History Art / TheMonaLisa

* SmallReferencePools: If someone needs to make a reference to a famous piece of art, this is the one painting that ''everybody'' knows.

* ColbertBump: The painting really became known as a masterpiece to the general public after it was the victim of a brazen art heist. The resulting media frenzy put the painting in the headlines for months, making it a household name.

* MonaLisaSmile: TropeNamer, TropeMaker, TropeCodifier. The particularly deft way Leonardo created the effect of the smile, almost but not quite fully smiling, and which from another angle doesn't seem to be there, is one of the greatest mysteries in art history. The fame of the painting has also made it a popular object of spoof.
** More precisely, the effect that Leonardo da Vinci achieved that made the "smile" so mysterious is that the woman's expression looks like a smile when seen with peripheral vision but doesn't look like one when you look directly at it.

!!Works featuring Mona Lisa:

[[AC:Films]]

* Mona Lisa appears at the start of ''Film/HudsonHawk'', being painted by Leonardo.
* In the 2011 French film ''L'Apparition de la Joconde'' (''The Appearance of the Gioconda''), a divorced Parisian screenwriter is visited by a strange woman named Lisa who pretends to come out of the painting itself. The two of them visit the Louvre to see the painting at one point.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MrPeabodyAndSherman'', Peabody visits his good friend Leonardo as he is painting the Mona Lisa, struggling to get his model to smile.

[[AC:Literature]]

* Again, ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'' has the painting on its most common book covers (and only its eyes on most of them).
* ''Literature/TheWayThingsWork'': The page explaining how earphones work shows the Mona Lisa wearing them.

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
* The 1979 ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]" features a villain who is attempting to steal the Mona Lisa, having previously gotten Leonardo to paint him six more back in 1505 so that he can steal the "original" in 1979 and sell all seven to private collectors for a hundred million dollars to finance his ''real'' EvilPlan.
* In the first season finale of''Series/SherlockHolmes'',''the Final Problem'' has Professor Moriarty concoct a plot to steal it and privately sell fakes to collectors under the pretense that they're the real painting. After Holmes foils his scheme, Moriarty starts actively targeting Holmes leading to their final clash at the Reichenbach Falls.
* The 2005 ''Series/MyHero'' episode "Nothing to Hide" has the superhero Thermoman, alias George Sunday, taking the Mona Lisa home with him after confiscating it from an art thief. Before he can return the painting, it is punched through the face by his angry father in-law, who had assumed it to be a fake. To avert disaster, Thermoman picks up the still living, [[Main/BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy actually an alien]], [[Main/Really700YearsOld 500+ year old]] Leonardo da Vinci from his home planet to paint the Mona Lisa again, which he obliges after first painting a [[Creator/PabloPicasso Blue Period version]], believing his original to be "[[Main/OldShame old cliched crap]]". As a superpowered Ultronian, da Vinci is able to whip up a new Mona Lisa in a matter of seconds.

[[AC:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' it's hinted that the true identity of Mona Lisa is Candide Fuerte, when Leonardo promises to come back to what for him is the future when they're older to paint her, and she's seen in Mona Lisa's pose.

[[AC:Video Games]]

* The Mona Lisa appears in the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series as an acquirable painting that you could either put up in your home, or donate to the museum. Its in-game title is called the “famous painting”.
* In the DLC "The da Vinci Disappearance" of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', the unfinished painting can be seen in a cutscene where Ezio Auditore visits Leonardo at his workshop in Rome, circa 1506. Ezio thinks Leonardo is doing a "decent work" on it, and Leonardo is much more critical of his own work, thinking she is "badly drawn" and that her smile is "overdone and meaningless".
* Mona Lisa herself is a playable character in the mobile RPG ''[[VideoGame/GrimmsNotes Grimms Notes Repage]]''.
* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', Leonardo chose to model [[AmbiguousGender themselves]] after the Mona Lisa, stating that the Mona Lisa was the ideal in beauty to strive for. Leo once even claimed Mona Lisa ''was'' their gender. (It should be noted that this is a notable departure from other {{Gender Flip}}s in this series, as most of them are a case of 'really the opposite gender in real life', Leonardo ''chose'' to present as a female.)

