Mona Lisa: why she is the most famous painting

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa around 1503 and kept refining it for years. Today it hangs in the Louvre in Paris and is seen by millions of people every year.

Sfumato — a painting without hard edges

Leonardo used a technique called sfumato (Italian for “like smoke”): thin, translucent layers of paint that soften hard outlines. That’s why the corners of the mouth and eyes look blurred, and the smile seems to change as we look at it.

The 1911 theft

The painting became a world icon largely because of a theft. In 1911, Italian worker Vincenzo Peruggia carried it out of the Louvre under his coat. Newspapers worldwide wrote about the missing painting, and it was only found in 1913 in Florence.

Tip for a Louvre visit: the painting is smaller than people expect — about 77 × 53 cm.