USTHB English Speakers Magazine USTHB English Speakers Magazine 1st Edition | Page 34

ART SECTION!
By Mary Rose Kadi
THE MONA LISA
T he Mona Lisa is the most famous work of
art in the world, painted by the Italian artist
Leonardo da Vinci. “Mona” is an Italian polite
form of saying “My lady”.
Leonardo undertook the task of painting the
Mona Lisa from Francesco del Giocondo, a
wealthy Florentine silk merchant. The model,
Lisa del Giocondo was his wife.
The painting is unsigned, that made a lot of
persons suspect if Leonardo himself painted
it; and is also undated, but analysis shows that
he commenced painting it in 1503 and con-
tinued for about four years, carrying it with
him; further estimated that he continued
working on it until the year of 1517 in Am-
boise, France.
He took the painting with him from Italy to
France where it was sold to the King of France,
now it was not known why DaVinci did not
give the painting to its original owner, Fran-
cesco del Giocondo, it may have been because
the Mona Lisa was not finished, or because it
was Leonardo’s favorite painting.
The Mona Lisa has had many homes, includ-
ing the Palace of Versailles, Napoleon’s bed-
room, and was finally transferred to the Lou-
ver, its permanent home. What is certain is
that the Mona Lisa was never passed onto the
rightful owner for unknown reasons.
The most unusual suggestion is that Mona
Lisa was really a man, a self-portrait of Leon-
ardo himself. Computer tests show that the
facial features actually match.
Today the original “Mona Lisa” is located in
the Louvre Museum in Paris. It is Considered
the most visited, the most written about, the
There are other suggestions about the identity
most sung about and one of the invaluable
of the woman in the painting, some claim that
work of art.
she was the widowed Duchess of Milan; Oth-
ers conclude she was the mistress of Giuliano
de’ Medici (co-ruler of Florence).
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