London's Mona Lisa

One of the most disturbing facts that stirs this research is the existence of the La Joconda Nude (Chamtilly Museum and is illustrated in Monad's Identity section). Throughout centuries, amongst hundreds of studies, articles and research about Leonardo and his works, there is none that raised this question that seems common sense: Why did Mona Lisa (La Joconde) have to undress for a portrait? As an analogy, "Do we have to undress ourselves in a doctor's office for a dental check up? Is that a mal practice on Leonardo's part to study Mona Lisa in the nude for a mere portrait?" Mr. Joconda, Mona Lisa's husband, told us he had to spend a small fortune to hire musicians, acrobats, jesters, just to make her smile; we wonder how much did he spend and how did Leonardo persuaded her to undress abeit she was in mourning?!! The anecdote didn't say much and that also makes us wonder about her husband's chivalry code of honor and the authenticity of the sketh vis a vis Mrs. Joconda.

As a final analysis, it was only Louvre's Mona Lisa who has been studied in the nude and in the descriptive dual hermaphroditic form. An unexplained nude Mona breeds wild imagination and gossip and no wonder her smile was and still is so mysterious in the eyes of the beholders. The obvious answer is that the Louvre's Mona Lisa was not intended for the composition of the actual La Jaconde but only for the mythical Monad, as we proved in the previous chapters. The missing piece appeared as London's Mona Lisa comes into the puzzle and it fits.

This version of Mona Lisa is under custody of Dr. Pulitzer and is authenticated. Same as with Louvre's Mona Lisa, London's Mona Lisa bears Leonardo's finger prints and his peculiar trade marks: he smooths his colors with his fingers. This version could be the real Mona Lisa Del Giocondo because there existed no complaints on giocondo's part, which means the artist fulfilled his order. Also, the sitter looks more mundane, although a beautiful lady nevertheless. The background in particular looks "normal" and lacks the mythical quality of the Louvre's version.
(Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, pg. 483-4)

The Setting
As the story goes: Monsieur Joconde, the rich silk merchant, had to hire a group of musicians, singers, and jesters to amuse Mona Lisa, his wife, in order for her to smile. On and off the sitting lasted four years.
To accommodate such a group our common sense dictates that the setting must be indoors and the background must be a visual focus of the residence so that the rich owner of the mansion or castle could be proudly identified with it.
Searching through European interior architectural elements of the fifteenth century, we found such a candidate: The portico. With raised columnades and arches, the portico functions as a framework for a mural.
A photo recently taken from a German castle of such a portico, matches perfectly with those in the two Monas: in each painting the two columnades blend in perfectly with those in the photo, even the width of the bases seem identical.

Since the portico's background is a mural, it is independent of any lighting source of any of the sitters. The mural's subject is interchangeable, from one painting to another. In painting Monad, Leonardo's icon, he might use the portico with a metamorphic intentions as seen below:

The portico could be dubbed as an altar, perhaps for that reason Leonardo reduced and cut off both sides of the paintings in order to obliterate any suspicions of religious meaning behind the Monad, especially the tracing through perspective.

Mona Lisa's Smile
We notice that the closing lip line of Mona Lisa's mouth is an arc of a circle with the center located between her eyes and is accentuated by the shading. The arc also has a small section of its asymptote which is the half divider line of the square. These two lines control the expression of the mouth. We also know that a circle changes shape into an oval seen from an angle. This curving effect makes the lip line curve slightly upward, and therefore gives Mona Lisa that famous smile.

3-D Effect
"The first thing in painting is that the objects it represents should appear in relief."
-Leonardo da Vinci

In the Mona Lisa, Leonardo ingeniously arranged the anatomic position of a spherical body on medical reference systems in which the coronal plane and Mid-Sagittal take place of two diagonals, and the facial plane facing the viewer gives the most high relief effect possible.

Mona Lisa's Following Eyes


While sketching Mona Lisa's face, we could correctly position the iris and the opening degree of the pupil. We notice that the pupil of the left eye is greater than that of the right eye. In practice, it is sufficient that when sketched, her eyes meet the eyes of the painter.