Interesting facts about the Mona Lisa painting. The main secret of Mona Lisa - her smile - still haunts scientists The name of the painting "Mona Lisa"

Let us turn to the same loser: “What is the most famous picture Leonardo da Vinci? Answer: "La Gioconda", who would doubt it. But before Gioconda, Leonardo painted several more Madonnas, who cannot be accused of a lack of individuality, unlike their predecessors. Leonardo's Madonnas are quite bodily, feminine, dressed in accordance with secular fashion. Madonna with a flower, or "Madonna Benois", named after their Russian owners - the Benois family. From this picture one can judge how tastes have changed over some three or four centuries! Note, Dear friends how differently her contemporaries and art historians of the 20th century speak about this picture!

M. F. Bocchi, in his book “Sights of the City of Florence”, published in 1591, said:
“A tablet painted in oil by the hand of Leonardo da Vinci, excellent in beauty, which depicts the Madonna with the utmost skill and diligence. The figure of Christ, represented as a baby, is beautiful and amazing, his raised face is one of a kind and amazing in the complexity of the idea and how this idea is successfully resolved.

In 1914 Imperial Hermitage bought this painting from Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the court architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois.

The authenticity of Leonardo's canvas was reluctantly confirmed by the largest authority of the time - Bernard Berenson:
“One unfortunate day I was invited to witness the Benois Madonna. Staring at me was a young woman with a bald forehead and swollen cheeks, a toothless grin, myopic eyes, and a wrinkled neck. An eerie ghost of an old woman plays with a child: his face resembles an empty mask, and swollen bodies and limbs are attached to it. Pathetic hands, stupidly vain folds of skin, the color is like serum. And yet I had to admit that this terrible creature belongs to Leonardo da Vinci ... "

What, dear admirers of Leonardo? But here is another Madonna - "Madonna Litta". Her beauty can hardly be discredited
This picture was painted for the rulers of Milan, after which it passed to the Litta family, and for several centuries it was in their possession. private collection. The original title of the painting is "Madonna and Child". Modern name painting comes from the name of its owner - Count Litt, the owner of the family art gallery in Milan. In 1864, he approached the Hermitage with an offer to sell it. In 1865, together with three other paintings, the Litta Madonna was purchased by the Hermitage for 100,000 francs. Here about her, thank God, there is no such derogatory review as about the poor Madonna Benois.

And yet these Madonnas except compositional solution and authorship there is another unusual similarity. Notice the foreheads. In this era, women not only plucked their eyebrows, but also shaved their foreheads and even their temples.

Such was the influence of fashion. And although “following fashion is funny,” but “not following is stupid.” Apparently that's why the Gioconda looks like that.

The fashion for a highly shaved forehead with shaved eyebrows was common among women in the 15th century in the aristocratic circles of Italy, France and the Netherlands. The introduction of this custom, as is commonly believed, is associated with the name of Isabella of Bavaria (1395)

Sufficiently serious historians claim that Isabella of Bavaria introduced the fashion for high hats - genin, in which not a single strand of hair should have been knocked out. Allegedly, she had ugly - black, dull and coarse hair, and she hid them in this way. And forced to hide the rest, who, perhaps, did not have any need for this. So, dear ladies, before blindly following the fashion, first think about who introduced this fashion and why. And Isabella of Bavaria is credited with the invention of the neckline. The skin on her chest, eyewitnesses said, was incredibly tender. In this portrait, we will not see any black hair and decollete. But this does not mean anything, a medieval portrait is not a photograph for you. But the fashion for all these innovations lasted more than a century.

There is also a version that in the Middle Ages, due to extremely low level life (poor nutrition, lack of vitamins, etc.) everywhere, like an epidemic, the disease of rickets spread. Baldness of the front of the skull is one of the symptoms of rickets. Therefore, the absence of eyebrows and hair on the forehead, of necessity, "came into fashion." The absence of eyebrows and eyelashes in Mona Lisa is also considered by many researchers to be a manifestation of the disease (or rickets, or schizophrenia, or even more serious pathology). But be that as it may, Gioconda quite triumphantly exists, despite all these unflattering assumptions.