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': The WesternAnimation/PepeLePew cartoon "Louvre Come Back" ends with Pepe in the air vents of the Louvre, his smell affecting all the paintings; Mona Lisa's reaction, however is more subdued, deadpanning the line on the stinger below.
* Name-dropped in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros''. Phantom Limb is trying to sell Rembrandt's ''Storm on the Sea of Galilee'', but the NouveauRiche mafiosi says he wants the ''Mona Lisa''. Phantom Limb responds that he can't get it, and that the only reason that painting is famous is because it was stolen, as is the one he currently has ([[GeniusBonus it was stolen from a Boston museum in 1990 and has yet to be recovered]]).
* In the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "So in Louvre Are We Two" two planets aligning causes all the painting and sculptures of the Louvre come to life. Mona Lisa is among them, and spends the night trying to win the affections of The Thinker, who can't stop thinking. She ends up running off with another sculpture while the Thinker ends up stuck in the painting ''Nighthawks'', still trying to decide what to eat.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'': The episode "Madeline at the Louvre" has Miss Clavel naturally takes the girls to see the Mona Lisa. Chloe and Nicole get into a brief argument on whether she's actually smiling or not.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Contrary to modern depictions of the painting with the greenish sky, the brown clothing, and the ochre skin, the colors [[http://www.lumiere-technology.com/Pages/News/news3.htm used to be brighter and more vibrant]], with one critic even describing her skin as "rosy and tender".[[note]] Compare Leonardo's painting to a [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Gioconda_%28copia_del_Museo_del_Prado_restaurada%29.jpg copy]] produced in the early 1500s and currently displayed in the Prado Museum in Madrid; the digital simulation of the original colors looks more like the Prado copy than the original.[[/note]] Centuries of varnish, cleaning, and exposure made it as it is today. TrueArtIsAncient indeed.

Also known as ''La Gioconda'' and ''La Joconde''[[note]]In Italian and French, it's a pun on the feminine form of Giocondo, the surname of Lisa. Gioconda means "the jocund one" or the "happy one"[[/note]], the painting's famous title was coined by art critic Giorgio Vasari (who first [[TropeNamer described]] the flowering of art and culture at the time of Giotto as ''[[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance rinascita]]).'' Vasari said that the painting was a portrait of "Mona Lisa", which is an Italian shortening of Madonna Lisa (My Lady Lisa[=/=]M'lady Lisa would be the correct English translation), and referred to the subject as Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. But for many years there wasn't any hard evidence to corroborate this. Then in 2005, a researcher found marginalia in an old book in the University of Heidelberg, written by one Agostino Vespucci (cousin of Amerigo Vespucci, yes ''[[{{Egopolis}} that]]'' [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericas Amerigo]]). In it, Agostino wrote in Latin about:

* ''Series/{{Madeline}}'': The episode "Madeline at the Louvre" has Miss Clavel naturally takes the girls to see the Mona Lisa. Chloe and Nicole get into a brief argument on whether she's actually smiling or not.

* ''Series/Madeline": The episode "Madeline at the Louvre" has Miss Clavel naturally takes the girls to see the Mona Lisa. Chloe and Nicole get into a brief argument on whether she's actually smiling or not.

* NoBrows: How she is always depicted. She used to have brows, but centuries of cleaning have removed them.

Without a question, the single most famous portrait painting of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance and in the Western world as a whole, a true icon of artistic excellence, and the image which represents aesthetic beauty, enigma, and mystery. It's believed to have been painted between 1503-1504 by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, and he maybe worked on it on and off for a decade until 1517. The painting entered the personal collection of [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi King Francis I of France]] and is famously housed in the Louvre Art Museum in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}.

* In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', Leonardo chose to model [[AmbiguousGender themselves]] after the Mona Lisa, stating that the Mona Lisa was the ideal in beauty to strive for. Leo once even claimed Mona Lisa ''was'' their gender.

* In ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' it's hinted that the true identity of Mona Lisa is Candide Fuerte, when Leonardo promises to come back to what for him is the future when they're older to paint her.

* The Mona Lisa appears in the ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'' series as an acquirable painting that you could either put up in your home, or donate to the museum. Its in-game title is called the “famous painting”.

