his life, and he may have completed the "Mona Lisa" many years later in France, in one estimation by 1516.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
It has been suggested that Leonardo created more than one version of the painting. Another contender is the "Isleworth Mona Lisa", which had been hidden in a Swiss bank vault for 40 years before being unveiled to the public on September 27, 2012. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich has dated the piece to Leonardo's lifetime, and an expert in sacred geometry says it conforms to the artist's basic line structures.
Lisa del Giocondo
Speculation assigned Lisa's name to at least four different paintings and her identity to at least ten different people. By the end of the 20th century, the painting was a global icon that had been used in more than 300 other paintings and in 2,000 advertisements, appearing at an average of one new advertisement each week. In 2005, an expert at the University Library of Heidelberg discovered a margin note in the library's collection that established with certainty the traditional view that the sitter was Lisa. The note, written by Agostino Vespucci in 1503, states that Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. The "Mona Lisa" has been in custody of France since the 16th century, when it was acquired by King Francis I; after the French Revolution, however, it came into the possession of the people. Today about six million people visit the painting each year at the Louvre in Paris, where it is part of a French national collection.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Contemporary "Mona Lisa" replicas are often created in conjunction with events or exhibitions related to Leonardo da Vinci, for publicity.
Her portrait, considered public domain and therefore outside of copyright protection, has also been exploited to make political statements.
Known even to people with no art background, the mere use of "Mona Lisa"'s name – immortalized in Academy Award-winning lyrics sung by Nat King Cole (Best Original Song, 1950) – is capable of stirring public interest and intrigue.
Aside from countless print-reproductions of Leonardo's original "Mona Lisa" on postcards, coffee mugs and T-shirts, her likeness has also been re-imagined using coffee, toast, seaweed, Rubik's Cubes, and computer chips, to name only a few.
Now over five-hundred years since her creation, the perpetuation of "Mona Lisa"'s influence is reinforced with every reinterpretation.
Mona Lisa (crater)
Mona Lisa is a crater on Venus at latitude 25.6, longitude 25.1. It is 79.4 km in diameter and was named after Lisa Giacondo, Leonardo da Vinci's model for the painting "Mona Lisa".
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In 2004, experts from the National Research Council of Canada conducted a three-dimensional infrared scan. Because of the aging of the varnish on the painting it is difficult to discern details. Data from the scan and infrared were used by Bruno Mottin of the French Museums' "Center for Research and Restoration" to argue that the transparent gauze veil worn by the sitter is a guarnello, typically used by women while pregnant or just after giving birth. A similar guarnello was painted by Sandro Botticelli in his "Portrait of Smeralda Brandini" (c. 1470/1475), depicting a pregnant woman on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Furthermore, this reflectography revealed that "Mona Lisa"'s hair is not loosely hanging down, but seems attached at the back of the head to a bonnet or pinned back into a chignon and covered with a veil, bordered with a sombre rolled hem. In the 16th century, hair hanging loosely down on the shoulders was the customary style of unmarried young women or prostitutes. This apparent contradiction with her status as a married woman has now been resolved.
Mona Lisa
In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.
Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance painter and polymath who achieved legendary fame and iconic status within his own lifetime. His renown primarily rests upon his brilliant achievements as a painter, the "Mona Lisa" and the "Last Supper", being two of the most famous artworks ever created, but also upon his diverse skills as a scientist and inventor. He became so highly valued during his lifetime that the King of France bore him home like a trophy of war, supported him in his old age and, according to legend, cradled his head as he died.
Mona Lisa
Vasari's account of the "Mona Lisa" comes from his biography of Leonardo published in 1550, 31 years after the artist's death. It has long been the best-known source of information on the provenance of the work and identity of the sitter. Leonardo's assistant Salaì, at his death in 1524, owned a portrait which in his personal papers was named "la Gioconda", a painting bequeathed to him by Leonardo.
Mona Lisa
The title of the painting, which is known in English as "Mona Lisa", comes from a description by Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari, who wrote "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife." "Mona" in Italian is a polite form of address originating as "ma donna" – similar to "Ma’am", "Madam", or "my lady" in English. This became "madonna", and its contraction "mona". The title of the painting, though traditionally spelled "Mona" (as used by Vasari), is also commonly spelled in modern Italian as "Monna Lisa" ("" being a vulgarity in some Italian dialects), but this is rare in English.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
In 2011, art historian Silvano Vinceti claimed longtime apprentice (and possible male lover) to Leonardo, Salaì, was the inspiration and figure for the painting.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
The 16th-century portrait Mona Lisa, or "La Gioconda" ("La Joconde"), painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci, has been the subject of a considerable deal of speculation.