Consider some female portraits painted famous artists middle ages from different countries, for the presence of eyebrows. Again, by the way! Speaking of the Renaissance, most often they mean Italian Renaissance, forgetting about the North - no less diverse and significant. Now you will see several paintings by artists Northern Renaissance, depicting equally eyebrowless ladies. Here is a portrait of three almost eyebrowless duchesses Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony, painted German painter of that era by Cranach Lucas the Elder around 1535 (Germany)

A pale complexion, a slender “swan (snake) neck” and a high clean forehead were considered beautiful. To lengthen the oval of the face, the ladies shaved their hair over their foreheads and plucked their eyebrows, and in order to make the neck look longer, they shaved the backs of their heads. To create a high convex forehead, the hair above the forehead and the back of the head (to create the effect of a long neck) was sometimes trimmed by two or even four fingers, and the eyebrows were plucked. Cases of plucking of eyelashes, both upper and lower, are also mentioned.

Rogier van der Weyden Portrait of a Lady 1460 Netherlands: The lady who served as the model for Rogier van der Weyden's "Portrait of a Lady" in 1460 also has her eyebrows shaved or plucked.

Portrayed by Jean Fouquet (France) in 1450, the famous courtesan Agnes Sorel, favorite of Charles VII of France, also shaved her eyebrows. She was considered one of the most beautiful women this era!

Agnes Sorel is credited with introducing such innovations as the wearing of diamonds by the uncrowned, the invention of a long train. She also introduced into fashion very loose outfits that open one breast. Her behavior and open admission of connection with the king often caused resentment. common people and some courtiers, but she was forgiven a lot thanks to the protection of the king and her perfect beauty, about which even the Pope said: "She had the most beautiful face that can only be seen in this world." As you can see, this lady's forehead and temples are shaved so high that they reveal more than half of the skull, judging by the image, really perfect.

Photo: AP/Scanpix

The personality, facial features, smile and even the landscape behind the back of a woman painted more than 500 years ago continue to excite the minds of researchers. While some are studying her lips with a magnifying glass, others find the encoded messages of Leonardo da Vinci in the picture, and still others believe that the real Mona Lisa is a completely different picture.

"It will soon be four centuries since the Mona Lisa deprives everyone who, having seen enough of it, begins to talk about it"

(Gruye, late XIX century).

The DELFI portal introduces the most popular mysteries and theories that surround famous work Leonardo da Vinci.

It is traditionally believed that the painting by da Vinci depicts Lisa Gioconda, née Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by her husband Francesco Gioconda in 1503. Da Vinci, who was then out of work, agreed to perform a private commission, but did not finish it. Later, the artist went to France and settled at the court of King Francois I. According to legend, he presented the Mona Lisa to the king, presenting the painting as one of his favorites. According to other sources, the king simply bought it.

In any case, after the death of da Vinci in 1519, the painting remained in the property of the king, and after French Revolution became state property and was exhibited in the Louvre. For centuries, it was considered a valuable, but rather ordinary masterpiece of the Renaissance. She turned into a world-famous icon only at the beginning of the 20th century, after she was kidnapped in August 1911 by former employee Louvre, painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland (the painting was found and returned two years after the theft).

Since that time, the Mona Lisa has survived several attempts at vandalism and theft and has become a major magnet for the millions of tourists who visit the Louvre every year. Since 2005, the painting has been in a special impenetrable glass "sarcophagus" with a controlled microclimate (the painting has darkened greatly under the influence of time due to da Vinci's experiments with the composition of paints). Every year it is examined by about six million people, each of whom spends an average of 15 seconds on inspection.

Foto: Archive foto

It is traditionally believed that the painting depicts Lisa Gioconda, the third wife of a wealthy fabric and silk merchant Francesco Giocondo. Until the 20th century, this version was not particularly disputed, since a family friend and historian (as well as an artist) Giorgio Vasari mentions in his works as a fact that Francesco's wife was painted by a certain famous artist. This fact was also reflected on the pages of the book by Agostino Vespucci, a clerk and assistant to the historian Niccolò Machiavelli.

