thats a very old question peeps. av always been as curious too. i mean there are one thousand nd one pictures dah look better dan Miss. monalisa. buh den i found out d thingy. first it was proved dat when d painting was studied under a certain microscope, dia was anoda painting beneath. dats unusual!
den something else was pointed to in her sitting posture, ao she placed ha hands, dah smile says she keeps a dark secret nd voila, she has no left eyebrow!!

Now its time to dust and read this Dan Brown's Da Vinci's code I have been procastinating. Missing out on those details.

Actually, it was rumored to be Da Vinci in a drag, not that of his gay lover. Yes, he was arguably considered to be gay. But the beauty about it is that only Mona Lisa bows why she is smiling.
Another explanation is that the fresco is a perfect unification of the male and female sex.
The Anagram Mona Lisa coming from the male god "Amon - Mona" and the female "Isis Lisa". The fresco is a very intriguing one if you are art minded.

Well, only Mona Lisa knows. Let me stop here cos I love that fresco.

please don't call it a fat ugly beasts of a woman, I beg you.

druid06: The painting is not just famous for the technique used in creating such a portrait but has to do with the artist and the mysticism behind this beautiful piece of art (Bullocks).

There're several conspiracy theories as to what the picture was/is dicpicting. Some say the woman in the picture is not a woman at all but the gay lover of Leonardo Dan Vinci (The artist) and it's the reason why he/she has that weird smirk on her/his face. Remember, homosexuality was a serious offence during his generation and not just that, it was heresy to the catholic church and punishable by death. He was just trying to tell the world that he was gay without actually verbally confirming he was homosexual.

nbright: The Davinci Code by Dan Brown gave me a whole different view about the drawing... It was really mind blowing

Read dat buk,its really fascinating.I checked out d numba of PHI, its drop dead real

I love the Monalisa!

Stallion84:
art gives diff meaning to diff people and not just ML

Obviously, you don't understand. Read the previous posts. And it isn't a picture, but a two hundred year old painting.

Well a lot is special abt monalisa,d painting was drawn by Leonardo da-vinci in 1503
The Mona Lisa is a famous 16th-century portrait by
Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa's mysterious smile
has beguiled generations of viewers, but the true
identity of the woman pictured in the portrait
remains unknown, despite intensive research by art
historians. Many believe the Mona Lisa to be a
portrait of Lisa Gherardini Giocondo, the wife of a
wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del
Giocondo. (Thus the Mona Lisa is known in Italy as La
Gioconda.) Others have suggested the subject was a
mistress of da Vinci, or even a self-portrait, with da
Vinci imagining himself as a woman. It is known that
Leonardo began the portrait in Florence in 1503,
continued work on it through 1506, and then kept
the painting until his death in 1519. Over the next
three centuries the Mona Lisa passed through many
hands, even hanging for a time in the bedroom of
Napoleon, but since 1804 its home has been the
Louvre Museum in Paris. Leonardo's painting is
famous among artists for its innovative techniques,
including sfumato (shown in the painting's
distinctive hazy, soft-focus effect) and chiaroscuro
(use of light and shadow).
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911,
but recovered in Italy in 1913... Some believe that
the name La Gioconda is a play on "the merry
woman," a reference to her smile. In France, the
Mona Lisa is called La Joconde... The popular tune
Mona Lisa calls her "the lady with the mystic smile."
The song was written by Jay Livingston and Ray
Evans for the 1950 movie Captain Carey, USA; it won
an Oscar as the year's best song and was also a hit
for Nat King Cole.

(1) because of the style he introduced jus picasso introduce 'cubism' whch is 'sfumato'(google it).
(2) because of personality he painted nd the history that followed it.
(3.)popularity of the artist.

Illuminatus:
The face is really Da Vinci's. He just added a few feminine touches.

Wow now that's a first; haven't heard that one before...i'ma look into it

druid06: The painting is not just famous for the technique used in creating such a portrait but has to do with the artist and the mysticism behind this beautiful piece of art (Bullocks).

