Real 'Mona Lisa' was wealthy Italian's wife

You wanted to know

"Who is the person in the portrait 'Mona Lisa'?" asked a young patron at the Vernon Area Library's Wheel of Wisdom game show program.

Gargantuan reputation, tiny size. The "Mona Lisa," painted by Leonardo da Vinci starting in 1503, is only 2½ feet tall and less than 2 feet wide. This world famous portrait of a smiling woman seated in an outdoor setting took about four years to complete.

Da Vinci, who lived in Florence, Italy, was short on funds, according to "Mona Lisa" historian, author and professor Donald Sassoon, so he accepted the commission by the wealthy silk and wool merchant Francesco del Giocondo to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini.

The resulting work of art was found among da Vinci's possessions when he died in France, so it's possible the del Giocondos never hung it on their wall.

One of da Vinci's students inherited the painting and sold it to the King of France. Historians believe other famous painters, such as Raphael, saw the painting, but it took almost 400 years before the masterpiece was placed in a public setting.

The "Mona Lisa" became one of the first paintings installed in France's world famous art museum the Louvre in the late 1800s.

Sassoon, in a podcast interview from November 2008, explained the mystery surrounding the oil painting: "It was rare for a Renaissance painting to have a smile."

Da Vinci's use of the technique called sfumato creates an otherworldly setting with blurred and blended lines around Lisa's eyes and lips. It's difficult to tell what she is feeling, but her slight smile makes it seem like Lisa has something on her mind.

Da Vinci, a brilliant painter-inventor-statesman, created only 15 paintings throughout his lifetime, but his reputation as a genius draws immense appreciation for everything he was associated with.

In 1831, the famous inventor Samuel F.B. Morse (Morse code), who was also an accomplished artist, created an oversized canvas featuring 40 of the Louvre's most famous artworks. Depicted as if they were displayed all in one room, "Gallery of the Louvre" includes the "Mona Lisa" among the acclaimed selections.

Morse's intent was to send the painting on tour around the U.S. to show the populous treasures from the famous museum. The idea fell flat after touring in only two states, leaving the door open for Morse to delve into inventing.

A museum heist helped propel the "Mona Lisa" to its status as the world's most famous painting. In 1911, an Italian patriot grabbed the picture off the Louvre wall and walked away with it under his coat in an attempt to return the artwork to its original home in Florence, Italy.

Newspaper headlines around the world picked up the astonishing story, which became rife with unusual plot developments - at one point Pablo Picasso was accused of taking the picture, but he was found innocent. Eventually, it was returned to the Louvre.

If a copy of the image in Morse's painting was uninspiring, the real deal proved to be a phenomenon.

In the early 1960s, Jacqueline Kennedy asked the French minister of cultural affairs to loan the "Mona Lisa" to the U.S. Carefully crated and guarded aboard the SS France ocean liner, the famous painting was sent on a three-week tour of Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The tiny masterpiece drew in more than 1 million fans. This wildly successful tour was repeated 20 years later in Japan, and the painting's popularity exploded across the globe.

The "Mona Lisa" has been copied, caricatured and satirized, featured in countless ads and memorialized in the Nat King Cole tune with the same name.

View it up close on the Louvre website or at a distance among throngs at the Louvre museum. Visitors report the best time to see the "Mona Lisa" with the least competition is at 8:30 a.m. when the museum opens.

Check it out

The Vernon Area Public Library in Lincolnshire suggests these titles on da Vinci and "Mona Lisa":

• "Who was Leonardo da Vinci?" by Roberta Edwards

• "Leonardo da Vinci," by Mike Venezia

• "Leonardo da Vinci," by M.C. Hall

• "Cave Paintings to Picasso: The Inside Scoop on 50 Art Masterpieces," by Henry Sayre

• "Children's Introduction to Art: The World's Greatest Paintings and Sculptures," by Heather Alexander