The Mona Lisa, up close

If you can see the hands from where you stand, begin there. One rests over the other, close to the lower edge of the portrait. Then look up towards the shoulders and face. Her posture is calm, yet she seems to have turned towards the person looking at her. Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian Renaissance artist, painted Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. His surname gives us the name Gioconda. Leonardo worked on the painting for years in the early sixteenth century. It is about 79 centimetres high. In this enormous room, it can seem smaller still. Notice the edges of the mouth and eyes. They are not outlined with a hard line. Leonardo moved between light and dark through very gentle changes. This way of painting is called sfumato, a word related to smoke. Those transitions allow the expression to change a little as you look at it. Behind her, the landscape recedes through paths, water and mountains. The figure feels close while the background stretches away. Leonardo painted on a poplar panel. The protective glass helps maintain controlled temperature and humidity. The barrier and the crowd also shape how we can see the work today. You do not have to solve her smile in the seconds available to you. Choose the hands, the turn of the body or the meeting of face and landscape. If a detail is hidden from your position, use the image in the app to look at it later. Clear the space when staff ask the queue to move forward.