There are few works of art in the world that are as well-known or as talked about as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in Paris. Despite the immense wealth of treasures in the Louvre, not to mention the grandeur and history of the building itself, The Mona Lisa portrait is a highlight for most visitors as well as their main reason for visiting the museum. But what is it about the Leonardo’s Mona Lisa that makes it so special that everyone wants to see/steal it? Why does this painting need to be kept in a bullet proof glass case behind a barrier while other spectacular works hang defencelessly next to it?

Much of the magic is in the Mona Lisa mystery. No-one really knows for sure why she doesn’t have eyebrows , how da Vinci managed to paint her so that no matter where you stand in a room her eyes always follow you and most importantly, who she was. Of course there are theories, hundreds of thousands of them. Some are more outrageous than others – like that she is a he or that the painting is actually of Leonardo himself. Here we look at some of the more popular theories about the Mona Lisa’s secrets and try to establish a few truths of the story behind the smile.

Why the fuss?

Rumour 1: The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows

Visitors to the Mona Lisa today will notice, usually after some time, that she has a strange look about her. This is due in part to the fact that she has no facial hair. No eyebrows, no eyelashes, not even a beard! Historians claim that it was the fashion of the time to shave ones eybrows, facial hair having been deemed to be unladylike. However, a French engineer called Paschal Cotte claims that having used a scanner to search the image, he found traces of hair that once existed there but is gone today possibly through simple aging or over-cleaning.

Rumour 2: She watches you wherever you go

There is a strange and often talked about sensation when viewing the Mona Lisa, of being watched wherever in the room you are. This is because da Vinci cleverly didn’t paint the whites of her eyes, thereby giving the image a sense of mystery. He also achieved this by leaving the corners of her eyes and mouth unfinished. Is she smiling or frowning? Different people see different things in the face in the Mona Lisa – just one more reason why she is so special.

Rumour 3: The Mona Lisa was stolen

Accused of kidnapping

Indeed the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 when a staff member, using very low-tech methods, simply shoved the work of art under his coat and walked out of the Louvre with it. After two years of searching and accusing people like Pablo Picasso of stealing it, the painting was found in Italy. As it turns out, worker Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen Leonardo’s masterpiece because he believed it belonged at home in Italy, where it was created. He was caught when he tried to sell the work to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Members of the public have tried to destroy the Mona Lisa a number of times by way of spray paint, rocks and even an airborne terracotta mug. Hence the reason why visitors today view it from the other side of bullet-proof glass.

Rumour 4: The Mona Lisa is Leonardo/his mother/his apprentice/a hermaphrodite

Probably the biggest mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa concerns her identity. Many historians believe her to be Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo (also known as Monna Lise del Giocondo) in which case Leonardo was commissioned to produce the piece by her husband. At the time of writing archaeologists in Italy were digging up a tomb believed to have belonged to del Giocondo in the hope that DNA testing would allow them to do a facial reconstruction.

The waters are muddied however by the fact that, despite keeping notes on all the rest of his models and his projects, there are no notes about this particular sitter in Leonardo's diary. Considering the fact that da Vinci also worked quite quickly on his paintings, people have also questioned why this one too him so long. Or why he carried it around with him for the rest of his life, calling it his masterpiece.

The same person?

Answers to these questions have come thick and fast but it is important to remember that there is little or no evidence to support any theory one way or another. Some people believe that the painting is a self-portrait by Leonardo of himself as a woman since the Mona Lisa resembles the self-portrait he drew of himself. Another development of this theory is that the Mona Lisa is actually an image of his mother, Caterina, created from memory since she died when he was very young. This would account for the lack of a sitter and the model’s plain, unadorned appearance. That said, it is claimed that Leonardo’s mother was a creature of extraordinary beauty while the Mona Lisa is quite plain by the standards of the day.

The sharp contrast between the appearance of the left and right side of the Mona Lisa’s face has caused some to wonder if the painting is actually of a hermaphrodite. Meanwhile others say that it was Leonardo’s male apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti who posed for the painting. Rumors have always been rife about da Vinci’s sexuality, and indeed even during his life there were questions asked. He doesn’t seem to have had any relationships with women although, similarly, there is no evidence that he had relationships with men either. Accusations that were lodged against him at the time were dismissed by the town council.

According to one man, the Mona Lisa is a painting of the Man in the Moon, or more specifically that Leonardo once saw a face in the moon and put it on paper as the Mona Lisa. It seems that everyone has their own theory about the Mona Lisa which kind of begs the question - if archaeologists did find the identity of the mysterious lady would it be for the better or for the worse? Is the fun in the mystery?

Why not pop along to the Louvre yourself and see if you can find anything more behind the Mona Lisa's mysterious smile.