Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

This masterpiece and the genius behind it needs no introduction. One of the reasons we are so captivated by Mona Lisa is the expression on her face. Leonardo revolutionized painting with his invention of the technique we call 'Sfumato'. Sfumato is used by blurring out the lines, softening the transition between colors, and letting forms blend into each other, as they do in this iconic portrait of Mona Lisa. We can usually read wether a person is happy or sad, irritated or content, by the lines by their eyes and the corners of their mouth. These parts of Mona Lisa's face are deliberately painted in such a way as to leave us with something to guess.