However, this was not enough for many researchers, since at the time the picture was painted, Gioconda should have been about 24 years old, but the woman depicted in the picture looks much older. Also, doubts were raised by the fact that the painted picture never belonged to the merchant's family, but remained with the artist. Even if the assumption that da Vinci simply did not have time to finish the painting before he moved to France is correct, it is doubtful that the family of an average merchant by all standards was rich enough to commission a painting of this size. Only really noble and extremely wealthy families could then afford such canvases.

Therefore, there are alternative theories that allow that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself, or that his mother Katrina is depicted in the picture. The latter explains the artist's attachment to this work.

A group of scientists are now hoping to unravel this mystery by excavating under the walls of the monastery of St. Ursula in Florence. It is believed that Lisa Gioconda, who retired to the monastery after the death of her husband, could be buried there. However, experts doubt that among the hundreds of people buried there, one can find the remains of the Mona Lisa. Even more utopian is the hope, using computer reconstruction based on the found skulls, to restore the facial features of all the people buried there in order to find the very woman who posed for the Mona Lisa.

Foto: Archive foto

In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, completely plucked eyebrows were in vogue. It can be assumed that the woman depicted in the picture definitely followed fashion and corresponded to this standard of beauty, but the French engineer Pascal Côté discovered that she actually had eyebrows.

Using a scanner with high resolution he created a copy of the picture very High Quality on which traces of eyebrows were found. According to Cote, the "Mona Lisa" originally had eyebrows, but then over time they disappeared.

One of the reasons for their disappearance may have been overzealous attempts to preserve the painting. In the Louvre Museum and at the court of the king, the masterpiece was regularly cleaned for 500 years, as a result, some especially delicate elements of the picture could disappear.

Another reason for the disappearance of the eyebrows could be unsuccessful attempts to restore the painting. However, it is still not clear how the eyebrows could disappear completely. In any case, traces of a brush stroke can now be seen above the left eye, which indicate that the Mona Lisa did have eyebrows.

Foto: AFP/Scanpix

In the book "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, the art of Leonardo da Vinci to encode information is seriously exaggerated, but the famous master still liked to hide various information in the form of codes and ciphers during his lifetime. Italian History Committee national culture discovered that Mona Lisa's eyes contained tiny letters and numbers.

They are not visible to the naked eye, however, with a strong magnification, it is noticeable that characters are actually written in the eyes. The letters LV are hidden in the right eye, which may be the initials of Leonardo da Vinci himself, and in the left eye the letters are blurred and can be either S, or B, or even CE. Symbols can also be seen on the arch of the bridge, which is located behind the back of the model - a combination of L2 or 72.

The numbers 149 were also found on the back of the painting. It can be assumed that the last number is missing and this is actually the year - 149x. If this is so, then the picture was painted not at the beginning of the 16th century, as it was believed until now, but earlier - at the end of the 15th.

Foto: Archive foto

If you look at the lips, you can see that they are tightly compressed, without any hint of a smile. But at the same time, if you look at the picture in general, there is a feeling that the woman is smiling. This optical illusion has given rise to more than one theory about the vanishing smile of the Mona Lisa.

Experts believe that the explanation for this phenomenon is quite simple - the woman depicted in the picture is not smiling, but if the viewer's eye is "blurred" or he looks at her with the help of peripheral vision, then the shadow from the face creates the effect of an imaginary lifting of the corners of the lips up.

That the woman was absolutely serious is proved by x-rays, which allowed us to look at the sketch of the painting, now hidden under a layer of paint. On it, the wife of a Florentine merchant does not look joyful from any angle.

Foto: Archive foto

Early copies of da Vinci's work show a much wider panorama than the painting exhibited in the Louvre. All of them have columns visible on the sides, while the "real" picture on the right shows only part of the column.

For a long time, experts argued about how this happened, and whether the picture was reduced after the death of da Vinci in order to fit some special frame or not outsize from other paintings at the court of the king. However, these theories were not confirmed - the edges of the painting under the frame are white, indicating that the image did not go beyond the framework that we see today.

