13 Most Interesting Facts About the Mona Lisa

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Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile have captured the hearts of millions, inspiring massive artistic following and parodies, as well as numerous academic studies.

A masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, the Mona Lisa has continued to intrigue scholars, art lovers and casual viewers alike. It is seen as the world’s most famous painting of all time. Many songs have been written and sung about this work of art, and no other painting is more visited.

The Mona Lisa is a portrait painting by Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci, painted between 1503 and 1506; some say until 1517. But who exactly was Mona Lisa?

This and other interesting facts about the most famous painting in the world in the following list.

Interesting Facts About the Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is an oil painting on a Lombardy poplar panel, 30 inches × 21 inches in size. It has been housed and displayed at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.

Now let’s jump into the rest of the most interesting facts about the Mona Lisa.

1. The Mona Lisa depicts Italian noblewoman named Lisa Gherardini.

She came from the prominent Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, and was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo – the man who commissioned the portrait in Florence in 1503.

2. The name “Mona Lisa” means “My Lady Lisa.”

In Italian, the preferred spelling is “Monna  Lisa.” Its rough translation, “My Lady Lisa,” meant to signify Lisa del Giocondo nee Gherardini, the painting’s subject, who was her husband’s “lady.”

3. The portrait’s title in French is La Joconde.

“La Joconde” literally means “the jocund one” – or “the  happy/jovial one.” It is “La Gioconda” in Italian, which is actually a pun on the feminine form of Giacondo, Lisa’s married name.

4. Da Vinci didn’t give the painting to the Giacondos.

Instead, it is generally believed that he left the now famous painting to Salaì, his favorite apprentice. Why he didn’t give it to the Giacondo family is not clear, but some say because it was never finished, while others claim that Francesco del Giacondo never paid the artist.

5. The Mona Lisa was purchased by King Francois I of France for 4,000 gold ducats.

This happened supposedly upon da Vinci’s death in 1519. It has been a property of France since and is on permanent display at Paris’ Louvre Museum.

6. The Mona Lisa holds the record for the highest art insurance in history.

This is a record the painting holds since 1962.

The Guinness World Records can vouch that the Mona Lisa is definitely one of the world’s most valuable paintings, having been insured for $100 million in the early 1960s. This is equivalent somewhere around $2.5 billion today.

7. The Mona Lisa gets so many love letters that she has her own mailbox at the Louvre.

Since having been on public display in 1815, the Mona Lisa has received so many love letters from “suitors” that she was given her own mailbox at the Louvre Museum.

Not only that, she has also received poems and flowers from these suitors so ardent that, for a time, the portrait was given police protection.

8. Napoleon Bonaparte was one of Mona Lisa’s hordes of admirers.

Having admired the portrait he used to hang in his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, Napoleon eventually fell in love with a descendant of Lisa Gherardini aka Mona Lisa. The descendant’s name was Teresa Guadagni.

9. At least 2 men killed themselves for Mona Lisa.

If the phrase “too much love will kill you” isn’t true, then I don’t know what is. Men have literally died from loving Mona Lisa, and that fact is true.

The first man to end his own life for the famous portrait was an artist who jumped off the fourth floor of a building in the French capital. This took place in 1852. The man left a suicide note where he wrote about grappling desperately with Mona Lisa’s smile.

Almost 60 years later in 1910, another Mona Lisa lover approached the painting and shot himself while staring at her.

10. The painting was stolen once.

Vincenzo Peruggia was an Italian nationalist, who had worked as a handyman at the Louvre, stalling the glass that protected the Mona Lisa. They were the very same glasses he had broken to smuggle the painting in August 1911.

Described as the greatest art theft of the 20th century, Peruggia’s reason for stealing was patriotic. He claimed to have wanted to bring the painting – which he erroneously believed was stolen by Napoleon – back to its homeland in Italy.

France mourned en masse during this time, which was said to be comparable to the public display of grief seen during the wake of Princess Diana’s death in 1997.

The famous portrait was recovered in December 1913. This return inspired a fashion trend called the “La Joconde look,” in which society women dusted yellow powder on their necks and faces to mimic Mona Lisa’s golden complexion and immobilized their facial muscles to copy that famous mysterious smile.

11. The Mona Lisa was vandalized too many times.

In April of 2022, the glass cases protecting da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was slapped with cake in a weird assault at the Louvre Museum. It was done by a crazy man disguised as a disabled woman – wearing a wig and riding a wheelchair. He attempted to break the glass before smearing it with frosting. His reason? People were destroying the planet, that’s why he did it.

Prior to this stunt, the world’s most famous painting has been subject to several vandal attacks in the past.

In 1956, a Bolivian man shattered a glass cover when he chucked a rock at it, scratching Mona Lisa’s left elbow. That same year, she was attacked with a sulphuric acid in 1956 by a man claiming to be “in love with the painting.” These assaults prompted the installation of a 1.52-inch thick bulletproof glass sheet to prevent threat and injury.

However, the attacks didn’t stop there.

In 1974, a wheelchair-bound Japanese woman attempted to spray paint the Mona Lisa that was being displayed in Tokyo.

An enraged Russian woman who’d been denied French citizenship threw a teacup at Mona Lisa’s glass in 2009 in revenge against the French government.

12. The painting has hidden symbols.

Italian researcher Silvano Vinceti claims to have found the letter “L” in Lisa Gherardini’s right eye in the painting, the letter “S” in her right eye, and the digits “72” under the arched bridge in the painting’s backdrop. Vincenti says these symbols open up new leads to dating the painting, identifying the model, and attesting to da Vinci’s interest in religion and mysticism.

13. There are bizarre theories and speculations over the world’s most famous painting.

Some people have claimed that the painting is really the portrait of a man – and funnier, a self-portrait of da Vinci himself, depicting himself with feminine features.

There have been claims that the Mona Lisa is the portrait of some of the most important personalities of the time such as Isabella of Aragon (Queen of Portugal), Costanza d’Avalos (Duchess of Francavilla), and Beatrice d’Este (Duchess of Bari and Milan).

There have also been speculations over the model’s famously enigmatic smile, ranging from pregnancy to mourning.