The Mona Lisa (Louvre, Paris), also known as La Gioconda, is a portrait of the wife of Francesco de Giocondo, painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1505.
This figure of a woman, dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and seated in a visionary, mountainous landscape, is a remarkable instance of Leonardo's sfumato technique of soft, heavily shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa's enigmatic expression, which seems both alluring and aloof, has given the portrait universal fame.
