October 20, 2023 – Mona Lisa

A new study was published this week that revealed a new secret about the Mona Lisa. A team of scientists from France and Britain detected a rare mineral compound within the painting. It was found in the base layer of the paint, and it’s a technique that was used by later artists to help the paint dry. The findings show that Da Vinci was more experimental with the Mona Lisa than previously thought and that he likely created a technique seen in works created a century later.
The Mona Lisa depicts an Italian noblewoman named Lisa del Giocondo, whose wealthy husband commissioned the work in Florence, Italy around 1503. The name Mona Lisa translates to “My Lady Lisa”. Da Vinci never gave the painting to the Giocondo family, instead leaving it in his will to his favourite apprentice. There are actually at least 4 different versions, painted by da Vinci and his students. The best-known own is in the Louvre in Paris, while the others are at the Prado Museum in Madrid and in private collections.
The work was eventually acquired by King Francis I of France. After the French Revolution, it spent a brief period in Napoleon’s bedroom at the Tuileries Palace before going on permanent display at the Louvre. The Mona Lisa is a lot smaller than you might think. It’s only 30 inches by 21 inches and weighs 18 pounds.
The painting didn’t become famous until 1911 when it was stolen from the Louvre. The culprit was a Louvre employee named Vincenzo Peruggia, who had helped build the painting’s glass case. He pulled it off by hiding in a broom closet at the museum until it closed, then walked out with it hidden under his coat. Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed the painting should be in an Italian museum. He kept it in his apartment for 2 years and was caught when he tried to sell the painting to an art dealer in Florence. The theft and recovery generated a huge amount of publicity and inspired operas, films, and songs.
Today, the painting is kept under strict climate-controlled conditions in a bulletproof case. It’s one of the most valuable paintings in the world, holding the Guinness World Record for the highest-known painting insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962 (around $1 billion today). It’s also the most visited painting in the world. The Louvre gets around 10 million visitors each year and a whopping 80% of them are there just to see the Mona Lisa. Learn more here.