Mona Lisa - Diamond Painting

Who Was the Real Mona Lisa?

Leonardo da Vinci began the portrait in Florence around 1503. The sitter is generally identified as Lisa Gherardini, wife of the merchant Francesco del Giocondo, hence the name La Gioconda. He worked on it for years and kept it with him, taking it to France late in his life, where it entered the French royal collection.

After the French Revolution the painting went to the new public museum at the Louvre. For a short time Napoleon kept it in his bedroom before it returned to the galleries.

What to Look for in the Mona Lisa

She sits in a calm three quarter pose, hands folded, her body forming a steady pyramid. Behind her, an imaginary landscape of winding paths, water and misty peaks fades into blue. The horizon on each side does not quite line up, one small reason she seems to shift as you look.

The famous smile lives in the shadows at the corners of her mouth and eyes, where Leonardo left no hard edges at all.

Where Is the Mona Lisa Today?

It hangs in the Louvre in Paris behind protective glass, and it is smaller than many visitors expect, painted on a poplar wood panel. Its fame exploded after it was stolen in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker at the museum. It was recovered in Florence in 1913 and returned to Paris.

Mona Lisa Diamond Painting: Building Her Smile

Leonardo softened every edge with sfumato, a smoky blending of tone. In diamonds that means many close shades of brown, green and gold. Sort your drills before you begin, fill the hazy landscape behind her first, and work slowly around the face and hands, where the smallest changes in tone shape her famous expression.

Check each symbol twice near the mouth and eyes. A single wrong drill there is more noticeable than anywhere else on the canvas, so place those rows in good light and step back often to see the whole face.

New to the craft? Read our guide to diamond painting tools, and see the Madonnina diamond painting kit for another classic portrait.