So what's the big deal about the Mona Lisa?



Well, for one thing, there's that smile. At the time, painters didn't usually depict their models smiling. Leonardo da Vinci bucked the tradition, and put one of the most enigmatic smiles in history on his most famous work. Some researchers have suggested that you can only really see her smile with your peripheral vision, so she seems to flirt with her audience.

Then there is the mystery of the identity of the model. No one knows exactly who this woman was. The title "Mona Lisa" simply means "Ms. Lisa," and it doesn't help identify the model, since it was not the original title. The original name for the painting was "La Joconde," which means "The Light-Hearted Woman." Some people think that the model was the wife of a wealthy merchant named "Giocondo," and that da Vinci's title was a play on words. But there have been many, many speculations over the years--including a brief-lived theory that the painting was actually Leonardo himself as a woman.

Mona captivates the world like few other paintings. The image is instantly recognizable--so much so that countless other artists have given homage to and satirized the work. For example, this work by Marcel Duchamp:



"L.H.O.O.Q." is also known as "Mona Lisa with a Moustache," for obvious reasons. The original French title is also a play on words: The letters "LHOOQ," spoke aloud in French, sound like the words "Elle a chaud au cul," which translates to "She has a hot ass."

And speaking of that...