Art or a mystery?

As a child, one always has a connection to art and colours. Whether it’s a sketch on the page of a drawing book or the wall of the house, its special. Art is for everyone. It shows us how different people look at same things differently. Some people practice a lot of art and become very good at it. One such person was an artist named Leonardo da Vinci. He lived in the 15th century. Vinci created the famous painting of ‘The Mona Lisa’. It is a half-length portrait of a lady. It is kept in The Louvre Museum in France. Can you guess how much this masterpiece of art costs? A whopping 700 million dollars! That is a lot of money. The painting shows the awesome creativity of an artist.

For Leonardo it was just a painting – but hundreds of years later it has become a mystery for the scientists to solve.

How can a painting be mysterious? Does it hide anything behind its beauty?

A million dollar smile

It has a beautiful smile. “Smile… Where is the smile???” It’s gone. It disappears as soon as one tries to view the other features of the painting- hence the name, the uncatchable smile.

The lifelike eyes

It has beautiful eyes too. But the eyelashes and the eyebrows are missing.  Did the beautiful lady not have them? She did. Scientists have recently revealed that the eyebrows and eyelashes probably got erased while cleaning the painting.

A hidden identity

Is the lady in painting lady Lisa Gherardini – the wife of an Italian silk merchant during Leonardo’s time?  Or is she someone else?  Some say she is a portrait of Virgin Mary. Others say, she is a mixture of many women. It is also said that it is either Leonardo’s mother’s portrait or may be his modified self-portrait. There are so many assumptions about her identity. The question still remains unanswered.

Just when you thought there can not be any more secrets, there is another one. A different portrait has been found by the art curators behind the painting as if it was re-painted again. It’s strange to see an entirely different portrait behind a world famous painting.

Decode the code

Da Vinci was a genius. It is assumed that he hid secret messages in the form of some shortcodes in his painting. A famous author Dan Brown has mentioned about them in his novel – The Da Vinci Code. Scientists have researched and discovered the codes in the painting background and the eyes of the lady. Mona Lisa and Da Vinci continue to shock us by the mysteries even after so many years of its creation.

The Mystery continues

Mona Lisa is the best known, the most visited, the most written about, and the most praised work of art in the world. No wonder it caught attention of thieves. The painting was once stolen by an Italian from the French museum, but it was found back. Mona Lisa remains a mystery for some, a topic of research for others and a beautiful painting for the rest. Even after 500 years of its creation, the painting continues to gain the attention of its viewers over the world.