Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

The painting is a half length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination. Few other works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, mythologizing, and parody.

Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.

The sitter's identity was ascertained at the University of Heidelberg in 2005 by a library expert who discovered a 1503 margin note written by Agostino Vespucci. Scholars had been of many minds, identifying at least four different paintings as the Mona Lisa and several people as its subject. Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory, Isabella of Naples or Aragon, Cecilia Gallerani, Costanza d'Avalos—who was also called the "merry one" or La Gioconda, Isabella d'Este, Pacifica Brandano or Brandino, Isabela Gualanda, Caterina Sforza, and Leonardo himself had all been named the sitter. Today the subject's identity is held to be Lisa, which was always the traditional view.

"Mona Lisa" or "La Gioconda"
Painted from 1503 to 1506 (four years) by Leonardo Da Vinci
Size: 30" in high by 20 7/8" wide (77cm by 53 cm)
Oil on a poplar wood panel
Mona Lisa´s inventory number at the Louvre is # 779.
The painting is unsigned and undated.
Mona Lisa´s painting has no assigned monetary value. It is priceless.

The painting's title stems from a description by Giorgio Vasari in his biography of Leonardo da Vinci published in 1550, 31 years after the artist's death. "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife...." (one version in Italian: Prese Lionardo a fare per Francesco del Giocondo il ritratto di mona Lisa sua moglie). In Italian, ma donna means my lady. This became madonna, and its contraction mona. Mona is thus a polite form of address, similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English. In modern Italian, the short form of madonna is usually spelled Monna, so the title is sometimes Monna Lisa, rarely in English and more commonly in Romance languages such as French and Italian.

At his death in 1525, Leonardo's assistant Salai owned the portrait named in his personal papers la Gioconda which had been bequeathed to him by the artist. Italian for jocund, happy or jovial, Gioconda was a nickname for the sitter, a pun on the feminine form of her married name Giocondo and her disposition. In French, the title La Joconde has the same double meaning.

From the beginning Mona Lisa´s portrait was greatly admired and much copied and it came to be considered the prototype of the Renaissance portrait. According to Vasari, the woman in the painting is believed to be Lisa Gherardini, born Tuesday, (the only day the Louvre is closed) June 15th 1479. She married Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobidel Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine merchant, when she was 16. At the time of the painting she was 24 and had 2 sons.

The original title of the painting was Monna Lisa. Monna is a contraction for Madonna, Mia Donna (Madam or My Lady). It became Mona Lisa, in English, due to a spelling error. She is La Joconde in French and La Gioconda ("the merry one") in Italian. The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the Mona Lisa´s expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination. Leonardo Da Vinci used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Mona Lisa´s folded hands (sign of her reserved posture) form the front corner of the pyramid. Mona Lisa´s breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands. The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles.

Mona Lisa has no visible facial hair. Her eyebrows may have been inadvertently removed during an early cleaningand restoration. There is also the possibility that Mona Lisa may have shaved or plucked them as was the fashion in her day.

In the 16th century, The Mona Lisa became the property of the French King, Francois I who was an acquaintance and admirer of Leonardo da Vinci.

Mona Lisa Stollen

On August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian carpenter employed at the Louvre stole the painting from the wall of the Salon Carré where it hung between Correggio's Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine andTitian's Allegory of Alfanso d' Avalos leaving only the 4 iron pegs to which it was attached. It was recovered 2 years later in 1913.

Crimes Against Mona Lisa

On December 30th, 1956, a Bolivian named Ugo Ungaza Villegas, stared at the Mona Lisa for a while, then threw a rock at it, damaging a speck ofpigment near her left elbow.

Mona Lisa on Tour

In adition, Mona Lisa has been to the US in the 60's and to Japan and Moscow in the 70's.