The Mona Lisa Smile

I viewed the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris in 1973. Like most, I was intrigued by that smile.

There is a back story, of doubtful authenticity, but it could be. Purportedly, Mona Lisa had been grief stricken at the loss of a child… but, as the story goes, she had given birth again just prior to sitting for DaVinci for this now famous painting.

That smile, enigmatic and gripping, does reflect complex emotions that indeed could be due those profoundly impactful events – the loss of one child and the subsequent birth of another.

The human experience is fraught with complex emotions… every moment of joy is tempered by the pain of loss. Perhaps that is why we find dear Mona Lisa so compelling.