Like Jesus Christ on the male side, is Mona Lisa the most worshipped woman in the world, and her curious look and smile attracted modern masses like a Hollywood star when it left Louvre to tour the world. There is something special behind this fragile painting stored in the bullet proof box in Musée du Louvre that attracts the vast attention without skepticism – a direct hit into the heart, for a moment reason is suspended and imagination rules. Leonardo’s biographer Vasari describes this painting as a sublime masterpiece with splendid details admiring also ‘her eyebrows’ which are unfortunately not painted, since s/he is painted without the eyebrows, and so a doubt rises whether Vasari really saw the painting in persona, or is he just spreading what he heard. Leonardo was so fond of this work that he always carried it with him until sold to French king Francois I.
Composition
Analysis of the composition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa shows that it is based on the circle that is visible on the painting as the perfectly circular shape of the top of Mona Lisa’s head.
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module of painting derived from figure’s ‘circular’ head |
The diameter of the described circle fits into the width of the panel exactly 3 times, and 4 times in the height of the figure, thus forming a basic Pythagorean triangle 3-4-5. The height of the board does not fit into the grid of circles, but they seem to be important only for the figure of Mona Lisa. And we are not sure that the present dimensions of the painting are in fact those defined by Leonardo da Vinci.
Next thing to do is to find the system of measures that Leonardo da Vinci used for the composition. The width of the painting is according to different sources ranging from 52.4 to 53 cm. This is very close to the length of exactly 1 Venetian cubit measuring 52.2 cm.
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width = 1 Venetian cubit |
VENETIA | cm | |
Miglio | 5000 | 173867 |
Stadio | 625 | 21731 |
Pertica grande | 6 | 208,6 |
Passo | 5 | 173,87 |
Pertica Piccola | 4,5 | 156,6 |
Braccio | 2 | 69,6 |
Cubito | 1,5 | 52,2 |
Piede | 1 | 34,8 |
Palmo | 4 | 8,7 |
Oncia | 12 | 2,9 |
Punto | 72 | 0,48 |
Linea | 144 | 0,24 |
Atomo | 864 | 0,04 |
Decimo | 1728 | 0,02 |
A circle, that is the compositional module, is therefore 1 palm in radius. Every metrical system is ‘modular’, which means that smaller units are always a simple fractions of the larger, as an example: 1 cubit equals 1.5 ft, 6 palm, or 12 oncia. The width of the painting measuring three circles is 1 cubit = 6 palm = 18 oncia, while the height of the figure is 8 palm or 24 oncia. These numbers defining the composition are conveying an important message.
Constantly Shifting Identity
This antagonistic painting is constantly pulsating the same question: Who is the person portrayed – a woman or a man? The usual suspicions go in two directions: if it is a woman, which according to this line of reasoning most probably is, then it is a painting of the Florentine lady Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, commissioned by her husband Francesco del Giocondo. There are also some other suggestions like Isabella of Aragon or the mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici.
But if the portrayed is a man, then who is he: a lover of Leonardo or at least his affection for a man disguised in the portrait of a woman or a hermaphrodite? As every masterpiece, it opens more questions than gives the answers. Every square inch of this painting has been analyzed by many researchers seeking for the secret code that would unveil the mystery of the portrayed, but nothing definitive has been published yet, nor will ever be …
A very old method used for encoding the additional, intentional messages into artistic compositions is khabbalistic exegesis called gematria, often mistakenly confused with numerology. Gematria is useful because it deals with words that have numeric values (read measures), and relates similar values to similar meanings. If we use simple Masonic code (A=1, B=2, … , Z=26) and calculate the famous title of the painting a value of 84 is obtained:
MONA LISA = (13+15+14+1) + (12+9+19+1) = 84.
Another name for the painting is also La Gioconda, or as a variant LA GIOCCONDA, which has the same gematric value:
LA GIOCCONDA = (12+1) + (7+9+15+3+3+15+14+4+1) = 84
‘La Giocconda’ can be translated as a ‘playful woman’, which is perhaps one of the reason of her peculiar smile. But her mysterious smile conceals also another enigma, of her identity …
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circumference of rectangle = 2 x (18+24) = 84 | ![]() |
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The above gematric speculations are amplified by the composition of circles that rule the proportions of the portrayed. If the width of the painting is considered as 1 Venetian cubit, then three circles and four circles in height equal 18 and 24 oncia respectively. The circumference of this rectangle 18 : 24, enclosing the figure is again concealing the number 84:
circumference = 2 x (18+24) = 84
This number really seems to be of extraordinary importance for this painting, no wonder since it is also a number that unveils the master himself:
LEONARDO = 12+5+15+14+1+18+4+15 = 84
REBIS
(from Latin res bina, ‘twofold matter’)
This painting seems to represent a compound – hieroglyphic image in alchemistic manner, that is none else but hermaphroditic Leonardo himself. Another surprise is concealed in the title of the painting, which is a rebus:
MONA LISA = SOL + ANIMA
This title is a rebis and a rebus of fundamental alchemical antimony of Sun (Sol) and Moon (Anima, soul), two basic symbols for opposing forces that are united in alchemic genderless hermaphrodite. There are many alchemic texts concerning this subject that obsessed a lot of artists during with philosophy inspired Renaissance.
… Sol and Lune, the male and female, two sperms, heaven and earth, and two, as I may say, Argent vives, and out of which alone the philosophers say their stone is made; which pitiful fellows mistake for crude mercury. But that mercury is all metals, male and female, and an hermaphrodite monster in the very marriage of the soul and the body, which I call solution; and the putrefaction of the philosophers. The earth of gold is dissolved by its own spirit, which you shall discover in these proportions. Marsilio Ficino on the alchemical art |
If one third of the circle, that outlines the composition, is taken for a module (= two oncia), the ratio of rectangle that defines the figure is 9 : 12. Both numbers are symbols for previously mentioned antinomies, for number 9 symbolizes Moon, and 12 stands for Sun. This number is also the number of ’12 compositional circles’ that could parallel 12 zodiacal signs through which Sun traverses. This traditional symbolism is also recorded by Agrippa in De Occulta Philosophia, a dictionary of magick from 1510:
… The number nine belongs to the Moon, the utmost receptacle of all Celestiall influences, and vertues, as also it is dedicated to the nine Muses, as also to Mars, from whom is the end of all things. The number ten is Circular, and belongs to the Sun, after the same manner as unity; also it is attributed to Janus, because it is the end of the first order, and from whence begins the second unity; it is also ascribed to the world. In like manner the number twelve, because the Sun going round twelve signes, distributes the yeer [year] into twelve moneths, is attributed to the world, the Heaven, and the Sun … Agrippa: De Occulta Philosophia |