The Mona Lisa was one of Leonardo's favourite paintings, and he carried it with him until he died. Today, it is regarded as the most famous painting in the world, and is visited by many thousands of people every year.Who is this familiar figure? Many suggestions have been made, but the most likely candidate is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant.
Another more unlikely - but popular - theory is that the painting was a self portrait. There are certainly similarities between the facial features of the Mona Lisa and of the artist's self portrait painted many years later. Could this be why Leonardo gave the subject such an enigmatic smile?
Today, the Mona Lisa looks rather sombre, in dull shades of brown and yellow. This is due to a layer of varnish covering the paint, which has yellowed over the years. It is possible that the painting was once brighter and more colourful than it is now.
The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, by a former employee who believed the painting belonged in Italy. The thief walked out of the gallery with the picture underneath his painter's smock. He was apprehended by police two years later, and the painting was safely returned.
Look For - Leonardo has used a technique known as Sfumato - the blurring of sharp edges by blending colours - to leave the corners of the eyes and the mouth in shadow. It is this technique that makes the Mona Lisa's expression ambiguous.
The background of the painting has been made to look more hazy, with fewer distinct outlines than the foreground. This technique is known as aerial perspective, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use it to give his paintings more depth.
译文:
蒙娜丽莎的微笑（西班牙语称：吉奥孔达夫人）
《蒙娜丽莎的微笑》（《Mona Lisa》） 是列奥纳多·达·芬奇（Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci)最得意的画作之一，甚至直到他去世，他还一直随身带着这幅画。如今，这幅作品已经成为了世界上最负盛名的画作，每年，慕其名而来观的游客数目可以万计。
画中人是谁？各种猜想纷至沓来，但最有说服力的版本是说画中人是一个弗洛伦廷丝绸商人的妻子，名叫丽莎（Lisa Gherardini）。
还有一种没边儿的猜测——但流传甚广——说这幅画是幅自画像。事实上画中的蒙娜丽莎和许多年后画家的自画像在人物脸部特征上的确有相似之处。难道这就是列奥纳多之所以赋予画中人如此神秘的微笑的原因？
现在，在大幅棕色和黄色的晕渲下蒙娜丽莎看起来笑得更深沉了，那是因为画上涂的一层釉因年久而泛黄了，所以当年的蒙娜丽莎也大概比现在更加明快而多彩吧。
《蒙娜丽莎》曾于1911年与卢浮宫失窃，盗窃者是卸任的职员，他坚信这幅画应该属于意大利。他把画藏在了漆工的工作服下然后把它带出了画廊。两年后，警方才将其逮捕归案，《蒙娜丽莎》也完璧归于卢浮宫。
列奥纳多在此画中应用了一种绘画技巧，就是渲染层次（Sfumato），这种技法意在模糊不同颜色混合时所形成的明显界限和生硬的线条，在此画里，就体现在把眼角和唇角置于阴影中。这就是使蒙娜丽莎的表情如此神秘莫测的手段了。
画的背景处理得非常朦胧，远没有前景的清晰。这种技巧就是空间透视（aerial perspective），列奥纳多也是应用此法为作品拓展进深的第一人。