The portrait was painted sometime around 1503 and 1519 while Da Vinci was living in Florence. The Mona Lisa currently hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris where hundreds of people visit just to get a look at the famous painting. The mystery of Mona Lisa is quite compelling, because no one really knows who this common yet famous woman is that sits in this masterpiece. It is believed that she doesn’t have a high ranking social status because of the clothes she is wearing and also it is believed that she could be in mourning due to the black veil she is wearing on her hair at the time of the painting.
What makes the Mona Lisa so famous is the almost forgotten technique that Leonardo Da Vinci used called the sfumato (Italian for smoke). It’s a very tedious process where the paint and pigment is applied in layers and you have to wait for that to dry, then you draw over it about two hundred times. This technique was only mastered by a few artist and it’s not really used anymore. Mona Lisa eyes is another reason why the portrait is so famous. Her eyes was drawn in a specific way that they appear to follow you when you move around. This optical illusion is achieved by a special panting technique called silberblick. It is also believed that Leonardo Da Vinci painted two portraits of Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa has some strange things happening in the portrait, for years it was believed that Leonardo Da Vince didn’t paint eyebrows and eye lashes but further research proved that he did in fact paint them they just wore of over time. Mona Lisa smile could be considered strange as well, because at some angles it appears that her smile is not as big and other angles she’s hardly smiling at all.
Leonardo Da Vince painting techniques used natural hues that were muted in intensity. His work often used blues and greens in accordance to earth itself. He also used neutral grays, typically for under painting. Glazes was applied by using the sfumato technique.
The Mona Lisa deserves all the attention because Leonardo Da Vinci painted this portrait using a technique that many artist couldn’t master, then he did it twice. Guinness World Records lists the Mona Lisa as having the highest insurance value for a painting in history. The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. We will never know the intended theme behind the painting, but we all have our own ideas about it. There are many answers that are still debated when quizzed about the painting. Who is Mona Lisa -as Mona refers to Madam, it is Madam Lisa- the subject of the painting The Mona Lisa has intrigued people for centuries and it will continue to do so, because it is amazing work and for it to have survived for so long is pure genius from the artist.
