Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa (1503)

Title: Mona Lisa or Gioconda (La Joconde)
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Date: c.1503-16
Made in: Florence, Italy, and finished in Clos Lucé, France
Medium: Oil on poplar panel
Dimensions: 77 × 53 cm
Location: Le Louvre, Paris, France
Photo credit: C2RMF, retouched, on Wikimedia in 2011

Leonardo da Vinci’s "Mona Lisa" is a small, quietly commanding portrait of a seated woman set against a vast, dreamlike landscape. She faces the viewer in a three-quarter pose, her hands folded calmly, her body turned slightly as if she has just settled into place. The composition feels balanced and intimate: she is close enough to meet our gaze, yet distant enough to remain unreadable. She holds herself with a benevolent demeanor and smiles peacefully. She radiates serenity. One can think of an idealized womanly, protective figure, like the Virgin Mary, or the perfect Mother.

Her expression is the painting’s famous enigma. The slight lift at the corners of her mouth—suggesting a smile—seems to shift depending on where you look, as if it belongs to a passing thought rather than a fixed emotion. Her eyes appear to follow the viewer, not in a theatrical way but with a steady attentiveness that makes the encounter feel personal, even centuries later.

Leonardo’s technique is central to the painting’s effect. The transitions between light and shadow are extraordinarily soft, especially around the cheeks, mouth, and eyes, creating a lifelike, breathing presence rather than a sharply outlined figure. Subtle modeling, delicate highlights, and carefully controlled tonal gradations give her skin a luminous depth, while the overall harmony of color and atmosphere keeps everything unified and calm.

Behind her, the landscape stretches into winding paths, distant mountains, and water that recedes into a bluish haze. It doesn’t read as a specific place so much as a world—ancient, elemental, and slightly unreal—set at different horizons on either side, adding to the painting’s quiet strangeness. The result is a portrait that feels both human and timeless: a single person anchored in the foreground, and an entire, mysterious universe unfolding behind her.

At Le Louvre: Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa
On Wikipedia: Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa