Mona Lisa's Smile

My wife said that she had the pleasure of viewing Leonardo's painting of Mona Lisa at the Louvre when she was in Paris, along with other attractions like the statues of David and Aphrodite. She said it was a lot smaller than she had imagined, measuring only thirty by twenty inches, not like you would think with so much being made of it. So, I took a moment to bring up the image and stare it down for a bit to see if I could coax out the enigmatic smile that all the Da Vinci aficionados like to debate.

For nearly 500 years, people have been gazing at Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of the Mona Lisa with a sense of bafflement. First she is smiling. Then the smile fades. A moment later the smile returns only to disappear again. What is with this lady's face? How did the great painter capture such a mysterious expression and why haven't other artists copied it? The Italians have a word to explain Mona Lisa's smile: sfumato. It means blurry, ambiguous and up to the imagination.

Mona strikes me as rather disapproving, maybe even bored. Thinking about it, I wondered about how long she had to sit while Leonardo worked his magic. It couldn't have been comfortable and the castle was probably cold, as they were in that day and still are. Wife of a Florentine nobleman, Mona Lisa Gherardini was probably used to being pampered, and it must have challenged her patience to the limit to have to sit for so long.

As I understand it, her husband did not like Leonardo's masterpiece when it was finished, and refused to pay for it. One can only imagine Da Vinci's reaction. Didn't anyone tell her husband that this was a masterpiece that would long outlast his noble achievements? I can just see Da Vinci throwing a tantrum, tossing his brush across the studio, heaving a loaded palette at the Gherardini's as they made haste to escape his outburst.

So much for the rest of the story. Little did they know, or Leo for that matter, that his work would immortalize this lady for centuries. I do empathize with her, however, in hindsight. She must have been absolutely bored out her mind and probably squirming to get up and go take a pee. That explains the lopsided awkward smile that I can only imagine was her expression at the time! Questa è la mia interpretazione della sfumatura del suo sorriso!!!