One of history's magnificent masterpieces, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the best-known and priceless painting of all time. Painted in 4 years by a legendary artist - Da Vinci - the Mona Lisa remains to be a mysterious yet enchanting work of art that will be remembered forever.

While in France working on murals for the Palazzo Vecchio, Da Vinci, began working on Mona Lisa. His subject was Lisa Gherardini, a sixteen-year-old who was the third wife of an elderly Florentine nobleman, Francesco di Zanobi del Gioconda. This is why the Mona Lisa is also known as La Gioconda. When the portrait was completed, da Vinci sold it to Francis I for 4,000 pieces of gold. Little did he or anyone else know that this painting would create such a stir in the years to come. It was kept in the Grand Louvre, in France and has been there ever since.

Although the painting looks rather ordinary - she is dressed quite plainly without any opulent or elaborate jewellery or clothes, as was the tradition; it gives the painting a deeper dramatic touch and tends to blend in with the sober background of a lonely countryside. One of the most striking features of the painting is that Mona Lisa is smiling with only the left part of her mouth! There is actually a book that was published in 1541, 'Concerning The Perfect Beauty of A Lady' which drew attention to the fact that such a smile was fashionable; it was supposed to make a woman more attractive and alluring.

What makes this painting a masterpiece is the way that da Vinci was capable of portraying Lisa Gherardini's soul and personality in a 3-dimensional manner. His knowledge in anatomy assisted him in creating perfect figures, perfect in all respects, while his poetic sense helped him go beyond the body and face and see the character within. He could combine scientific methods with imagination - that is a true gift indeed. The Mona Lisa was to be a way of showing the hidden personality of a woman, as determined by a genius. Da Vinci knew he had to convey what he saw in her face - a lot of unsaid things - on mere canvas. When each one of us looks at the portrait, we all catch different aspects and this talks a lot about the richness of the work.

The famous Mona Lisa painting by
Leonardo Da Vinci.