History of Mona Lisa for Kids

Imagine you are walking through an art gallery.  The walls are tall and beautiful.  It is an elegant place and there are tourists everywhere, studying and looking at artwork.  As you turn the corner into a different room, the crowd grows very thick.  Everyone is crowding around trying to see one particular painting.  As you get close, you see the painting they are all looking at.  It is a portrait of a woman.  She sits facing you and smiles with a slight smirk that is both suspicious and mysterious. 

This episode is about one of the most famous paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is also sometimes known as “La Gioconda” (La Jaconda” (“o” is “oh”), which means “the happy one” in Italian. The name of the painting is also a “play on words” or joke, because the painting is of a woman named Lisa del Giocondo. 

The Mona Lisa was painted during the 16th-century by an Italian oil painter named Leonardo da Vinci.  Leonardo lived in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance period in Europe.  The Renaissance was a time when there was much interest in art and writing in Europe the 14th–16th centuries.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in Italy in 1452.  His dad was a lawyer and his mom was a peasant woman. Leonardo studied art as a child with the famous Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio.  During the Renaissance, it was common for men to learn many different art and science skills.  Leonardo studied hard with his painting teachers. Because this was a long time ago and Leonardo was not yet famous, there is not a lot known about his childhood.  There are only reports that he was very curious and had a very inventive imagination.  Inventive means someone who is creative and comes up with original inventions or ideas.

Leonardo was interested in many different art forms, including inventing and designing new  technologies.  This means developing new machines or robotics, making things automated and easier to do.  Leonard imagined and then drew pictures of flying machines, armored fighting vehicles, solar powered inventions and an adding machine.  At the time, most of his designs were not actually built as real objects, it just wasn’t possible yet.  This was because modern science and engineering were only just starting to be developed.  Leonardo is sometimes credited with having invented the parachute, helicopter and tank. 

But Leonardo’s first love was oil painting.  He often painted portraits of wealthy people who hired him.  The Mona Lisa was painted as one of these portraits.  Although historians don’t know for sure, they believe that the painting is of Lisa del Giocondo, who was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a rich silk merchant who lived in Florence.

Leonardo began painting the Mona Lisa around 1503 in Florence, Italy.  At the time, he was around 51 years old. He would have had the woman in the painting sit to be painted many times before it was completed. Other painters at the time that knew Leonardo said that he worked on it slowly for four years.  He tinkered with it and eventually left it unfinished. 

Because historians are not 100% sure this painting is of Lisa del Giocondo, alternative theories have been believed by some people.  Alternative theories means different ideas about something. Some people believe that the Mona Lisa painting is actually a painting of Leonardo da Vinci’s mother, Caterina.  Other people think that the woman in the painting looks a lot like Leonardo himself and that maybe the painting is a self-portrait of the painter wearing women’s clothing. 

The painting was completed around 1508 and later brought to France by Leonardo in 1516.  The King of France, Francis the 1st, purchased the painting from Leonardo. King Francis I was very interested in art and particularly liked Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings.  He purchased many of them during Leonardo’s lifetime. 

King Francis I hung the Mona Lisa in the Chateau Fontainebleau (Foo-tan-bloo). This was one of the medieval castles that belonged to the French royals, and was situated about 34 miles southwest of the center of Paris. French monarchs lived in this palace, including King Francis I.  He did a lot of work on the palace during his lifetime, including building an art gallery.  This is where he hung the Mona Lisa and other paintings he purchased from Leonardo da Vinci. 

The Gallery of Francis I is considered to be one of the first and finest examples of Renaissance decoration in France.  It was originally constructed in 1528 as a passageway between the apartments of the King with the courtyard, or garden area.

After Francis I’s death, other French kings kept the Gallery of Francis I intact.  This was until Louis XIV (the 14th) became the new king of France in 1643.  Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, preferred to spend time at the Palace of Versailles and he eventually moved the Mona Lisa and other paintings there. Louis XIV loved art and he purchased many additional art pieces during his lifetime. He displayed these pieces in beautiful rooms of the Palace of Versailles.

The Mona Lisa remained at the Palace of Versaille until the French Revolution. This was a period of time when there was a lot of change in France.  The new leader of France after the revolution was Napoleon Bonaparte.  He moved the Mona Lisa to his home in the Tuileries (Tru-la-vee) Place and hung it in his bedroom.

