history of mona lisa and her smile?

I'd say its just a hype popularized by the powers-that-be during those times.

i think it is because if look into her smile you cant identify if smiling or she want to cry

I wish i could honestly answer that but i dont really see the reason why its so famous. There are so many more things in the Louvre that are more magnificant in my mind. Its small the size of a sheet of paper really. Dont get me wrong its a wonderful painting but its overhyped in my mind. But there is something mysterious about that smile and the fact that he just saw her and wanted to paint her because of her beauty is just unheard of in that day.

Can't you tell?? She just eased one out...

It is considered by many to be Leonardo's magnum opus (great work).

It has been suggested that Leonardo created more than one version of the painting. The owners of the version known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa claim that it is an original, though the great majority of art historians reject its authenticity. The same claim has been made for a version in the Vernon collection. Another version, dating from c.1616 was given in c.1790 to Joshua Reynolds by the Duke of Leeds in exchange for a Reynolds self-portrait. Reynolds thought it to be the real painting and the French one a copy, which has now been disproved. It is, however, useful in that it was copied when the original's colors were far brighter than they are now, and so it gives some sense of the original's appearance 'as new'. It is held in the stores of the Dulwich Picture Gallery. There are also copies of the image in which the figure appears nude. These have also led to speculation that they were copied from a lost Leonardo original depicting Lisa naked

ha ha ha.what a actress......

According to my friend Carol Ivory, there are probably a number of reasons. Professor Ivory is an art historian. She focuses her research mostly on the art of the Marquesas Islands, which are part of French Polynesia, which sounds like an excellent thing to focus on. But she also knows something about the Mona Lisa.
You probably realize there was a lot going on around the time when Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. We think he painted it in Italy sometime between 1503 and 1506. This was the height of what we call the RENAISSANCE, which was a time when all sorts of new thinking in art and science was happening in Europe. It would have been a very interesting time to live.
At the same time Leonardo was busy painting the Mona Lisa, Columbus was on his last voyage, to Honduras and Panama. Also, Amerigo Vespucci took his second voyage to South America, where he figured out that it was a separate continent and not linked to India.




Maybe we still don't know what Mona Lisa is thinking,
but at least we know something about the Renaissance.


Other great artists who were working at the time included Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Durer. Just a few years later, Copernicus figured out that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun.
But back to Leonardo! Leonardo was one sharp guy. Not only was he a painter and inventor, he was a big-time mountain climber. And a good singer. Only thing, says Professor Ivory, he was long on ideas, but short on execution. In other words, he actually didn't finish all that many paintings, only about 30 or so.
Now admittedly, that's 30 more than I've done. The point is, however, that the Mona Lisa did get finished, and it's really good. Leonardo himself must have thought it was pretty good. When he moved from Italy to France, where he was summoned just to keep the king company, he took the painting along.
This actually wasn't that big of a deal. The painting itself is not all that big. It's measures only about 31inches by 21 inches. In fact, a lot of people are disappointed when they see the real thing at the Louvre in Paris. There it is behind a big sheet of glass and surrounded by eight million people, all trying to get a look at this little dinky painting. Professor Ivory suggests if you go to the Louvre and are interested in Leonardo, check out his less famous paintings.
But back to the question. What makes it so appealing?
Even if you are completely art-deprived, you still probably are familiar with the Mona Lisa. You see her on olive oil bottles and all sorts of things, and lots of other artists have borrowed her image and changed it around. For example, in 1919 Marcel Duchamp painted a moustache on her. You're probably thinking, I could have done that. You're right, you could, but Marcel beat you to it.
Anyway, sometimes it seems everywhere you look, there's the Mona Lisa!
But why?
Most paintings of people before Leonardo were very stiff and formal. The people were either heroes or goddesses or some other sort of bigshot. Often they were painted in profile, which means from the side.
Not only is Mona Lisa an ordinary person (she was probably married to a local businessman), she's looking right at you.
And then there's THE SMILE. Everybody talks about how odd her smile is. Well, I don't think it's all that odd. But it's certainly intriguing. Here she is staring right at us and smiling that little smile, like SHE KNOWS SOMETHING.
So what does she know? Some people have guessed that she was pregnant. Or that maybe she and Leonardo were a little too friendly.
But their ideas are worth about as much as yours and mine. And truth is, according to Vasari, who lived at the same time as Leonardo, the painter hired musicians and "buffoons" to entertain Mona Lisa while he painted her. Hardly anybody ever smiled in earlier paintings, and he was determined to do something different!
Leonardo's painting changed the way portraits were done, says Professor Ivory. He got into her personality and MAKES us wonder what she's thinking. That, plus the kind of technique he used (called sfumato) to make the painting look soft and comfortable, PLUS the beautiful lighting, is why we like it so much. And that's about it!

when da vinci painted the mona lisa, his life was in a turmoil, the study,the pose the ubiquitous smile is not was the norm, it was unique,and still is in some respects less than a4 size it was neither a miniture or a usual portrait size,some say that the louvre lisa is only a small sectional study of a full size version that da vinci was copmpleting and that one or many of his apprentices had a hand in the smaller study, however no large version of this painting has yet been discovered,which all adds to the perception of the work in the public arena, like many that have answered this question, i too have studied the work and it is a wonderful inspiring piece of art, if you ignore the monetary value that we bestow on art that is considered 'unique' as a tool of learning it is priceless. regards LF

I don't understand why it's so famous. There are other pictures by Leonardo which I prefer (The Madonna of the rokcs, for instance).

To me the Mona Lisa is just a rather ordinary looking woman who is staring out of the canvas with a rather sarcastic smile.

It's been rumoured that Leonardo was so attached to it that he couldn't go anywhere without it - that it was his favourite painting. There's also the issue of the model; again, it's been said that she is actually Leonardo in female form, although it's more likely that it was the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Lisa Gherardini. Also she was well known for her enigmatic smile, which is quite ambiguous. Technically speaking, it is a brilliant portrait - his pioneering use of sfumato (smoky, making the lines blend into each other easily) and chiaroscuro (light and dark, shadows) made it famous in his own lifetime. Of course, with the Da Vinci Code, it's become even more famous.

I can't add more information than you have already had in the previous answers. I will add that it is all the innovative techniques that are evident that make it iconic for art historians. Da vinci's life is so wrapped up in its history especially bearing in mind, as was previously commented, that it was his favourite painting. That evidently raises so many questions. And the enigma of the smile! Surely it makes you want to know. I think a painting that can evoke such a reaction is hugely important, added to the skill and technique. I love and hate it equally (It's disappointingly small-I think that is because it is so powerful I wanted it to be bigger). I wish I could see it as it was originally painted (it has apparently been trimmed since it was-maybe that's neither here nor there but it's all part of the mystery. I love a mystery.)