Anyway, the theory that the picture was reduced looks doubtful, since it is not painted on fabric, but on a pine board. If pieces were sawed off from it, the paint layer could be damaged or completely separated, and this would be clearly visible.

Foto: Publicitates foto

From the columns and the landscape behind the woman in the picture, it can be concluded that she was sitting on a balcony or terrace. Today, scientists adhere to the point of view that the depicted mountains, bridge, river and road are fictitious, but characteristic of the Montefeltro region in Italy.

This fact not only sheds light on what exactly is depicted in the background, but once again raises the question of the identity of the woman depicted in the picture. According to one of the archivists of the Vatican, the painting depicts Pacifica Brandani, a married lady and mistress of Julian de' Medici. At the time when the picture was supposedly painted, the Medici were in exile and lived in this region.

But regardless of which region the landscape in the picture reflects and what was the personality of the woman depicted in it, it is known that Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in his workshop in Milan.

Foto: Archive foto

American artist Ron Piccirillo believes that he has discovered a rebus hidden for 500 years in a da Vinci painting. In his opinion, the artist hid the image of the heads of three animals - a lion, a monkey and a buffalo. They are clearly visible if you turn the picture on its side.

He also claims that under the woman's left hand is visible something that resembles the tail of a crocodile or a snake. He came to these discoveries, carefully, for two whole months, studying da Vinci's diaries.

Foto: Archive foto

The Isleworth Mona Lisa, found in pre-World War I England, is thought to be another early version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Its name comes from the name of the London suburb in which it was found.

This version of the painting is considered more consistent with the theory that Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpiece at the time when Francesco Gioconda was 24 years old. This work is also more in keeping with the legend that da Vinci moved to France without finishing the painting and taking it with him as it was.

But at the same time, the history of this painting, unlike the Louvre original, is unknown. It is also unclear how the work came to England and to whom it belonged. Experts cannot believe the version that a famous artist gave or sold an unfinished work to someone.

Foto: Archive foto

"Donna Nuda" - a portrait of a partially naked woman with a smile characteristic of a da Vinci masterpiece, clearly resembles the original, but the author of this painting is unknown. Interestingly, this work is not only similar, but definitely created at the beginning of the 16th century - at the same time as the Mona Lisa.

Unlike the work exhibited in the Louvre, which rarely leaves its place behind bulletproof glass, "Donna Nuda" has changed hands many times and was regularly exhibited at exhibitions, dedicated to creativity da Vinci.

Historians believe that although this work, most likely, does not belong to the brush of da Vinci himself, it is most definitely a copy of his painting, made by one of the master's students. The original, for some reason, was lost.

Foto: Archive foto

On the morning of August 21, 1911, museum workers at the Louvre found four empty nails at the site of the painting. And although up to this point the picture did not cause much excitement in society, her abduction became a real sensation, which was written about by the press in many countries of the world.

This created problems for the administration of the museum, as it turned out that the security was not properly organized in the museum - only a few people guarded the huge rooms with world masterpieces. And almost all the paintings were fixed on the walls so that they could be safely removed and carried away.

What did the former employee of the Louvre, the painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland. The paintings were found and returned a year after the theft - Perugia himself foolishly responded to an advertisement for the purchase of a masterpiece. Although in Italy his act was accepted with understanding, nevertheless, the court sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of two years.

This story was the catalyst for a sharp increase in public interest in the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. The press that covered the kidnapping story immediately unearthed a one-year-old case in which a man committed suicide in a museum, right in front of a painting. There was also talk about enigmatic smile, secret messages and da Vinci ciphers, special mystical meaning"Mona Lisa", etc.

The popularity of the museum in the Louvre after the return of the "Mona Lisa" has grown so much that according to one of the conspiracy theories, the theft was organized by the management of the museum themselves - in order to attract international interest to it. This beautiful conspiracy idea is overshadowed only by the fact that the museum management itself did not gain anything from this theft - as a result of the scandal that broke out, it was fired in its entirety.

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The enigmatic genius of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci - what do we know about him? Great painter, who wrote so many world masterpieces, why didn't he finish so many works? The drawings by Leonardo da Vinci known to us convey both the beauty of the world and man, as well as creepy, ugly scenes from life.

