[sighing]
A self-portrait of Da Vinci? PUH-LEASE.
[swiping out her art history textbook] It is actually a portrait of a lady, ... in 1500 (not 1900 or anything)... [sighing] everybody needs to take a course in art history... [moving on]
The art historians have discovered hard evidences to believe that the true identity of the lady, whom happened to be Maria Gherardini, the wife of Francese del Giocondo. The painting got its name because the wife was usually called, "my lady" because she was wealthy, and the italian word for my lady is Mona Lisa- a contraction of
ma donna- my lady.
Didja know the painting was BIGGER than what it appeared to be.. it started out with an anicent Greek structure- withe columns in the far right in the background but somebody decided to CUT it off so it only had the lady in the center. The lady was supposed to be appeared inside, (you see those little wall behind her int he below? She is supposed to sit in the "hallway" with open-window to see the landscape)
The only reason she APPEARED to smile is because of the shade and the painting tenchique he used. If one removes all the shades and so on, it would look like as if her mouth is like this :-| but the shades techique- called "chiaroscuro" which added a smoky effect, ends up "dimpling" her little "grin"...
(SO MANY of painting were CUT off or altered.... DAMN them!)
..........Any art history questions, do ask me.

I got all facts and everything from ancient to modern arts in my wonderful two thick books.
[edit: I added the picture to give you an idea of the little wall and etc that I mentioned in my entry.]
[EDIT AGAIN: And if you disagree about the "smoky" effect, then the ONLY other theory that I am willing to accept is that da Vinci (not Da Vinci...!!) was trying to break away from the art tradition. Remmeber, 1500s was the period of Roman Catholic where if one appears to have too much fun/enjoyment, it is a SIN. All the paintings during that period were Virgin Mary, Jesus H Christ and zillion of other religious figures... and out of the blue, we got some rich lady smiling away. da Vinci was a philospher and open-minded... yet he did the religious paintings but he did enjoy the "nature", the way the nature intended everything to be and he would paint/draw them the EXACTLY way. Maybe taht lady was happy to be frigging rich and had da Vinci doing her portrait and da Vinci included it because that was waht he was SEEING. Get me?]