Mona Lisa
The first and most extensive recorded cleaning, revarnishing, and touch-up of the "Mona Lisa" was an 1809 wash and revarnishing undertaken by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel, who was responsible for restoration of paintings for the galleries of the Musée Napoléon. The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch-up of colour, and revarnishing the painting. In 1906, Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard performed watercolour retouches on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish, to mask areas that had been covered initially by an older frame. In 1913, when the painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again called upon to work on the "Mona Lisa". Denizard was directed to clean the picture without solvent, and to lightly touch up several scratches to the painting with watercolour. In 1952, the varnish layer over the background in the painting was evened out. After the second 1956 attack, restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up the damage to "Mona Lisa"s left elbow with watercolour.
Young Woman with Unicorn
The composition of the picture--placing the figure in a loggia opening out onto a landscape, the three-quarter length format-- was apparently inspired by the "Mona Lisa", painted by Leonardo between 1503 and 1506. Christof Thoenes observes: "However unabashedly Raphael adopts the pose, compositional framework and spatial organization of the Leonardo portrait...the cool watchfulness in the young woman's gaze is very different" from the "enigmatic ambiguity" of Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa (disambiguation)
The Mona Lisa is a portrait of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci.
Mona Lisa (Prado's version)
The origins of the "Prado's Mona Lisa" are linked to those of Leonardo's original, as both paintings were likely created simultaneously in the same studio. The first documentary reference was made in the 1666 inventory in the Galleria del Mediodia of the Alcazar in Madrid as "Mujer de mano de Leonardo Abince" ("Woman by Leonardo da Vinci's hand"). However, it is still unknown when the portrait entered the Spanish Royal Collection, though it could have been already in Spain in the early years of the 17th century. Since the Prado's founding in 1819, the replica has been part of its permanent collection, habitually displayed in the museum.
Portrait of Paulette Jourdain
Portrait of Paulette Jourdain is a 1919 oil painting by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani. It was in the personal collection of A. Alfred Taubman. The painting was sold at auction by Sotheby's in November 2015 for $42.8 million. One of Modigliani's largest works, it shows Cubist influences and references the "Mona Lisa".
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
In 2011, the Prado museum in Madrid, Spain, announced discovery of what may be the earliest known replica.
Miguel Falomir, heading the Department of Italian Renaissance Painting at the time of the discovery, stated the Prado "had no idea of (the painting's) significance" until a recent restoration.
Recovered from the Prado's vaults, the replica – which El Mundo newspaper dubbed ""Mona Lisa"'s twin" ("above, far right") – was reportedly painted simultaneously alongside Leonardo as he painted his own "Mona Lisa"; in the same studio, by a "key" student.
It was painted on walnut. The replica has been part of the Prado's collection since the museum's founding in 1819.
Mona Lisa
Before its 1911 theft, the "Mona Lisa" was not widely known outside the art world. It was not until the 1860s that some critics, a thin slice of the French intelligentsia, began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting. Even in 1911, it was not popular among the lay public before the theft.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Radio personality Bruce Morrow presided over a promotional event during "Mona Lisa"'s exhibition in New York City. 70,000 entries of a "Best Mona" painting contest were exhibited at the Polo Grounds, with Salvador Dalí helping to pick the winner.
Following the painting's first American presentation, Andy Warhol in 1963 created multiple renditions in his screen-print Pop art style.
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
The Theft of the Mona Lisa (German: Der Raub der Mona Lisa) is a 1931 German drama film directed by Géza von Bolváry and starring Trude von Molo , Willi Forst  and Gustaf Gründgens. It is based on a true story.
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Mimicking the heavy pixelation of a highly magnified computer file, Canadian artist Robert McKinnon assembled 315 Rubik's Cubes into a 36 by 48 inch "Mona Lisa" mosaic, an effect dubbed "Rubik's Cubism" by French artist Invader.
Similarly, colored Lego "bricks" have been employed to replicate "Mona Lisa" in a mosaic motif.
A 2011 exhibition titled "Da Vinci, The Genius" at the Frazier Museum in Louisville, Kentucky attracted attention by having a "Mona Lisa" constructed by Lego artist Brian Korte.
