Interesting Facts

New York artist Ron Piccirillo says that several animals can be seen hidden in the Mona Lisa when it is viewed horizontally. (According to Mr Piccirillo, a lion, an ape and a buffalo can be seen around Mona Lisa’s head and a snake or crocodile is near her right shoulder.  I wonder what he was smoking when he saw them.) Source

According to Pascal Cotte, a Parisian engineer, Mona Lisa once had eyebrows and eyelashes. (He dedicated around 3,000 hours to examining Leonardo Da Vinci's famous portrait and says that years of restoration work have eroded the facial hair. Using 240-megapixel scans, Mr Cotte, 49, says he can see traces of a left eyebrow long obscured from the naked eye by the efforts of the restorers. I wouldn't want my face examined on a 240-megapixel scan!  They'll be saying she had a moustache and beard next. Please, gentlemen, let us ladies have our little depilatory secrets.) 

If you look at the Mona Lisa carefully, you'll see she doesn't have any facial hair. (Now I don't mean just facial beardy / moustachy hair, I mean she doesn't have any eyebrows or eyelashes!  I hadn't even realised this until Pure Moon pointed it out on the forum!  Some people say it was normal in those days to pluck out facial hair, but ... there's another theory - see next post.)

The Mona Lisa isn't a canvas painting. (She is actually painted on a wooden panel made of poplar.  She always looked a bit wooden to me.)

The world famous painting the "Mona Lisa" is sometimes also known as "La Joconde" in France, "La Gioconda" in Italy. (She is believed to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo.)