The painting entices millions of visitors to Paris' Louvre Museum every year.

With his "Mona

Lisa," Leonardo da Vinci created more than just a painting of a woman. She appears lost in
reverie, yet squinting at the same time, and all the while her gaze follows the viewer. She bears
no eyebrows nor lashes. Her clothing is simple and dark, as though she were grieving. But why
is she smiling?
It's not just the image itself that continues to mystify. Art historians still agonize over the
woman's origins.
Biographer Giorgio Vasari's theory is the most widely recognized. According to him, da Vinci
was commissioned with a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo by her husband, Florentine silk trader
Francesco del Giocondo, in 1503.
Yet chronologist Antonio de Beatis, writing in 1517, observed that Leonardo da Vinci had stated
that the painting was commissioned by Giuliano de' Medici. Beatis is said to have been present
when da Vinci received a visit by Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona to his studio in Amboise, France, on
October 10, 1517. Beatis was the Cardinal's personal secretary at the time and d'Aragona
himself was a close friend of Giuliano de' Medici, da Vinci's patron.
According to Beatis' notes, da Vinci showed the Cardinal three different paintings: "St. John the
Baptist," that of "St. Anne" ("The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne") and a portrait of "a certain
Florentine woman, done from life, at the instance of the late Magnificent Giuliano de' Medici."
The notes lead to the implication that da Vinci painted an envisioned portrait of Pacifica
Brandani, de' Medici's mistress, with whom he had an illegitimate son. Since Pacifica Brandani
died during the birth of the child, the portrait was perhaps intended to offer comfort to the
young child.
Both theories are advocated by various art historians, yet no one can say for sure who Mona
Lisa truly was. What is a fact is that the painting meant so much to da Vinci that he never sold it
and took it with him to France in 1516. It wasn't until upon his death in 1519 that it is believed
that assistant and pupil Salai inherited the painting and sold it to French King Francis I. From
there, it ultimately ended up in the Louvre's collection.
The date of the first public showing of "La Joconde," as the "Mona Lisa" is called in French, also
remains uncertain. According to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, October 10, 1517 is
the actual date precisely 500 years ago.
"Faces of China. Portrait Painting of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1912)" is the first
exhibition in Europe to focus on Chinese portrait painting; most of the more than 100 exhibits
are on display for the first time on the continent.
The curator of the exhibition, Klaas Ruitenbeek, became director of Berlin's Museum fr
Asiatische Kunst (Museum for Asian Art) in 2010. He spent four years preparing the show in
cooperation with the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Klaas Ruitenbeek: I've always been fascinated by the fact that half of the paintings created in
China were traditionally not recognized as art. They were not exhibited or collected they
were meant for one's family. They were the portraits of parents and grandparents created to be
worshiped through rituals, year after year on holidays.
Mainly, these are the stories of regular citizens from all parts of society, real portraits of real
people, including the faces of villagers who lived 600 years ago. Of course, the exhibition also
includes imperial portraits and paintings of writers, artists and famous women.
Who commissioned these portraits? And what led regular citizens to have their portrait done,
too?
Families would want for example their grandmother to be painted because she was old and
might not live much longer. In China, it's important to have a portrait of your parents and
grandparents. Your family is part of your identity to a much greater degree than is the case
here.
The second important category of portraits we show in the exhibition are informal portraits of
senior officials and literary figures who commissioned paintings, as well as self-portraits
painted by the artists themselves.
Did the painters have names, were they cult figures like some were in Europe? The caption
underneath some of the paintings reads: unknown artist.
Every Chinese person has a name, every beggar, orphan and painter. The names were known:
People would go to Liu the painter and ask him to paint their grandfather, Wang. He would
come to their house, make a sketch, and return to his workshop to paint a formal painting,
complete with a beautiful robe. The names have been lost, but back then, everyone knew them.
There are no anonymous portraits in China or in Europe; the difference between Chinese and
European painting is that paintings, in particular those of ancestors, were not signed.
The exhibition of paintings from the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Royal
Ontario Museum in Toronto spans more than 500 years. The early portraits have small, flat
faces, a style that changes over the years. Is that due to a European influence?
Chinese portraits of writers, artists and the educated upper classes usually show the entire
body, with a rather smaller face. Classic European portrait painting we have a van Dyck on
display to show the difference focuses on the upper body, the face is almost life-size and the
background is uniform. But every culture is open to interaction.
Many of the works are on loan from the Palace Museum in Beijing. How did that cooperation
go?
It was great. Of course, we've long had personal and scientific contacts with the curators there.
And not only did they promise us almost all of the masterworks we wanted to have, they also
gave me free reign to arrange the exhibition. I was able to make last minute changes, and such
trust is not necessarily a given. They also waived lending fees. Instead, we agreed that in about
three years' time, a major exhibition from Berlin's Staatliche Museen will be headed to the
Palace Museum.