Seeing the Mona Lisa

When going around the Louvre Museum, there will be some suggestions on the walls on which works of art to visit. There are a large number of these famous works and people have to see when here in the museum. Directions are posted on the walls with the photo of the work of art and the which way to take. This is very good for people who don’t have any real plan of attack in visiting the Louvre Museum. People like me would find this convenient instead of having to figure out where we were in the map. Among the photos that were pasted for our convenience was probably the most famous painting in the entire building, it was the Mona Lisa.

I am aware the the Mona Lisa is kept here in the Louvre Museum and I would very much like to see it with my own eyes. In fact, so did my companions, and you can say that this is probably the very reason why we were here in the museum in the first place. My companions already noticed posters pointing towards it and soon enough we were already on our way. We were still taking photos of anything which catches our fancy. Time is something we don’t have on our side and we can only afford see a handful of these important works of art. The Mona Lisa is a portrait by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Much has been said about the painting but I don’t really care at this point. I just want to see it. The painting is housed in its own room and rightly so, since you do not want to create traffic when you put the famous painting along a major hallway.

The room where the Mona Lisa was kept in is quite large. I was half expecting to see it almost the moment I stepped into the room. One thing that struck me was how small it actually was. I was somehow imagining the painting to be one which would fill up a wall, at least. Now, everybody in the room was jostling for position to get a better look at the famous painting. The Mona Lisa is on the far end of the room and almost half the room was filled with people. There is some traffic management here and people get their chance to see the painting and then they are led out of the room.

It didn’t take us a while to get to see the Mona Lisa. People from behind us were pushing us forward and before we know it, we were already in front. I managed to get a very good spot but I regretting not having brought a longer lens. I only had a wide lens and you can’t really get that close to the painting. When I was taking photos of the Mona Lisa, I noticed that the painting is kept behind glass. The glass was reflecting some glare when I took my photos unfortunately. By the way, this is bulletproof glass, apparently, the painting has been the subject of various vandalism and attempts at vandalism. It was best to keep the painting behind bulletproof glass for safety. Yes, the Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting in the world, but it is no different from how you see it in books or on the web. However, if you are already here, you might as well come to see it.

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