CHAPTER 26

Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu move through the Salle des Etats toward the Mona Lisa after Langdon makes clear that Robert Langdon will not leave Sophie alone. Sophie uses the black light like a scanner across the parquet floor, searching for invisible writing or any trace Jacques Saunière may have left.

As Robert Langdon approaches the painting, Robert Langdon reflects on the Mona Lisa's reputation, Leonardo da Vinci's use of sfumato, and the painting's history in the Louvre. Robert Langdon also considers the idea that the painting's fame comes not from the smile alone but from hidden symbolic jokes and allusions associated with Da Vinci's interest in the balance of masculine and feminine principles.

The chapter shifts briefly into Robert Langdon's memory of teaching inmates at Essex County Penitentiary. Robert Langdon explains how the Mona Lisa's uneven background emphasizes the feminine side, how the face suggests androgyny, and how the name can be read as an anagram joining the male god Amon and the female goddess Isis.

Back in the Louvre, Sophie suddenly finds a tiny luminescent droplet on the floor near the Mona Lisa. Robert Langdon realizes the black light may be revealing blood, confirming that Jacques Saunière came to the painting before dying. Sophie concludes that Jacques Saunière must have left a message specifically for Sophie.

Sophie searches the floor in front of the painting but finds nothing. Robert Langdon notices a faint purple glimmer on the Mona Lisa's protective glass, guides Sophie's black light upward, and both discover six glowing words scrawled directly across the painting's face.