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Mona Lisa Research Paper

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During the Renaissance Period the worlds most famous and valued painting was created: The Mona Lisa. In Florence Italy, 1503 Leonardo de Vinci began his magnificent work on this piece. Being a man who was said to have never finished a piece of art he worked on this project for three years and came back to it more than ten years later. He created the Mona Lisa using oil on white Lombardy poplar panel (Mona Lisa Encyclopedia Britannica) The portrait is of Lisa Gheradini wife of Francesco del Gheradini. “Mona” is a polite form to address women in Italian, thus the name, “Mona Lisa.” After da Vinci passed, he gave many of his works of art to his assistant, including the Mona Lisa. King Francis I of France bought it off of him for 4,000 crown (Mona …show more content…

Suspects were taken in for questioning and even arrested (Treasures of the World Mona Lisa). Two years had passed and the thief was finally discovered returning the Mona Lisa to the Louvre in 1913. Employee, Peruggia, was imprisoned for six months for the theft of the painting. Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed the Mona Lisa should not be kept in France but returned back to where it was created: Italy (Treasures of the World Mona Lisa). During the two years that the piecing was missing, many people tried to pass copies of the Mona Lisa as the real art. This happened so often that the value of the original piece increased dramatically. After the painting had been stolen, there were multiple …show more content…

After a very long overnight flight we arrived in Paris, France and headed straight to the Louvre Museum. Although being very jet lagged, we were eager to finally get to see some of the world’s most famous and valued pieces in art history. Upon first glance of the Mona Lisa, I immediately noticed how bright her face looked outlined by darker elements creating the perfect contrast. Although I had previously read about how this painting seemed as if she were communicating with you, I was still utterly surprised upon seeing this painting in front of my very own eyes. No matter where I was standing, I always felt as though she was looking at me. However, depending on where I stood in reference to the painting, her smile almost seemed to change. Overall, she usually seemed smiling, but other times when I looked directly at her lips, her smile almost faded. I’m not entirely sure how da Vinci achieved this, but it fascinated me

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