Monalisa - Interesting Facts

Mona Lisa is perhaps the most popular and talked about art piece in the world. Painted by the most celebrated painter, Leonardo Da Vinci, this painting has been a matter of interest for many. Everything about the painting has been a source of debate for centuries. The enigmatic facial expression of the woman in the painting is still an unresolved mystery.

Writer Dan Brown's novel, the Da Vinci Code brought a renewed interest among people for the celebrated painting. People flocked in huge numbers to its home, the Louvre museum of Paris to find out about the hidden codes described in the novel. Apart from the novel, the painting is famous for many other reasons. Firstly, it is immensely famous because of the popularity of Leonardo Da Vinci and his works on human anatomy. Secondly, the painting is famous for the techniques used by the artist and most importantly Mona Lisa is famous for being stolen from the museum!

Most of you may have heard about these known facts about Mona Lisa. But we will disclose some less known and interesting facts about this mysterious painting. Take a look at these 7 interesting facts about Mona Lisa:

* The name of the painting, Mona Lisa was the result of a spelling error! The original name of the painting was Monna Lisa. Monna in Italian is a short form of Madonna, meaning 'My Lady'.

* The identity of the woman in the painting is still a mystery. Some believe that it is the female form of Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Most popular belief is that the woman was Lisa Gherardini, who was 24-years-old and a mother of two sons.

* The painting has an imperfection. In 1956, a man named Ugo Ungaza threw a stone at the painting. This resulted in a small patch of damaged paint next to her left elbow.

* The painting is considered priceless and so it cannot be insured.

* Another interesting fact about the painting is that the woman in the painting has no eyebrows. It is rumoured that it is because when the authorities were trying to restore the painting, the eyebrows got accidentally removed. However, some people believe that Leonardo Da Vinci never completed the painting because he was a consummate perfectionist.

* The painting in the Louvre has a room of its own. It is protected in a climate controlled environment and encased in bullet proof glass. The room was built exclusively for the painting and it cost the museum over seven million dollars!

* Studies have shown that there are three different layers painted before the present version of the painting. One version has her hands clutching her arm instead of the chair in front of her.

In spite of any kind of imperfections discovered in the painting, this Renaissance art work is revered all around the world as one of the greatest masterpiece of all times.

Interesting Facts about Left Handers

A lot of research has been done to understand
if left handers are true geniuses. A left hander
is a person who uses his left hand for his
personal care, cooking and many more
activities. However, in some cases, left handers
use their right hand to write.
There are many causes that lead a person to
use his left side more than his right. Warriors
used their shields on the left to protect their
heart. Another theory is that being left hander
brings the surprise factor in combat as most of
the population is right handed.
According to one theory, exposure to high rates
of testosterone before birth can lead to left
handedness in the child. Stress during the birth
of the child is another cause. Studies show
that mothers who have ultrasounds more than
the normal can also cause the same.
As the number of left handers is quite low
compared to the right handers, they could be
at a disadvantage because the world is loaded
heavily in favour of right handers. Small things
like scissors are designed only for right
handers. In spite of these disadvantages, the
following reasons explain why left handers are
geniuses.
Better Memory
Studies show that the left handers have a
larger corpus callosum, which is what connects
the two hemispheres of the brain. This is the
region where all the memory storage takes
place. The basic problem with this type of
memory is that they might not remember
where they have left their keys but will just
know the dates of the Second World War.
Mathematical Ability
Though there are many contradictory studies,
most of the research shows that there is a
relationship between left hand genius and
higher mathematical ability. For these people, a
certain areas of knowledge is linked. Their
visual-spatial skills are also higher.
Intellectual Genius
There is a whole list of famous and intellectual
people who are left handers. Albert Einstein,
Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Aristotle, Alan
Turing were left handers. Though not clear how
these geniuses are connected to left
handedness, but looks like it does.
Earnings
This is a quite a strange fact that the left
handed college educated men earn about 15
percent more than their colleagues who were
right handed. This fact applies for those who
were working together with the same education
and ranking. Apparently, this wage difference
does not apply to women. There is still more
research going on in this field.
More Creative
According to one theory, brain of left handers
works differently and hence, they are more
creative than the right handers. It has been
said that when you are using your left hand,
you are using the right side of the brain which
is used for creativity.