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Mona Lisa / La Joconde
Leonardo Da Vinci Painting
Leonardo Da Vinci Painting
The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and is kept at the Louvre behind a glass shield, in a room almost dedicated to it. From the moment you enter this wing of the Louvre, you see images of the Mona Lisa with arrows telling you which way to go, and a constant stream of people head in that direction. When you get to the painting itself, there is a wall of people in front of it. They keep walking forward until they can get right up near it, and then leave out the side so that people behind them can move forward. No photography at all is allowed.
About the Mona Lisa
Properly, this painting is NOT called the Mona Lisa. It's known as La Joconde or La Gioconda. This is because she is assumed to be the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Her name was Lisa, and she was referred to politely as "M'onna" (as in Madonna, Lady). So this became Monna Lisa, and then Mona Lisa over time.
A main reason this painting is so famous is that Leonardo himself loved it. He kept it with him always, until he died. It vanished for a while, then was rediscovered. We assume it's the same one that we rediscovered, although who can really tell. The painting was stolen in 1911, and it was 2 years before it was found again.
Da Vinci Code and Mona Lisa
In The Da Vinci Code, a clue is left for Sophie which she completely misses. It says "O, Draconian devil! Oh, lame saint!" This is an anagram of "Leonardo da Vinci! The Mona Lisa!" One might ask why the clue had to have exclamation points in it. In any case, they go to the painting in a special room. What's intriguing is that when this story takes place, the painting wasn't *in* that room. It had been moved for restoration reasons to another room at the end of the hall. I guess Sophie and Robert were in a time warp.
Also there is NOT an immense octagonal viewing divan. The mob of people walks towards it, nobody sits.
Next, the book says "Mona Lisa is neither male nor female." Unlike the Mary M debate, I think it's pretty clear that Lisa has breasts.
Dan does more anagram-mixing by changing Isis to L'Isa, which isn't something I can find anywhere. He does it solely to make an anagram of AMON L'ISA turn into MONA LISA. Since the painting was *never* called that in Leonardo's time, the anagram makes no sense.
Mona Lisa and Leonardo
It's interesting to compare the head of the Mona Lisa with the supposed self portrait of Leonardo. Note that I flipped the Leonardo painting right-to-left, to make it easier to compare it. It's not unusual for a painter to have a "style" - if you look at other Leonardo paintings, you'll find that many of the characters look similar in them.
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