Who is Mona Lisa?: Mona Lisa and Her Enigmatic Smile

                           They said art has deeper meaning in it. That’s how famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and many more thought about their creations. The more hidden message it conveys, the better. But there are also mysteries about it. About what it is all about? Who is the creator portraying? What or who is the creator’s inspiration? And Masterpiece has really caught the eye of the critics and even also the simple people. The Painting entitled “ The Mona Lisa” it was painted by Leonardo da Vinci for about 500 years ago…Still the mystery remains a mystery. There are lot of speculations about the topic who really is Mona Lisa and what is the mysterious thing about her smile? Is She the alter ego of Leonardo da Vinci? Or Just some special woman?

                           There are reports that says that the Mona Lisa is not Leonardo da Vinci but a Woman named Lisa Gherardini. Lisa Gherardini, was the wife of Francesco Giocondo. Little is known about Lisa's life. Born in Florence and married in her teens to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official, she was mother to five children and led what is thought to have been a comfortable and ordinary middle-class life. Lisa outlived her husband, who was considerably her senior. “Mona Lisa fulfilled 15th- and early 16th century requirements for portraying a woman of virtue. Lisa is portrayed as a faithful wife through gesture—her right hand rests over her left. Leonardo also presented Lisa as fashionable and successful, perhaps more well-off than she was. Her dark garments and black veil were Spanish-influenced high fashion; they are not a depiction of mourning for her first daughter, as some scholars have proposed. The portrait is strikingly large; its size is equal to that of commissions acquired by wealthier art patrons of the time. This extravagance has been explained as a sign of Francesco and Lisa's social aspiration.” – Wikipedia.

                           But even though The Mona Lisa was portrayed as Lisa Gherardini. Still a lot of speculations arise from it. Reports says that “Although the sitter has traditionally been identified as Lisa del Giocondo (Gherardini), a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories, including Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory and the possibility that Leonardo used his own likeness. Other aspects of the painting that have been subject to speculation are the original size of the painting, whether it is the original, why it was painted, and various explanations for how the effect of an enigmatic smile was achieved.” The Mystery of Identity may be solved but the smile isn’t yet…In the generations to come further speculations will rise about the smile. The smile that Mona Lisa can only acquire.