He owns not only paintings, but also a variety of inventions, several centuries ahead of their time. The life of this man has always been shrouded in mystery, his achievements are simply amazing. Leonardo da Vinci is not just a man, but a superman living in another dimension.

Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

We will focus on his most amazing riddle - the portrait of Mona Lisa or the "La Gioconda" (Louvre).

This picture, which has been debated for more than one century, and every researcher is trying to find a new riddle in this picture in order to solve it. The portrait carries in itself not just a specific reality, but is a generalization of a universal, spiritual principle. This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being ”(Leonardo. M. Batkin).

The picture refers to early XVI century. This is a portrait of the wife of a merchant from Florence, Francesco del Giocondo.

The most famous is the riddle of the Gioconda's smile. The skill of the genius here has reached such heights that the expression on Mona Lisa's face remains elusive, from different points - it is always different. Someone considered this effect sinister, someone spiritualized, hypnotic. This effect is called sfumato (very subtle transitions from light to shadow) - realism and volume are as if the picture is painted with many strokes.

And yet, it is not! The paint layer is very thin, and the strokes are not visible at all. Researchers have long been trying to understand this style of writing using the fluorescent method. A barely perceptible haze blends the lines, making Gioconda almost alive. It begins to seem that now the lips will open and she will utter a word.

The first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who wrote that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish it, but immediately reports that the portrait reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey. With a great deal of confidence, we can say that in the image of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci portrayed not simple woman, and the Mother of God.

Researchers are inclined to conclude that one half of the Gioconda's face is John the Baptist, the profile of the second half belongs to Jesus Christ.

The left hand lies motionless, in the language of Leonardo “If the figures do not make gestures that the members of the body express representation human soul, then these figures are twice dead.” The right hand looks more “believable”. All this confirms that in the image of Mona Lisa the artist combined a living and a dead image.

We know that he encrypted many of his works, for example, using the “mirror” writing technique. Thus, the letters LV or L2 were found in the right pupil of the Mona Lisa. Perhaps these are initials, or perhaps a code - after all, in the Middle Ages, letters could replace numbers.

According to the researcher Karla Glory, behind the silhouette of the Mona Lisa on the canvas master of genius the brushes of Leonardo da Vinci depict the picturesque surroundings of the town of Bobbio, which is located in northern Italy. This conclusion was made following a report by the head of the Italian National Committee for the Protection of cultural monuments Silvano Vincheti - journalist, writer and discoverer of the tomb of Michelangelo da Caravaggio.

The publicist said that he had seen the inscriptions of letters and numbers on Leonardo's priceless canvas. It was about the number "72", which is under the arch of the bridge, viewed from left hand from the Mona Lisa. Vincheti himself believes that this is a reference to the mystical theories of Leonardo da Vinci.

Glori Karla believes that the mark "72" indicates the year 1472, when the Trebbia River, which emerged during the flood, demolished and destroyed the dilapidated bridge. Later, the Visconti family, who dominated those parts at that time, built a new bridge. Everything, except for the image of the bridge, is that magnificent landscape that could be seen from the terraces and windows of the local medieval castle.

The town of Bobbio was famous for the fact that nearby is the grandiose monastic ensemble of San Colombano (San Colombano), which became the prototype of the scene for romantic story Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose.

Carla Glory also suggested that his model was not the wife of a wealthy citizen, Lisa del Giocondo, but the daughter of the Duke of Milan, Bianca Giovanna Sforza. The place depicted on the canvas is not the central part of Italy, as previously assumed. The father of the proposed model, Lodovico Sforza, was one of Leonardo's main customers and a renowned patron of the arts.

The historian Glory suggests that the painter and naturalist visited him both in Milan and in remote Bobbio. There was a famous library in those days, which fell under the domineering beginning of the Milanese rulers. Skeptical researchers argue that the inscriptions of numbers, letters, discovered by Vincheti in the pupils of Mona Lisa's eyes, are nothing more than cracks that appeared there from time to time.

However, this is not necessarily the case. An example of this amazing story study of the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, which is located in Mexico.

