Mona Lisa

After having been moved around the world for half a century at various museums and exhibits spanning from seven weeks at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in the U.S.A to New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. In the year 1974, it went to the Tokyo National Muesum in Japan and then to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow which is located in Russia. The Mona Lisa painting finally found its permanent residence inside the biggest room of the Louvre Museum called Salle des Etats, located on the first floor of the Denon Wing. It’s concealed by a bulletproof, temperature-controlled glass as this painting was made on poplar wood instead of an oil canvas which has warped over the years and thus requires its temperature to be monitored regularly.

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Mona Lisa, since its advent, has an unrivaled history of fame and splendor that adds to its name. Right after Da Vinci’s death in 1519, Francis I showcased it in an art gallery at Fontainebleau. Towards the 1800s, the painting made its way to the Tuileries Palace and was hung in Napoleon’s bedroom. Thereafter, in 1804, it was taken to the Louvre Museum in Paris.

In the 1900s the attacks or attempts of theft on the painting began. In 1911, it was stolen from the Museum, and surprisingly, people went to see the blank wall too. Two years later, it was found again and the man who stole it was the one who had helped in installing it. Thereafter, it was moved to various places and different cities to be exhibited. Another attack that comes in the way of this half-length portrait is in the year 1956, when its lower half is doused with acid and no harm to the painting gets reported. Following the month of december, same year, a man threw a rock at the painting which chipped off some paint from her elbow. This event led to a bullet-proof glass being installed around it. In 2009, a ceramic mug was thrown at it and recently, a climate activist tried smearing the painting with a cake urging people to take care of the planet.

The facts about Mona Lisa are numerous and end up contributing enormously to its fame too.

• Unknown yearsIt is popularly said that the Master Leonardo Da Vinci worked on this painting for 11 years but nobody knows the exact timeframe, adding more to its uniqueness.
• Complicated historyMona Lisa was the wife of this Florence businessman called Francesco del Giocondo. It’s said that when Da Vinci drew her portrait, he kept it with himself for some reason instead of giving it to this wealthy merchant.
• Artistic techniqueIt’s said that until his death, Leonardo worked on this oil painting relentlessly adding layers and layers of paints which are visible in the cracks of the painting. He also used this technique called ‘smufato’ to make it look realistic. A lot of critics also believe that the painting is as complicated as a human mind.
• No eyebrowsAn art expert has claimed that the Mona Lisa did have eyebrows and eyelashes which have both been eroded with time and hence aren’t visible to the naked eye but can be viewed with the help of a scanner.

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