Known as "Brick Art", so-called "pro" Lego builders such as Eric Harshbarger have made multiple replicas of Mona Lisa.
Matching the approximate 21 by 30 inch size (535 x 760+ mm) of Leonardo's original requires upwards of 5,000 standard Lego "bricks", but replicas measuring 6 by 8 feet have been built, requiring more than 30,000 bricks.
Mona Lisa
Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed likenesses of "Mona Lisa"s landscapes to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro and Urbino, and Rimini.
Petrus Wandrey
For Wandrey the super icons of fine art are the ancient icon Aphrodite of Milos and the world-famous Renaissance masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa. Inspired by these "fuel rods of cultural history" he transforms them with the means and potential of his compositional principles. Paintings, reliefs and sculptures are the results. He creates his first Venus metamorphoses in 1973. Wandrey and his artist friend Volker Hildebrandt sway David Galloway to publish the edition "Mona 2000".
Mona Lisa
The fate of the painting around Leonardo's death and just after it has divided academic opinion. Some, such as Kemp, believe that upon Leonardo's death, the painting was inherited with other works by his pupil and assistant Salaì and was still in the latter's possession in 1525. Others believe that the painting was sold to Francis I by Salaì, together with "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" and the "St. John the Baptist" in 1518. The Louvre Museum lists the painting as having entered the Royal collection in 1518.
Whistler's Mother
Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, best known under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871. The subject of the painting is Whistler's mother, Anna McNeill Whistler. The painting is , displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design. It is exhibited in and held by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, having been bought by the French state in 1891. It is one of the most famous works by an American artist outside the United States. It has been variously described as an American icon and a Victorian "Mona Lisa".
Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was an Italian polymath, regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous diverse areas of study. Whilst most famous for his paintings such as the "Mona Lisa" and the "Last Supper", Leonardo is also renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology, geometry, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics, pyrotechnics, and zoology.
Mona Lisa
The model, 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, "La Gioconda", means "jocund" ("happy" or "jovial") or, literally, "the jocund one", a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, "Giocondo". In French, the title "La Joconde" has the same meaning.
Mona Lisa
In 1956, part of the painting was damaged when a vandal threw acid at it. On 30 December of that year, a rock was thrown at the painting, dislodging a speck of pigment near the left elbow, later restored.
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia is a poverty-stricken Italian glazier who falls in love with Mathilde, a French hotel maid. Struck by the girl's resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", Vicenzo manages to steal the painting from the Louvre in hopes of impressing his sweetheart. But when the girl proves to be a fickle sort, the crestfallen hero confesses his crime and is carted off to jail. Unwilling to admit that he'd been led astray by a woman, Vicenzo claims that he stole the "Mona Lisa" to restore it to his native Italy, and as a result is hailed as a national hero!
Mona Lisa (opera)
A couple is visiting a palace in Florence. A lay brother tells them the history of the house and its occupants, among them Fiordalisa Gherardini, Francesco Giocondo's wife painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
I, Mona Lisa
I, Mona Lisa (UK title Painting Mona Lisa) is a historical novel by Jeanne Kalogridis about Lisa Gherardini, the model for Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa". Lisa is portrayed as a young Italian woman who learns about the murder of Giuliano de' Medici, the brother of Lorenzo de' Medici in the Pazzi conspiracy. Guiliano's murder casts a shadow, especially as one of the killers has not been found. She later falls in love with Giuliano's namesake, Lorenzo's son Giuliano in the aftermath of Girolamo Savonarola's uprising in the late 15th century.
Speculations about Mona Lisa
The same claim has been made for a version in the Vernon collection. The Vernon "Mona Lisa" is particularly interesting because it was originally part of the collection at the Louvre. Another version, dating from c. 1616, was given in c. 1790 to Joshua Reynolds by the Duke of Leeds in exchange for a Reynolds self-portrait. Reynolds thought it to be the real painting and the French one a copy, which has now been disproved. It is, however, useful in that it was copied when the original's colors were far brighter than they are now, and so it gives some sense of the original's appearance 'as new'. It is in a private collection, but was exhibited in 2006 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Riisa Naka
Naka has a Swedish grandfather, making her one-quarter Swedish and three-quarters Japanese. She was named Riisa after Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting which her grandfather had an affection for.