Easily the most famous painting of all time, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is also one of the world’s great mysteries.

If you have read the book or seen the movie version of The da Vinci Code (and chances are pretty good that you have) then you have some small idea of the questions and myths that surround the painting.

But when it comes to The Mona Lisa, history does not need a hack mystery writer to make it interesting. What is know and unknown about the masterpiece is every bit as interesting as any fictional story could hope to be.

Facts are Stranger Than Fiction

First off, Mona Lisa is not the name of the painting. At least it is not the name given to it by its painter, da Vinci.

The fact is that we really don’t know what he called it — if he named it at all. He refused to give the painting’s name upon completing it in 1507 after 4 years of working on it.

The Italian name “Mona Lisa” — which means Madam Lisa — was applied to it by the painter Giorgio Vasari in 1550. He was his belief that the portrait was of Lisa Gherardini, young wife of a wealthy Florence silk merchant.

It’s Mine, All Mine!

In a strange move, da Vinci kept the painting for himself. Whoever commissioned the painting never received it. It’s not even known for sure that anyone actually did commission it. Leonardo was a commercial artist who paid the bills by painting — so this is quite a strange move.

Historic records show that da Vinci took Mona with him everywhere he went and that he often “retouched” it over and over until his death in 1519.

Great Art Lives

After Leonardo’s death, the King of France bought the painting and it stayed in the royal family for more than 200 years. During the French Revolution the masterpiece was moved to its current home, The Louvre.

It has remained there ever since…except for a short time when Napoleon “borrowed” it — and hung it in his bedroom!

Tags: the Adoration of Mag, The Last Supper, drawings, facts about leonardo da vinci, Da Vinci Painting, high renaissance, application of perspective, painting techniques