Surprisingly enough, there is no actual proof that da Vinci was the artist responsible for The Mona Lisa. The piece is not signed or dated. (www.loadstar.prometeus.net/leonardo/mona.html 1) The most notable feature of the Mona Lisa is the "mysterious" smiling face. "The smile, also, may be read in two ways: as the echo of a momentary mood, and as a timeless, symbolic expression, akin to the "Archaic smile" of the Greeks." (Janson 456) Interestingly enough, a nude version of the Mona Lisa was made for the king of France. (Janson 456) In 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris. Museum employees supposed that the official museum had possession of the painting when they noticed that it was not hanging in its usual place. When the museum finally realized that it had been stolen, all that remained on the premises was the frame that it had once rested in. The painting was recovered twenty-seven months later when an Italian man tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy for one hundred thousand dollars. He believed that since an Italian painted it, that its proper place was in Italy, not France. The Louvre decided that all of the masterpieces should be under glass just ten months before the Mona Lisa was stolen. Ironically, the Italian man that would later steal the painting was one of the four men employed to perform the glass installation. Although he was questioned after the theft, his calm attitude dismissed any suspicions that he was the perpetrator. (Esterow 100-152) .
The Adoration of the Magi.
The Adoration of the Magi measures a substantial nine feet by eight feet. Leonardo was commissioned in 1480 to paint this work for the main altar of the monastery of San Donato a Scopeto, near Florence. It was to be completed it within thirty months, but it remained largely unfinished and was abandoned in Florence the next year. (Janson 453) The original contract for this painting was particularly complicated.
