Analyzing The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

905 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Historians critique on the mona lisa

The Mona Lisa

If someone were to ask you to name a famous painting, what would you say? I would answer the Mona Lisa, possibly the most prominent painting there is today. For my research project, I will be analyzing, retelling, and exploring the Mona Lisa. I chose this piece of artwork because I love art and am just interested in why the Mona Lisa is such a well-known painting.

The Mona Lisa was created by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It was started in approximately c.1503 in the town of Florence, Italy. In 1503, according to the official website of the Louvre museum, an Italian silk merchant by the name of Francesco del Giocondo came to Da Vinci with a request for a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini. The painting was oil paints on a poplar wood canvas. Today, it is displayed in The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, and is 77x53 centimeters in size. In Italy, the Mona Lisa is called La Gioconda. However, in France, it is referred to as La Joconde. It is known that the name Mona Lisa translates to my lady, Lisa- being the name of Franceso del Giocondo’s wife.

No one actually knows why the Mona Lisa was created, but a theory was that it was created to commemorate Francesco and Lisa’s second son, Andrea. After Leonardo died, the painting was bought by the King of France. From there, it hung on the walls of the Palace of Fountainebleau for several generations. Over the years, the Mona Lisa had different homes.

Many historians ponder over one important question: Where is the second Mona Lisa? You might be confused so let me clarify. Leonardo is known to have another painting of the original one, meaning he created two versions of one painting. To back this claim, two versions of one painting by Leonardo da ...

... middle of paper ...

...en performed and movies and documentaries are created. There are many books written about the Mona Lisa.

To find my information, I used the search engines, Bing and Google. I searched up the key words of my topic and chose the websites I felt were reliable. I tried to reduce my resources to only websites with .org. There weren’t any major complications except coming upon words that are unfamiliar. Of course, I searched them up.

The Mona Lisa is a remarkable piece of artwork that was a lot of fun to research. She resembles the artwork of the 16th century and what can be done with fewer materials than today. Although the Mona Lisa remains a historical mystery, just one look at it captivates you, and you can already picture the story behind it. So, when you visit France, stop by the Louvre Museum. Will you be genuinely in awe or just pass by without a glance?

Show More
Related

  • Rape Of Europa Essay

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    Next they go into further detail about the history of the painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer. They say that it was described as the “Mona Lisa” of the Austrian people to whom it belonged to.

    Read More

  • European Renaissance Dbq

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most famous artists during the time of the Renaissance, The Mona Lisa for example, was a painting created between 1503 and 1506, it is the most famous painting ever painted. It is a portrait of the young wife of a Florentine silk merchant. It shows a young woman with her famous smile sitting on a balcony high above a landscape.

    Read More

  • Leonardo Da Vinci: The Renaissance Man

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps one of the most famous paintings Leonardo da Vinci painted is the Mona Lisa in which he painted in 1503. Many experts believe the portrait is of a very wealthy women who lived in Florence whose

    Read More

  • Stories behind The Famous Mona Lisa Portrait

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today, Mona Lisa is stored within the Louvre museum in France for public viewing. No matter the lucky visitors who have a chance to glance at Mona Lisa, or fans who enjoy themselves so much as to forget to leave, people will be attracted by her unique charm without exception. Legend says, staring at this picture, we will produce the Mona Lisa syndrome proposed by an Italian art historian Vezzosi Alessandro, referring to intoxicate from Mona Lisa’s smile, and her smile also becomes more and more mysterious. Countless mysteries hide in Mona Lisa. Although there are many people have made a research on her, it is now still murky.

