Many people have described this as one of history’s most mysterious paintings. They have described the smile on this woman’s face as “enigmatic” and “curious” and highly erotic. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
As you know, Florence, where Da Vinci painted this, was in a very long and intense struggle with Sienna, a nearby city that also intended to rule all Italy. The military conflict widened as both independent cities created breeding programs to produce women with mental powers. Florence won this corsa del cervello (literally, the brain race) in the person of Mona Lisa, pictured here, right before she flattened Sienna with a shattering blast of telekinetic power.
Nothing “enigmatic”, “curious” or erotic about that.
Actual details available at Wikipedia, but yes, it’s Mona Lisa, painted circa 1503-1506.
The gallery of Famous Paintings with SF Titles is here.
As always, if you’ve done one of these, let me know via Twitter (@markarayner) or via email: markarayner (at) gmail.com.
Do you want to know why that painting that Leonardo Da Vinci made is so mysterious, it’s because she don’t have any eye lashes or eye brows and her face is so different that other people which make us wonder. Maybe even the small message that Leonardo is trying to tell us is that there is a difference on every body’s faces
I hadn’t heard that before. I also remember reading the different backdrops on the right and left also make us wonder what’s going on.