Classic Mona Lisa Poster

Maybe the most famous classic painting of all time, the Mona Lisa was painted by Renaissance master painter and artist Leonardo Da Vinci. He is believed to have started painting it in 1503 up to 1506, perhaps continuing work on the painting as late as 1517. Although who the model for the painting was has been the topic of many controversies, it is widely accepted that the portrait is that of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo a middle-class cloth and silk merchant and patron to Leonardo. Because Da Vinci started another commission that he had to finish by 1505, the Mona Lisa was considered unfinished in 1506 and he was not paid for his painting. Therefore Leonardo took the Mona Lisa with him, and travelled with it wherever he went. It is believed that after his death Leonardo Da Vinci left the painting in his will to his pupil and assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, known as Salai. Always surrounded by mystery, today the Mona Lisa sits proudly in the Louvre Museum in France where it continues to capture us with her enigmatic smile and years of untold secrets.