Mona Lisa, The (Leonardo da Vinci) Easter Egg - The Most World Renowned Portrait!

A PHOTO of Da Vinci??? I think not... he was a gifted inventor, but I don't think he invented the camera...

To Kidvid01: How can it take 10 years to paint one part of a painting, WHEN THE PAINTING ITSELF ONLY TOOK THE ARTIST THREE YEARS TO MAKE?!!!

I think what hummer2(same as hummer) ment, was that using special photo techniques they were able to reveal the original pencil sketch, which, according to hummer2(same as hummer) was of DaVinci himself.

Hey Dave, you remember Contact with Jodi Foster, don't you? LOL

your all wrong...mona lisa was a picture of my milk lady

Wow. Your milk maid must be REALLY old!

Leonardo could paint with one hand while writing simultaneously with the other hand.

I've seen the morph (http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/link2.htm), read the theory, and I'm unconvinced. It's far more likely that similarities reflect that fact that both pieces are by the same artist, and nothing more. However talented Da Vinci was, he did have a particular and identifiable style, just as most artists do. The 'Da Vinci in Drag' theory also doesn't disprove the commonly accepted story of Mona's origins: La Gioconda (roughly translating as "The Cheerful Lady", and the actual title of the work) being modelled on the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and the title being a pun on her married name.

Leonardo did write backwards, but it had nothing to do with ink smudging. psychodoughboy may be right, but at least part of the reason he wrote backwards isn't so that nobody would steal his ideas, but so that nobody could see them in the first place. You see, in order to draw his anatomical drawings, he had to dig up recently deceased corpses from the grave and cut them open. The church did not look too kindly on people digging bodies up from the grave, and it's likely that he'd get some serious penalty (i.e. death) if he was ever caught. So he wrote backwards so that nobody could see his controversial investigations.

I suggest that the reason the Mona Lisa has the same proportions as Leonardo's self portraits is that they were all painted by the same artist using the same technique to create the proportion of the face. Nothing more.

Check this out: 1)Mona Lisa was married when the painting was made, but the wedding ring isn't there. 2)The law back then was for married women NOT to wear their hair down!

Let's clear this mess up. Da Vinci was not left handed, he was right handed but as at the time dissecting human bodies was considered blasphemous, he disguised his findings by (a) writing in his LEFT hand, (b) writing BACKWARDS and (c) often replacing traditional Latin/Italian script with either English, French or even German script. This obviously protected him (to a degree) should the authority's catch on to what he was doing.

DaVinci was neither right or left handed. He was ambidextrous, which means he could write fluently with both hands.

Sorry guys, Da vinci was left handed, wrote weird because it was EASIER. All you lefties will understand The Mona Lisa, furthermore, was not an ordinary street woman. She was either that guy with the long name's wife or a self-portrait of the artist himself. Although some people say that the fact that their facial features are exactly the same doesn't mean anything, Da Vinci was a genius and known for being extremely anatomically correct.

Just an interesting thing I noticed: Mona Lisa wears all black. Mickey said that she was married at the time, but Italian women wear black for a year or so after their husband dies. What does that say? And why is she grinning so much and has an absence of wedding ring....? She looks pretty happy to me! Very strange! As for the point made about Leonardo's sketch beneath the painting, just consider my thoughts on this: *People did not waste in those days. Maybe he wanted to draw him self but changed his mind? If this is so, Da Vinci wouldn't have wasted a good piece of pine. *Who is the one person you know best in your life? YOU. You know what you look like so maybe Da Vinci would base the painting on his features. *Do you REALLY think Da Vinci was a tranny? I'm sure they existed in those times but just because of the evidence with the painting and that it doesn't at all mean he was a cross dresser. By the way I think this site rocks. It has made me think more in one day than in the last 5 weeks of school! Thanks!

sevendeadlysins, She isn't wearing black because her husband died...that's a lame story...have you noticed that ALL of her features are dark? That's because Da Vinci used a technique called "Chiarscuro" in Mona Lisa...it's when you have a a dark object or person in the foreground which contrasts with a light background...it's for dramatic effect

Hey I have a few points to make: 1. Interesting morph of De Vinci turning into the Mona Lisa. Have you seen the one where Bill Clinton turns into a monkey? 2. Nobody cares about whether He was left-handed, right-handed, or amputated it doesn't real matter and isn't relevent.

