Mona Lisa, The (Leonardo da Vinci) Easter Egg - Mona Lisa the Stripper

If you could remove her clothes, you would find a naked body, if you could remove her skin, you would find a skeleton. This was part of Leonardo's method. He painted as though he were actually building a human body. He had a vast knowledge of human and animal anatomy.

maybe thats why she's smiling

I've also heard that X-Rays of the Mona Lisa found that it had been painted 3 times. Interesting.

In your "requrements" space you say "The Mona Lisa." prehaps you should include a disclaimer against any who tries to steal the painting from the Louve to find this egg.

There is so much discussion about her smile owing to many issues and ideas. In history, it has generally been accepted that the people in portraits should not be smiling. Plus, hers seems not to be a normal, happy smile, not as we tend to think of it. Most people that see, especially study, The Mona Lisa feel that the manner in which she is smiling suggests something, perhaps a secret or hidden emotion. This matches her eyes; in general, the idea of this woman is of mystery. Many suggestions have been made on why exactly she has such a...inward-directed, enigmatic and esoteric smile. Not just that, but aside from the painting itself, there is a lot of discussion about the artist Da Vinci. His other very famous work, The Last Supper, constantly generates discussion. His life was very controversal, in ethics, style and beliefs. He was an excellent artist who knew exactly how to paint males and females, yet there is debate about not only Mona Lisa's sex (some say she is actually a "he", possibly even Da Vinci himself), but the sex of a figure in The Last Supper. So when people hear, see or concoct these theories, they take another little look for themselves at The Mona Lisa and her smile. In hindsight, one thinks that perhaps there is a reason why she is smiling, rather than being simply happy.

supposedly there is a work known as the "top-less Gioconda" (i'm unsure of the spelling) which features a woman, exposing her breasts, in an identical setting (?) as the Mona Lisa. i have seen such a painting in a book, alongside the Mona Lisa, however they APPEAR to be different women... there is some semblance between their faces, but their hair is strikingly different. perhaps the painting that was displayed in the book was merely someone else's interpretation of what the "top-less Gioconda" looked like (which was, infact, painted over with the present image of the Mona Lisa). i do not know. there are many stories, however, that the Mona Lisa IS infact a self-portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci from when he was many years younger, and that he did use the described model of painting over and over to "build" his subject.

Algo and Cookie are right, but my art teacher brought a photo-enhanced x-ray to school, telling us Mona Lisa was painted naked first. Their hair an face are the same, thus, they are one person. Top-less Gioconda and Mona Lisa are one, except Mona Lisa is painted over Gioconda.

For everyone's information, the painting commonly referred to as the Mona Lisa is thought to be a portrait of a lady with family name of Giaconda. The painting's title in French is La Jaconde, a French rendering of the Italian name Giaconda.

Traditionally portraits were painted naked,so that might be why he did her naked first. He did it to get it the right way.

This is true, and she was supposedly painted three times over. It is also said that for the face, he used his own face.

don't mind me, but an easter egg in a painting? just sounds weird to me

Maybe that was just to get a layering effect...

Lorenzo Della Fontana ,the same Leonardo's disciple that painted the "Ufo", painted a version of Mona Lisa naked, that you can see in Firenze, in the Office's gallery.

according to scholars the "mona lisa" is more an ideology than a person.she could be any anonymous person walking the streets of her time however, the question "who is she?" is not so much applicable as "what is she?" her smile is just a reinforcement of people's misguided interpretations (it is a common fact that da vinci loved to play mind games with viewers- thus,the ambiguity of his art). then there is the thought that her smile is not a smile at all, rather it is just the incredible work of art(being able to view an object from one side-with the other still visible). but whatever, the truth is, i'm inclined to believe that perhaps the sole purpose of "mona lisa" was/is just to create hype/confusion and draw attention to da vinci (after all an artist only becomes a legend after his/her demise-what better way for the da vinci legacy to be carried than to analyse his works for something that seems to be present but is not?)

Why is there a huge debate on why the Mona Lisa is smiling? Are people not allowed to smile? She was smiling because she was happy, is that not why most people smile? sheesh.

No, it was either to get the shape or because his nude pictures had been turned down by the local art gallery, so he improvised.