10 Things France Is Famous for

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The most popular painting of all time, the Mona Lisa, sits peacefully to this day in Louvre, France. Widespread fame and recognition were brought to the portrait after it was stolen in the early 19th century before it was recovered decades later. The painting was done in France in the 15th century. Leonardo used the innovative technique of sfumato to paint the famous portrait. The expectation, but also the unknowns have accompanied this unique painting since its creation. Above, the table and frame hung in the Louvre. Since 2005, La Gioconda hangs on the wall erected especially for her in the room of La Gioconda (Salle des États), dedicated to Italian painting. There is no doubt that the fame that the portrait possessed already in the 16th century is not accidental. The quality of the work lay, in Vasari’s words, in its verism, in its proximity to reality and in its mimetic character. In his biographies of the most famous artists of the Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari praises La Gioconda. He also explains, in a very literary way, how Leonardo da Vinci managed to sketch the mythical smile of his work on the model: “On behalf of Francesco del Giocondo, Leonardo undertook the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife. Mona Lisa was very beautiful; while he portrayed her, she had people singing or playing, and jesters that made her happy, to avoid the melancholy that usually occurs in portrait painting, she had such a pleasant gesture that it was, when she saw it, something more divine than human, and she I considered it a wonderful work because it was not different from reality.” Click the next ARROW to see the next photo!