Sydelish is mistaken. The camera WAS around in DaVinci's time, though not a complex one. The "camera obscura", or pinhole camera was known to exist. Also, there were chemicals available for crude emulsions, known to alchemists, of which DaVinci was one. (Alchemists did more than just trying to turn base metals into precious) The symbol for alchemy is the hermaphrodite, the fusion of Hermes and Aphrodite, representing the perfect union of man and woman in the universe. The highest form an alchemist could attain was the Great Work, which was believed to transform, if not physically, spiritually, the alchemist into a hermaphrodite, or ideal. It is quite possible that DaVinci could see himself in the form of a female, as the ideal, and painted himself thus.

Check www.monalisaprofile.com

the relevant thing about this painting is not whether it was a self portrait, what the woman was thinking, or which hand DaVinci used to paint it. The point of any art is how it makes the viewer feel. Leonardo may have died with all of the secrets to the Mona Lisa, but that's ok, because none of us need to know what they were. The painting could have been of Leo himself, though any artist will tell you that a self likeness is the most difficult kind, considering the only image of ourselves we ever encounter is that in a mirror, the exact opposite of reality. It could also be of a figure in the artist's imagination, many of us draw or imagine idealized and beautiful people at some point. But, really, none of us know, and no history book can tell you what Leonardo really felt that this painting represented. But as soon as someone invents a time machine, let me know...

i have a cat and it likes to drink mountain dew.

Now I have read a rather thorough biography if Da Vinci, as well as several other books on him and his work, so I know what I am saying is correct. First, the Mona Lisa is a portrait of the wife of a nobleman in Italy. This is a historical fact. She has a name, but I forget it. She was actually very grumpy, and Da Vinci kept musicians and entertainers around so she would keep smiling. It is not a self portrait, that idea just does not stand up to historical scrutiny. He finished the portrait part part in the lady's presence, but spent many more years on the background, long after the nobleman and his wife had lost interest. He finally presented the final portrait to the king of France just before he died. Second, Da Vinci was not left-handed. He was nearly ambidextrous, and could work very well with his left hand, but he was most definitely right handed. However, close to his death his right arm stopped functioning, so he had to finish his last works with his left hand. It is possible that he wrote and painted at the same time, although it was not mentioned in any book I read. He wrote backwards to hide his ideas from others. He was very secretive about them. Third, he was not a cross-dresser. He always dressed in men's clothes, although they were of his own design. I saw a statue of him in Italy, and he was wearing men's clothes. A cross-dresser would not be allowed into the high society circles he moved in. He was accused of being gay, but there was no evidence to support these claims, and the charges were dropped. He had many enemies, and accusing someone of being gay is a good way of destroying an enemy. Fourth, Da Vinci was an expert at optics and lenses. He very well could have invented the modern camera, but no evidence of it exists today. It is thought most of his journals were lost over the centuries, and with it knowledge centuries ahead of its time. Also, I have heard nothing about Da Vinci being a vegetarian, I doubt any Europeans were at that time. All of this is known through Da Vinci's journals and other people's journals.

The musician idea is correct. And he may not have been totally left handed, but he must have become ambidextrous because writing backwards is so much more helpful that writing front-wards when you are left handed. Trust me, I'M A LEFTY! There are some suggestions that the Mona Lisa was painted as a self portrait, but there is considerable evedince against that. And she isn't smirking, it is a trick with the shadows so that if you concentrate with one eye, she is smiling, with the other, she isn't. Very brilliant.

Michelangelo (excuse my spelling) did not paint the Mona Lisa.

I think staring at the Mona Lisa makes one forget all the very important details, such as WHERE exactly did one get the information of which they are writing!!

About the "did he invent a modern camera?" thing... If you read Time City by Diana Wynne Jones, somebody from the very far future is "punished" and sent to Leondaro's time, and eventually you find that he IS Leondaro DaVinci.

To begin with, it hasn't been proven who the mona lisa was based on. There has been a lot of speculation, and there are currently 3 or 4 very good suggestions as to the truth floating around. As for some other little things: 1.) Leonardo was left handed, and he wrote backwards to deal with ink stains. The suggestion that he did this in a form of "code" to keep his anatomy studies secret is ludicrous. Reading backwards messages is too simple to provide a good code, and with his genius mind, I'm sure that he could have come up with something better if he really WAS afraid of being accused of a crime. While it was frowned upon, he was given permission to study the anatomy of dead bodies. (He was often in high regards with royalty.) 2.) DaVinci WAS once called up by the authorities for questioning or something. (Or at least once that we have record of.) No charges were pressed against him, and the exact crime is unknown, but many historians believe that he was accused of homosexuality. (What this actually means for the case that he was a cross-dresser who wanted to picture himself in women's clothing is uncertain... But I don't think that it leans the argument too much towards the self-portrait concept.) I've been interested in Leonardo DaVinci since I was like 7 years old, and have read a lot about him since, but have little more credentials outside of that fact. And I suggest that before you believe anything that I, or anyone else, says on here, you look towards a much more reliable source of art history than "eeggs.com"