Leonardo da Vinci's scariest puzzle

Combining the qualities of a scientist and a clairvoyant, in his old age Leonardo made a strange drawing - “The End of the World”, which was then not understood. Today it terrifies us: it is the outline of a huge mushroom growing out of the blown up city...

Some scientists and researchers are sure that some of Leonardo's puzzles have already been solved, for example:

1. “An ominous feathered race will rush through the air; they will attack men and beasts and feed on them with a great cry.” It is believed that here we are talking about airplanes, helicopters, rockets.
2. “People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other.” Well, of course, it's a phone, a mobile connection.
3. "Sea water will rise to high peaks mountains, to the heavens and again fall on the dwellings of people. It will be seen how the most big trees forests will be carried by the fury of the wind from east to west.
   There is an opinion that this prophecy is connected with global warming.

It is impossible to list all the works of Leonardo. But even this small part is enough to get an idea of ​​​​this universal genius, which cannot be compared with anyone who lived in his time.

The absence of eyebrows in the lady depicted in the painting "La Gioconda" was first noted in 1817. French writer Henri Stendhal. And “La Gioconda” dates presumably from the period 1503-1515.

There are many versions of why there are no (or not visible) eyebrows, here are some of them.

1st version:

Leonardo da Vinci in many portraits and paintings barely drew eyebrows on purpose in order to focus attention precisely on the eyes, highlight them, emphasize them, give the look mystery and significance (which he always succeeded in!) ... So this is kind of like his usual technique ...

2nd version: it was just fashionable back then!

“The fashion for a high-shaven forehead with shaved eyebrows was indeed common among women in the 15th century in the aristocratic circles of Italy, France and the Netherlands. The introduction of this custom, as is commonly believed, is associated with the name of Isabella of Bavaria (1395).

A pale complexion, a slender “swan (snake) neck” and a high clean forehead were considered beautiful. To lengthen the oval of the face, the ladies shaved their hair over their foreheads and plucked their eyebrows, and in order to make the neck look longer, they shaved the backs of their heads. A high bulging forehead was fashionable, and to create it, the hair above the forehead and the back of the head (to create the effect of a long neck) was sometimes trimmed by two or even four fingers, and the eyebrows were plucked. Cases of plucking of eyelashes, both upper and lower, are also mentioned. ”- Wikipedia

Consider a few female portraits, written by famous artists of the Middle Ages from different countries, for the presence of eyebrows.

The Netherlands: The lady who served as the model for Rogier van der Weyden's "Portrait of a Lady" in 1460 has either shaved or plucked eyebrows.

France: Portrayed by Jean Fouquet in 1450, the famous courtesan Agnes Sorel, Dame de Beauté, favorite of Charles VII of France, also shaved her eyebrows. She was considered one of the most beautiful women of this era! Agnes is credited with the introduction of such innovations as the wearing of diamonds by uncrowned persons, the invention of a long train, and the wearing of very loose outfits that open one breast. Her behavior and open recognition of her connection with the king often aroused the indignation of the common people and some of the courtiers, but much was forgiven her thanks to the protection of the king and her perfect beauty, about which even the Pope said: “She had the most beautiful face that can only be seen on this light."

Germany: And here is a portrait of the three almost eyebrowless duchesses Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony, painted by the German painter of that era, Cranach Lucas the Elder, around 1535.

Portrait of his own brush "Mesalliance" - 1532

Netherlands: The famous "Portrait of Saskia with a flower" by Rembrandt, painted in 1641.

England: Indeed, such a fashion took place, and very high-ranking persons followed it - for example, a portrait English queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603, by the way, it was she who introduced the fashion for red hair) says that she also shaved her eyebrows.

That is, such a fashion lasted almost three centuries?

They say that the new is the well-forgotten old... And now, as if the fashion for shaved eyebrows is returning... From time to time, some modern fashionistas are also asked to make “La Gioconda's Forehead”. Women remove the hair at the back of their heads to make their neck look bigger and wear high hairstyles. Down with unibrows: they say this is a sign of a bad character ...

