In the records of the great Leonardo da Vinci, the genius of the Renaissance, there is not a single mention of the work on the portrait. There are many versions of who is depicted in this work. Among other opinions, such were expressed that the Mona Lisa is both a self-portrait of Leonardo himself, and a portrait of his student, and a portrait of his mother, or simply an ideal collective female image.

According to the “official” opinion, the painting depicts the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, Lisa Gherardini. On the lips of Mona Lisa, the famous barely perceptible smile froze, giving her face a mystery and charm. It is not the viewer who looks at her, but she herself watches him with a deep, understanding look. The painting is made in almost transparent, unusually thin layers.

It seems that the Mona Lisa is not painted, but completely “alive”. The strokes are so small that neither a microscope nor X-rays reveal traces of the master’s work and do not determine the number of painting layers. “La Gioconda” is unusually airy. The air turned out to be real, like the Gioconda itself – also “real”. The space of the picture is filled with a light haze that allows diffused light to pass through – “sfumato”, according to the definition of the artist himself.