Imagine you are walking through an art gallery; the walls are tall and beautiful.

It's an
elegant place and there are tourists everywhere studying and looking at artwork. As you
turn the corner into a different room, the crowd grows very thick, everyone is crowding
around trying to see one particular painting. As you get close you see the painting they're
looking at. It's a portrait of a woman. She sits facing you and smiles with a slight smirk that
is both suspicious and mysterious. This episode is about one of the most famous paintings
in the world, the Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa is also sometimes known as la Giaconda which means the happy one in
Italian. The name of the painting is also a play on words or joke because the painting is of a
woman named Lisa del Giaconda. The Mona Lisa was painted during the 16th century by
an Italian oil painter, named Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo lived in Florence, Italy during the
renaissance period in Europe. The renaissance was a time when there was much interest
in art and writing in Europe in the 14th through 16th centuries. Leonardo was born in Italy
in 1452, his dad was a lawyer and his mom was a peasant woman.
Leonardo studied art as a child with the famous Italian painter Andrea del Varrocchio.
During the renaissance it was common for men to learn many different arts and science
skills. Leonardo studied hard with his painting teachers because this was a long time ago
and Leonardo was not yet famous. There's not a lot known about his childhood, there are
only reports that he was very curious and had a very inventive imagination, inventive
means someone who is creative and comes up with original inventions or ideas. Leonardo
was interested in many different art forms including inventing and designing new
technologies, this means, developing new machines or robotics making things automated
or easier to do.
Leonardo imagined and then drew pictures of flying machines armored fighting vehicles
powered inventions and an adding machine at the time most of his designs were not
actually built as real objects. It just wasn't possible yet this was because modern science
and engineering were only just starting to be developed. Leonardo is sometimes credited
with having invented the parachute, helicopter and tank but Leonardo's first love was oil
painting. He often painted portraits of wealthy people who hired him. The mona Lisa was
painted as one of these portraits although historians don't know for sure, they believe that
the painting is of Lisa del Giaconda who is the wife of Francesco del Giaconda, a rich silk
merchant who lived in Florence.
Leonardo began painting the Mona Lisa around 1503 in Florence Italy at the time he was
around 51 years old. He would have had the woman and the painting sit to be painted
many times before it was completed. Other painters at the time the new Leonardo said
that he worked on it slowly for four years, he tinkered with it and eventually left it
unfinished because historians are not 100 sure this painting is of Lisa del Giaconda.
Alternative theories have been believed by some people.
Alternative theories mean different ideas about something some people believe that the
Mona Lisa painting is actually a painting of Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Katarina. The
painting was completed around 1508 and later brought to France by Leonardo in 1516.
The king of France, Francis I purchased the painting from Leonardo. King Francis I was very
interested in art and particularly liked Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. He purchased many of
them during Leonardo's lifetime. King Francis I hung the Mona Lisa in the Chateau Futa
and Blue, this was one of the medieval castles that belonged to the French royals and was
about 34 miles southwest of the center of Paris. French monarchs lived in this palace
including king Francis I. He did a lot of work on the palace during his lifetime including
building an art gallery, this is where he hung the Mona Lisa and other paintings he
purchased from Leonardo. The gallery of Francis I is considered to be one of the first and
finest examples of renaissance decoration in France, it was originally constructed in 1528
as a passageway between the apartments of the king with the courtyard or garden area.
After Francis I death, other French kings kept the gallery of Francis I intact, this was until
Louis XIV became the new king of France in 1643. Louis XIV, also known as the sun king,
preferred to spend time at the palace of Versailles and he eventually moved the Mona Lisa
and other paintings there. Louis XIV loved art and he purchased many additional art pieces
during his lifetime. He displayed those pieces in beautiful rooms of the palace of Versailles.
The Mona Lisa remained at the palace of Versailles until the French revolution; this was a
period of time when there was a lot of change in France. The new leader of France after
the revolution was a Napoleon Bonaparte, he moved the Mona Lisa to his home in True la
Vie Palace and hung it in his bedroom later in 1797.
The Mona Lisa was moved to the Louvre a famous art museum in Paris where it's still
hanging today it is owned by the government of France did you know that in 1911 the
Mona Lisa was stolen the Louvre Museum thought it was being photographed when they
checked to see if it was safe but in reality, someone had taken it the louvre closed for one
week to help look for it. People thought a French poet named Guillaume Apollinaire stole
it, he was put in jail and he tried to make people think his friend. The artist Pablo Picasso
did it and he was questioned too but it was not either of them. The Mona Lisa was lost for
two years and everybody thought it would be lost forever.
A worker at the Louvre named Vicenzo Perezia had actually stolen it, he and two other
workers had taken the portrait from the wall, hid with it in a closet overnight and the next
day Vincenzo hid it in his coat and walked out with it. After the museum had closed, he
wanted the painting to go back to Italy and to be shown in an Italian museum after hiding
it in his apartment for two years he grew impatient and tried to sell it in a gallery in
Florence, Italy, but he was caught, the painting was shown all over Italy before going back
to the Louvre. People thought Vicenza was a hero who loved Italy, so he only spent a few
months in jail.
During World War II, the Mona Lisa was singled out as the most endangered artwork in the
Louvre endangered means threatened, in this case, the French government likely worried
that enemies would steal or destroy it. The Mona Lisa was moved to various locations in
France's countryside. It was returned to the Louvre Museum in 1945 after peace had been
declared it later traveled to the United States in 1963 and over 40.000 people per day
came to see it over the years.
A few people have tried to vandalize the Mona Lisa, this means, to trash or wreck the
painting. Why someone would want to destroy the painting is a real question but that is
why the Mona Lisa is now displayed behind bulletproof glass.
Other artists have tried to copy Leonardo's painting style and have even painted copies of
the Mona Lisa it's such a famous painting that it's written about in poems and songs
and featured in movies, and it's estimated that it's worth over 860 million dollars.
Have you ever seen an image of the Mona Lisa? If you haven't been sure to, look it up
later. I know I'd love to see it in real life someday at the Louvre museum in France,
hopefully one day you'll get a chance to see it yourself.