Is a man drawn in the painting or a woman? Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, portrait of John the Baptist or Lisa Girardini del Giocondo? Does she smile or not? Is the portrait without eyebrows and eyelashes because they have faded over the years or did the artist never paint them? Many assumptions have been made by scientists over the years. And there is no thesis about which they have finally chosen. One is known and it is undisputed - Mona Lisa is the most recognizable, mysterious and will not be overwhelmed if it is said to be the most famous painting in the world Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is not an ordinary portrait of a woman. Legendary is her mysterious look, which, though slightly off-set, seems to follow us all the time. Mona Lisa's sad fortune is always to be smiling for over 500 years. The impenetrable smile that Leonardo da Vinci has painted on the lips of Francesco Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo's wife, has been working on minds for centuries, writes Dirk Schumer in Velt. Is the really rich Florence satisfied? Or is it an unsuccessful attempt at a smelly smile with the left corner of the mouth? Does the Gioconda suffer from facial palsy? Or did she lose her front teeth, so she squeezed her lips together? We will never understand.

A group of psychologists at the University Clinic in Freiburg argued that it had unraveled the secret of the most famous smile in the history of art in an empirical way. Whether they were inspired by the Hollywood movie "Mona Lisa's Smile", where the pragmatic answer of this old man's question in the history of art, whether Mona Lisa was happy or not, sounded like this: It does not matter, the important thing is that she smiles. Where does the "snake-like mouth" come from? Researchers from the Institute of Psychology and Psychohygience, however, want to know more precisely and present to volunteers images of the original painting in 8 variants in which Mona Lisa's mouth is digitally pulled up or down. The result: The impenetrable smile is identified by observers as a sign of good mood. Nearly 100% of the volunteers said: The woman in the painting smiles cheerfully. The woman of the portrait has no eyelashes, her dress is quite ordinary and in dark colors, as if she is mourning. But why does she smile? There is no memory of the "snake mouth," filled with poisonous sensuality that writer Teofil Gauthier imposes on the merchant's wife 150 years ago. Almost at the same time, Briton Walter Pater uses Mona Lisa as an optical valve to drop her creative steam in Queen Victoria's modest era and sees behind a constant smile a vampire with "mental suffering". Apparently 150 years, the habit and the sexual revolution are enough to turn a bloody vampire into a funny but innocent son after Freiburg volunteers think this mysterious smile is so cheerful. The preconditions of time are ignored. Perhaps the results of the study should lead in turn to a new study: The fact that the twitching of the corner of the mouth is a sign of good mood, makes us slightly sedative. We are pleased with the Smile Interpretation because in our daily lives we are constantly confronted with a bad mood. In the noisy times of the Florentine renaissance, when a man laughs, dances, sings, and speaks dirty, absolutely undisturbed, may this Mona Lisa be rather restrained and distant.

The Big Riddle

Artworks have long argued about the story of the painting. The most popular is the theory of Giorgio Vasari, a biographer of Leonardo. According to her, the artist portrayed Lisa di Naldo Gerardini, the wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, who ordered the portrait in 1503. But Leonardo did not sell it to the merchant - something very strange about those times when paintings were mostly custom-made. And another theory: Chronicler Antonio de Beatis quotes Leonardo's claim that he painted the painting on the order of another patron, Juliano de Medici. Beatias argues that on October 10, 1517 he was in Leonardo's studio in the French city of Amboise, where a friend of Medici, a noble Cardinal Luigi d'Aragonna. According to Beatias, Leonardo showed the cardinal three paintings: portraits of John the Baptist and St. Anna, as well as the image of "a Florentine lady painted by Julio de Medici."Both theories of the origins of Mona Lisa have followers and adversaries among the artists, and so to this day, no one can surely tell who this woman actually was. There are also many versions of the person portrayed on the portrait. Including this is a man, if not Leonardo himself. One thing is clear: Leonardo obviously held this painting because he never sold it, and in 1516 he took it with him to France. Shortly before his death, his disciple sold his "Gioconda" to the French royal court, from which it was later moved to the Louvre. In the 16th century the painting was in the private collection of the French kings. After the French Revolution, for some time it hung in Napoleon's bedroom, and since 1815 it has been in the Louvre.

The ropes of the Mona Lisa

In fact, the "mona" is common in the Italian language merging of the "Madonna", which means "my lady", the equivalent of the French "Madame". That is, the name of the painting means "Madame Lisa". The alternative name "Jokonda" is the female genus of Gioconda. In Italian, however, giocondo also means "cheerful, cheerful, alive." In other words, "Jokoda" can also be translated as "a cheerful woman". Because of the smile this name acquires double meaning. The Mona Lisa's global fame also contributes to her numerous perceptions. In 1911 she stole a Lombard artisan who wanted to return her to Italy. They arrested him only two years later when he tried to hand over the painting of the famous Florence gallery "Uffizi". Her return to Paris has caused an influx of visitors to the Louvre. In 1956, two painful paintings were made. An unknown person first floats the bottom with acid that causes serious damage to the painting. Then a Bolivian tourist throws "Mona Lisa" with stone. Since then the painting has been kept behind armored glass. According to reputable artists, the painting was first presented to the public in October 1517 - that is, exactly 500 years ago.

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