Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is one of the world's most famous paintings. It is so famous that it goes on tours. (Literally) It is currently in The Louvre, located in Paris, France. The Louvre holds a mass majority of the world's most expensive and refined art.

The Mona Lisa was made by the prodigy, Leonardo Da Vinci. (check out the article we wrote about Leonardo Da Vinci, titled: Leonardo Da Vinci) The Mona Lisa itself is made of oil paint, and the canvas is 30 in. by 21 in. (77 cm. by 53 cm.)

It is very, very famous because of the fact that many people have stolen it over the course of many years. Also, nobody knows who Mona Lisa really is. If you can't tell, in the back, Mona Lisa is wearing a black veil, which many believe is a sign that her newborn just died.

There are also many assumptions & theories about Mona Lisa's identity. Many believe that Leonardo Da Vinci was simply curious and painted himself as a woman. He may have also painted his mother and one of his sisters combined.

The painting has been stolen too many times to have been noted. For example, one man, after stealing the Mona Lisa, hid the painting under his bed. After doing this, he in fact created multiple duplicates of the painting. Because of people like this, we are not sure if the painting on display today is the real one or merely a replica.

The original name of the Mona Lisa was actually the Monna Lisa. However, a spelling error changed the original name. Monna means Madonna in Italian, or Da Vinci's native language. Madonna, in turn, means 'my lady'.

Many people want to see this painting for themselves and estimate it to be fairly large, but it is actually quite small for its humongous reputation.

#RENAISSANCE #PAITING