The Mona Lisa was painted by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. He began the painting around 1503 and is believed to have worked on it intermittently until about 1517. The portrait is thought to depict Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine merchant. Leonardo da Vinci took the unfinished painting with him to France, where it was eventually acquired by King Francis I and later became part of the Louvre Museum's collection in Paris