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The Mona Lisa By Leonardo Da Vinci

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One of the world’s most famous paintings is the Mona Lisa. It was created by the Renaissance’s most highly praised artist, Leonardo da Vinci, in the years 1503 to 1506. Leonardo worked on this painting while he lived in Florence, Italy, and it is made using oil paints on a poplar wood panel. The painting depicts, simply, a woman in front of an expansive landscape of rocky hills, valleys, mountains, and bodies of water. It was discovered in King Francis I’s royal collection, but this is no surprise considering that Leonardo worked for him in France from 1516 up until Leonardo’s death in 1519. It was transported to the Louvre, which is a museum in Paris, France. The painting was stolen in 1911 by a widely known Italian art thief named Vincenzo Peruggio. It was recovered two years later and returned to the Louvre, where it still resides today. In 1951, the panel it was painted on showed signs of warping, and so a wooden frame was added to the piece, as well as braces in 1970. Dovetails were also a necessity in preserving the work, due to a crack that had started to spread. As of 2012, the value of the painting sits at $760 million. Leonardo used sfumato to create the fine shading of Mona Lisa’s clothes and hair, as well as using it to compliment the landscape behind her. Upon closer inspection, one can see that she does not have any eyebrows. There are multiple theories for this, including Leonardo’s decision to not give her any, or maybe she simply didn’t have any, as it was

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