Artist, inventor, and original Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, began painting his portrait of an Italian nobleman's wife in 1503 and completed it some years later, probably around 1507. The painting was originally a commissioned work, but da Vinci didn't sell it to the man who requested it (possibly because he hadn't finished it yet!). Instead, he kept it and still had it in his possession when he arrived in France at the court of King Francois I, around 1516. The French monarch eventually purchased "Mona Lisa" from da Vinci.
The painting became part of the French royal art collection. For several centuries, "Mona Lisa" was kept at palaces around France, including Amboise, Fontainbleau, Versailles, and the Tuileries. When the French Revolution