Da Vinci: Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the village of Vinci near Florence. He died on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67, in Amboise, France.

The Mona Lisa is Leonardo’s most famous painting. Lisa was the wife of a rich trader in silk named Francesco del Giocondo.

Leonardo started to paint Lisa’s portrait around 1503 in Florence. He worked on the painting, off and on, for four years. Then he worked on other projects. This was normal for Leonardo.

Leonardo took the painting with him when he moved to Amboise in 1516. He worked on it again, off and on, for three more years. He finished it just before he died in 1519. The finished painting is only 30 x 21 inches (77 x 53 cm).

After Leonardo died, Francis 1st, king of France, bought the painting. After Francis died, the painting was owned by other kings of France until the revolution in 1789. Then it was owned by the French government and put into the Louvre Museum.

According to Wikipedia, over 6,000,000 people see Leonardo’s Mona Lisa each year. Yet the average person only looks at the painting for 15 seconds.

Copyright © 2012 by Steven Farsaci. All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.