There're several conspiracy theories as to what the picture was/is dicpicting. Some say the woman in the picture is not a woman at all but the gay lover of Leonardo Dan Vinci (The artist) and it's the reason why he/she has that weird smirk on her/his face. Remember, homosexuality was a serious offence during his generation and not just that, it was heresy to the catholic church and punishable by death. He was just trying to tell the world that he was gay without actually verbally confirming he was homosexual.

There're other conspiracy theory that is just absolutely ridiculous. I just believe these conspiracy theories are just hype to increase the value and worth of this painting. Currently the worth of this painting is priceless. I think it was insured for $20Mil. To me, all I see is a fat ugly beast of a woman smiling through the painting.

na google b dis abi?

d fact that she seems to be staring at u no matter d angle u view d potriat frm(3d) its d first of its kind & i dnt knw if its d onli1

myners007 :
Pls my Phd obtained at the prestigious University of Birmingham wasnt a fluke, rather it was as a result of delligence and huge financial investment

Birmingham? Na which private university be that. Lwkm

I'm a much bigger fan of Michelangelo's works than Leonardo da Vinci. One of the beauties of art is how subjective perception is as beauty resonates differently with with different people.

Nipeks: People say it is the technique he used, the way he painted the eyes, the way she smiles blah blah blah but me I think the portrait is over hyped. There are portraits that are more perfect than perfect than Mona Lisa but didn't get that much recognition. The value of an art is directly proportional to its publicity whether beautiful not. This is the same for other form of art like music.

.
Its special becos different parts of people he knew were combined to make the painting...eg the eyes are that of his mothers.

Nipeks: People say it is the technique he used, the way he painted the eyes, the way she smiles blah blah blah but me I think the portrait is over hyped. There are portraits that are more perfect than perfect than Mona Lisa but didn't get that much recognition. The value of an art is directly proportional to its publicity whether beautiful not. This is the same for other form of art like music.

.
Its special becos different parts of people he knew were combined to make the painting...eg the eyes are that of his mothers, shoulders that of his gay lover......thats what makes it so special the combination

viktor legend: d fact that she seems to be staring at u no matter d angle u view d potriat frm(3d) its d first of its kind & i dnt knw if its d onli1

it is not the first of its kind and there are lots of paintings with the eye view

There's a lot to this masterpiece than meets the eye. But to satisfy the OP's view about this work being over-hyped. I'd say Yes, it actually is over-hyped. But then, the OP should note that this work like the Bermuda Triangle, The Illuminati, The Holy Grail, and countless other controversial discussions have been made popular because they all have several unique things about them, hyped or not, the work is a masterpiece in the art community. The painter's personality as one of the greatest artist in history also has continued to fuel the hype, after all, he, Leonardo Da Vinci, admitted that this work, MonaLisa, was one of his greatest.

I still haven't seen an answer to the question. The painting may have the techniques of god knows what and bla bla but there is nothing interesting about the picture I see in front of me.

monalisa is an androgynous portrait signifying the union od the male and female Gods,the name mona is an anagram for the egyptian god of fertility AMON while isis or in greek translation LISA is the goddess of sexuality.join them together u have MONA LISA

First the smille of Mona Lisa:
The most expressive parts of the human face are the outer points of the lips and eyes. Leonardo Da Vinci has deliberately left these areas in shadow which creates the effect of causing different people to read different emotions on the face of the sitter, whomever she may be.
Ever noticed Mona Lisa does not have eyebrows?
Sometime around 2011, American artist found 3 animal heads in the background of the Mona Lisa painting.
Not including the part the art work stares at your eyes, no matter the angle you gaze from.

Chinyeresandra: I love the Monalisa!

happy bday

potmeetskettle: First the smille of Mona Lisa:
The most expressive parts of the human face are the outer points of the lips and eyes. Leonardo Da Vinci has deliberately left these areas in shadow which creates the effect of causing different people to read different emotions on the face of the sitter, whomever she may be.
Ever noticed Mona Lisa does not have eyebrows?
Sometime around 2011, American artist found 3 animal heads in the background of the Mona Lisa painting.
Not including the part the art work stares at your eyes, no matter the angle you gaze from.

The eyebrows were lost during a restoration project gone wrong. It wasn't deliberate and wasn't done by Da Vinci.