* ShroudedInMyth: A lot of fiction revolves around theories on who sat for the Mona Lisa painting. Particular theories even argued that it was Leonardo himself in drag, because apparently some think [[LadyLooksLikeADude Lady Lisa looks like a Dude]]

The Mona Lisa was an immediate hit and widely influential on the next generation of painters; the likes of Creator/RaphaelSanzio especially drew on it for his famous portraits (such as Baldassare Castiglione). Vasari, in his landmark book ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', praised it for its realism, but that hasn't stopped legends and concepts cropping up around it. In the 19th Century, it became celebrated for being '''the''' painting, with much ink spilled on the subject, the art critic Walter Pater lionizing it, and many artists and critics offering weird theories and ideas about who Mona Lisa is. In the 20th Century, it was already considered overexposed by the likes of Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists, and others. A landmark incident of art-theft, brought new attention to the painting and further cemented its legend. It also has had the effect of making the painting completely inaccessible since its now sealed in a special glass container with heavy guards in the museum, thronged by gaggles of tourists.

Without a question, the single most famous portrait painting of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance and in the Western world as a whole, a true icon of artistic excellence, and the image which represents aesthetic beauty, enigma, and mystery. It's believed to have been painted between 1503-1504 by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, and he maybe worked on and off for a decade until 1517. The painting entered the personal collection of [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi King Francis I of France]] and is famously housed in the Louvre Art Museum in UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}.

Also known as ''La Gioconda'' and ''La Joconde''[[note]]In Italian and French, it's a pun on the feminine form of Giocondo, the surname of Lisa. Gioconda means "the jocund one" or the "happy one"[[/note]], the painting's famous title was coined by art critic Giorgio Vasari (who first [[TropeNamer described]] the flowering of art and culture from the time of Giotto as [[UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance rinascita]]). Vasari said that the painting was a portrait of "Mona Lisa" which is an Italian shortening of Madonna Lisa (My Lady Lisa[=/=]M'lady Lisa would be the correct English translation) and referred to the subject, Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Of course for many years, there wasn't hard evidence to corroborate this. In 2005, a research found important marginalia in an old book in the University of Heidelberg, written by one Agostino Vespucci (cousin of Amerigo Vespucci, yes [[{{Egopolis}} that]] [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericas one]]). In it Agostino wrote in Latin about:

As such, most academics believe for a certainty that the subject of this famous portrait is Lisa Gherardini (June 15, 1479 – July 15, 1542) in 2005. Upon her marriage to Francesco del Giocondo, she became Lisa del Giocondo, and Vasari himself identified her as the subject of the painting, but for centuries CommonKnowledge revolved around the mystery of the subject, and what it means when one considers her enigmatic smile.

The portrait has long fascinated art historians and theorists for Leonardo's mastery of ''sfumato'' which is an Italian word with no proper English equivalent, but one that refers to the airiness, the blurred quality, and fineness of objects, much like smoke which is visible despite being without colour and form in the air. It's been noted that if one looks at the portrait closely, it's very hard to locate the exact beginning of the smile, but on standing back, the effect is quite clear. Indeed the phrase "mona lisa smile" often refers to unique nature of the smile and different observers are convinced that the subject is not actually smiling but gazing plainly while others are certain that she is smiling happily. The size of the painting (77 cm × 53 cm) draws special attention to her expression, which gazes outwards to the observer, almost convincing people that the painting is actually seeing them. This is especially the case when one considers the background which is generally quite flat and vague, with Lisa sitting against a balcony illuminated with a greenish light, her arms crossed and resting on the right arm-rest of her chair.

Mona Lisa was an immediate hit and widely influential on the next generation of painters, the likes of Creator/RaphaelSanzio especially drew on it for his famous portraits (such as Baldassare Castiglione). Giorgio Vasari, in his landmark book ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' praised it for its realism, but that hasn't stopped legends and concepts cropping up around it. In the 19th Century, it became celebrated for being '''the''' painting, with much ink and works spilled on it, with the art critic Walter Pater lionizing it, and many artists and critics writing weird theories and concepts about who Mona Lisa is. In the 20th Century, it was already considered overexposed by the likes of Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists, and others. A landmark incident of art-theft, brought new attention to the painting and further cemented its legend. It also has had the effect of making the painting completely inaccessible since its now sealed in a special glass container with heavy guards in the museum, thronged by a gaggle of tourists.

* ArtisticLicenseArt: For being the most famous painting ever, the Mona Lisa is more often than not presented incorrectly in fiction. The most common mistakes are making it larger than it is (the actual painting is only 30-by-21 inches) and being painted on canvas when it was actually painted on wood.