Later, in 1797, the Mona Lisa was moved to the Louvre, a famous art museum in Paris where it is still hanging today.  It is owned by the Government of France.

In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen! The Louvre museum thought it was being photographed but when they checked to see if it was safe, but in reality someone had taken it. The Louvre closed for one week to help look for it.

People thought a French poet named Guillaume Apollinaire (Gee-ohm Apol-in-air) stole it. He was put into jail, and he tried to make people think his friend, the artist Pablo Picasso did it, and he was questioned. It was not either of them, though.

The Mona Lisa was lost for two years, and everybody thought it would be lost forever. A worker at the Louvre, named Vincenzo Peruggia (Per-oo-zhee-uh), had actually stolen it. He and two other workers had taken the portrait from the wall, hid with it in a closet overnight and the next day, Vincenzo hid it in his coat and walked out with it after the museum had closed. He wanted the painting to go back to Italy and be shown in an Italian museum. After hiding it in his apartment for two years, he grew impatient and tried to sell it to a gallery in Florence, Italy.  But he was caught. The painting was shown all over Italy before going back to the Louvre. People thought Vincenzo was a hero who loved Italy, so he only spent a few months in jail.

During World War II the Mona Lisa, was singled out as the most-endangered artwork in the Louvre.  Endangered means threatened.  In this case, the French Government likely worried that enemies would steal or destroy it. The Mona Lisa was moved to various locations in France’s countryside.  It was returned to the Louvre museum in 1945 after peace had been declared. It later traveled to the United States in 1963, and over 40,000 people per day came to see it. 

Over the years, a few people have tried to vandalize the Mona Lisa.  This means to trash or wreck the painting.  Why someone would want to destroy the painting is a real question.  But that is why the Mona Lisa is now displayed behind bullet proof glass. 

Other artists have tried to copy Leonard da Vinci’s painting style and have even painted copies of the Mona Lisa.  It is such a famous painting that it is written about in poems and songs and featured in movies — and it is estimated that it is worth over $860 million dollars! 

Have you ever seen an image of the Mona Lisa? If you haven’t be sure to look it up later.  I’d love to see it in real life someday at the Louvre Museum. Hopefully one day you’ll get a chance to see it yourself!

Thanks for listening and be sure to tune in next time!

Mona Lisa Quiz

  1. Who painted the Mona Lisa? Leonardo da Vinci
  2. What country did the painter live in? Italy
  3. What forms of art did Leonardo da Vinci like to work with? Painting, inventing and designing new technologies
  4. What are some modern inventions that people think Leonardo da Vinci originally designed? Parachute, helicopter, tank
  5. How many years did it take to paint the Mona Lisa? Four
  6. The king of which country purchased the Mona Lisa in 1508? France
  7. Which leader hung the Mona Lisa in his bedroom? Napoleon Bonaparte
  8. Which famous art museum in Paris houses the Mona Lisa now? The Louvre
  9. Who owns the Mona Lisa? The Government of France
  10. Who stole the Mona Lisa and hid it in his apartment for two years? A worker at the Louvre, Vincenzo Peruggia, who wanted to take it back to Italy

Mona Lisa Activities

  1. Find a picture of the Mona Lisa on the internet.  Who do you think the painting is of? A rich Italian woman? Leonardo da Vinci dressed as a woman?
  2. Draw or paint a copy of the Mona Lisa.  Imagine you are Leonardo da Vinci, or one of the many people who made copies of the painting. 
  3. Leonardo da Vinci loved to sketch pictures of different inventions that he came up with.  Try this yourself with a pencil and paper.  What are some machines or inventions that you think people in the future could use?
  4. While you are drawing, search and listen to some classical Italian music.  This may have been the type of music that the artist liked to listen to in his day. 
  5. Some popular Italian foods include tomatoes, lemons, olives and olive oil.  Search up a classic Italian recipe that kids can cook and make an Italian dinner for your family like Leonardo da Vinci might have eaten.  (link: https://www.kidspot.com.au/kitchen/recipes/collections/italian-recipes).  Don’t forget to have an adult help you!

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