This is one of the greatest discoveries of all time. I first heard about it on an episoide of unsolved mysteries. However! What they think happened was Mr. Divinci got a model for the Mona Lisa but was not happy with the final result. So he repainted it and put some of his personal features in it.

WOW! That's amazing! I wish I had a cat that drank Mountain Dew! My sister has a horse that likes to drink Coke, though.

I Think the Mona Lisa is a portrait of the cat that drinks mountain dew

I have a cat that requires no caffine ingredient type sodas at all. She hangs upsidedown & then swings off her cat post and my furniture on a daily basis. Truely amazing!

There is a picture of a french painter made around 1900 showing the Mona Lisa with some roughly painted eyebrows and some Da Vinci-like beard, and the subtitle is: L.H.O.O.Q. Pronounced in french, it means: Elle a chaud au cul. Translated in english, it means: She's got a hot ass. It's obviously a hint on Da Vincis homosexuality. It was already well known, then.

Has any one thought that the Mona Lisa's face looks a little weird?Well I've noticed something! She has no eyebrows!

I remember awhile back I was watching tv and i saw something like this. They now do beleave that the painting is him! He just repainted his own. I can't really remember it was awhile back.

Leonardo Da Vinci did paint himself as a woman, thus creating the Mona Lisa. :D

I think that the Mona Lisa looks like a dead cat with mountain dew spilt all over it after it farted

Da Vinci was a member of The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in 1099. In 1975 Paris's Bibliothèque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci. The fact about this art is Mona Lisa is an Andogyny. It is neither male nor female. This is actually a symbolic art dedicated to the equality of man and woman as one..cause at that time women were highly discriminated by the church and it so happens that Da Vinci was one of the few early recorded feminists. He left the biggest clue in the painting itself which is the name Mona Lisa. Derived from the egyptian god of love and fertility Amon and the goddess of love and fertility..L'issa. And the legend said they have formed as one and thus named Amon L'issa. All artists have their own way of telling what they believe in and behold the secret of that smile!

Miker mentioned the theory that Leonardo da Vinci was a member of the Priori de Sion. Sorry, but a BBC documentary a few years back showed that the documents linking him to the Priori were twentieth century fakes. It even had an interview with the forgers. (Of course, the Da Vinci Code is fiction, so Dan Brown could ignore little details like that when he wrote it...)

Why Leonardo DaVinci wrote backwords. Have you ever heard of an intellectual trap? My emotional mind leans toward the obvious. He knew every ego would pass it up. It simply means nothing. Only my theory but it makes perfect sense to me.

After ten more errors in thought I gave up and walked away. Suddenly I had an emotional expierience. This is what I felt. We didnt trust Leonardo Da Vinci. He would'nt leave anything of importance for us to unravel. All previous errors are due to our inability to accept that our problems due to Leonardo and now we know. It doesnt mean a thing. Apologies for the last error. Do not be humiliated I've done it for you.

Mickey, you are a fool. What you said is completely false. It has not even been PROVEN that the painting was of a woman named Lisa (much less Mona Lisa), especially since the egg is about it being Da Vinci himself! By the way, Megs, it's chiaroscuro, not chiarscuro. Sorry.

Ambidextrous not amputated. Mona Lisa was a portrait of an Italian nobleman's wife, his name was Francesco del Giocondo. It is NOT a portrait of Da Vinci.

Dan, that doesn't even relate to the egg.

What in the heck is up with the cat drinking mountain dew? Cats are evil! And mountain dew is disgusting.

My cat likes cheez-its. not NEARLY as cool as a cat that drinks mountain dew.

It has been theorized that the Mona Lisa is actually a self portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci in a womens body.

i saw a special on i think discovery channel about mona lisa. it seems that after further cleaning and inspection of the painting, she was pregnant in the painting. based on the veil she is wearing and a shawl she has around her shoulders.

gOtmilk5551,the reason Mona Lisa has no eyebrows is because the fashion back the was to shave them off!