Recently, at the fashion shows of luxury brands Balenciaga and Prada for the autumn-winter 2009 season, stylists shaved off the eyebrows of their well-known highly paid models ...

It is not known whether this fashion will hit the streets - how it will be perceived modern people- after all, shaved eyebrows are still offered to the elite, just like in the Middle Ages ...

But after all, the wife of a silk merchant, in her social position, could not be considered an aristocrat! Yes, and before shaving her eyebrows, if (according to some versions) her attire is mourning? However, according to some reports, her husband in 1510 managed to make an outstanding political career and over the next seven years he determined the fate of his hometown. Mona Lisa was his second or third wife. And either she was a big fan of the high fashion of that time, especially since she lived in Florence - one of the largest cultural centers of that time, and imitated high-ranking fashionable persons, or ...

3rd version:That's not her!

... or, after all, another lady served as a model - really an aristocrat, for whom shaving her eyebrows was really an indicator of her high origin, social status and almost a duty!

4th version: Leonardo's secret plan!

The absence of eyebrows is a sign that should draw the viewer's attention to the solution of Leonardo's cipher! This interesting and very beautiful version You can watch the video The mystery of the Divine Gioconda Smile - The Mystery of the Gioconda in the section VIDEO . It turns out that if you look at the picture correctly, an ephemeral image of a beautiful angel appears on it!

5th version: disease

Among the nobility of that time were frequent deformities, countless childhood illnesses, especially rickets. There have never been so many cripples, hunchbacks and dwarfs as when the ideal of medieval beauty appeared - a small, fragile figure with a slightly swollen belly, emphasized by the style of the dress, a puffy pale face with a large bulging forehead, without eyebrows and eyelashes - they were deprived due to diseases. The lady depicted in the painting “La Gioconda” is diagnosed by modern doctors with many diagnoses - and one of them is alopecia (absence of hair)

6th version: eyebrows still were!

TO THE GIACONDA SECTION

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In the Royal Castle of Amboise (France), Leonardo da Vinci completed the famous "La Gioconda" - "Mona Lisa". It is generally accepted that Leonardo is buried in the chapel of St. Hubert of the Amboise castle.

Hidden in Mona Lisa's eyes are tiny numbers and letters that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Perhaps these are the initials of Leonardo da Vinci and the year the painting was created.

Mona Lisa is considered the most mysterious picture ever created. Art experts are still unraveling its mysteries. At the same time, the Mona Lisa is one of the most disappointing sights in Paris. The fact is that huge queues line up every day. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass.

August 21, 1911 there was a high-profile theft of "Mona Lisa". She was kidnapped by Louvre worker Vincenzo Perugia. There is an assumption that Perugia wanted to return the painting to its historical homeland. The first attempts to find the picture did not lead to anything. The administration of the museum was fired. As part of this case, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested, later released. Pablo Picasso was also under suspicion. The painting was found two years later in Italy. January 4, 1914 painting (after exhibitions on Italian cities) returned to Paris. After these events, the picture gained unprecedented popularity.

There is a large plasticine Mona Lisa in the DIDU cafe. It was sculpted within a month by ordinary cafe visitors. The process was led by the artist Nikas Safronov. Gioconda, which was molded by 1700 Muscovites and guests of the city, got into the Guinness Book of Records. It became the largest plasticine reproduction of the Mona Lisa, molded by people.

During World War II, many works from the Louvre collection were hidden in the Chateau de Chambord. Among them was the Mona Lisa. In the pictures - emergency preparations for sending the painting before the arrival of the Nazis in Paris. The place where the Mona Lisa is hidden was kept in the strictest confidence. The paintings were not hidden in vain: it would later turn out that Hitler planned to create "the world's largest museum" in Linz. And for this he organized a whole campaign under the leadership of the German art connoisseur Hans Posse.

After 100 years without people, the Mona Lisa is eaten by bugs in the History Channel film Life After People.

Most researchers believe that the landscape painted behind the Mona Lisa is fictional. There are versions that this is the Valdarno Valley or the Montefeltro region, but there is no convincing evidence for these versions. It is known that Leonardo painted the painting in his Milan workshop.