    Read More

  • Mona Lisa Comparison

    1634 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Mona Lisa is wearing a long sleeve dress that is not revealing at all, she doesn’t show any skin in an inappropriate way while the Mona Loca is wearing a very short dress that shows a lot of cleavage and her nipples as well. She is also wearing net tights with money tucked in them that show her thick legs and tattoos on them; meanwhile the Mona Lisa does not show anything from the waist down. Da Vinci also gave the Mona Lisa, a thin vail over her hair, but Abstrk did not put anything over the Mona Loca’s head. The Mona Loca has a cigarette in her hand, while the Mona Lisa does not have anything in her hands. It seems like the Mona Loca has more freedom because she has tattoos all over her body which tells she makes her own the decisions to do what she wants to do with her body. Also, she wears what she wants and she doesn’t seem to care what others would think about it. However, the Mona Lisa’s wardrobe says that she is conservative and reserved, it looks as if this type of clothing is what she had to wear in order to be accepted by her culture in that time. In contrary, the Mona Loca doesn’t feel as if she needs to be accepted by anyone. But, the Mona Lisa proves how reserved she had to be by wearing a vail over her head. She is not be able to free her hair (which could be a sign of sexuality to her culture) or look provocative in any way. Whereas, by holding a cigarette in her hands, the Mona Loca demonstrates

    Read More

  • Leonardo Da Vinci And Da Warhol: Legendary In The Art World

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Andy Warhol 's most notable work made him explode onto the art scene, this being his Campbell’s Soup Cans. This piece of art consisted of 32 images of Campbell 's soup each being a different flavor. Warhol used his advertising skills when making this masterpiece, he used it to convey a sense of mass production and conformity. As well as the message the work conveys there is also another key point to the piece, that being unlike most of his other works that were done in his signature silk-screening process Warhol hand painted all 32 cans. Alas even Warhol 's best could not hold a candle to Da Vinci 's undeniable masterpiece. The piece in question is the undeniable Mona Lisa, Da Vinci 's master piece is the most recognizable piece of art on the planet. The mere mention of the Mona Lisa and the mind instantly snaps to the great masterpiece in question "painted for Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned it for his wife Lisa Gherandini, Mona (Madame) Lisa del Giocondo (La Gioconda), to mark the birth of their second son". citation This undeniable piece of art is so highly regarded that it has been in the Louvre since 1797 and before that in the palace 's of Fontainebleau and Versailles, and even did a short stay in Napoleon Bonaparte 's Bedroom. Now Forever entombed in its climate

    Read More

  • Medieval Art Essay

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    found another painting that an artist did of the Mona Lisa. They discovered that this artist

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Mona Lisa Smile

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie Mona Lisa Smile is set in 1953; post-war and pre-feminism. Katherine Ann Watson, a progressive Art History teacher, is hired to teach at Wellesley. This selective all-women’s college is described in the opening scenes of the film as “the most conservative university in the country” (Newell, “Mona Lisa Smile”, 2003). Watson wants to teach at Wellesley in order to influence the next generation of women. Some of the brightest female students in the country attended Wellesley. Among these students are: Joan Brandwyn, a driven student with a 4.0 GPA, Betty Warren, the daughter of the Alumni Association president, Giselle Levy, a flirtatious and outgoing young woman who has had an affair with a Wellesley teacher (Bill Dunbar), and Connie Baker. These women are bright, and largely members of the upper class. Their social class not only affords them the Wellesley education but vacations abroad and elaborate parties and weddings.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Leonardo Da Vinci

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    Leonardo is one of the few people who has the ability to make these qualities seem so perfect under his hands. His artworks are by far the most popular pieces of art that are in museums to this day. Recently a popular painting “Salvator Mundi”, painted between 1490-1500, has been placed up for auction and is estimated that the painting will sale for at least $100 million. This is just one of 16 surviving paintings that have made it through the years and it’s not even the most popular one. The Mona Lisa is the most popular painting by anyone to this very day. It was painted in the year 1503 and is famous for multiple reasons. One being that da Vinci didn’t just paint this ordinarily, but in a technique called sfumato and it was painted in atmospheric perspective as seen in the background. The technique sfumato is the blending of oil paints to blur the lines between colors. Atmospheric perspective was a new painting style where things far away in paintings looked blurry and this style was used in the background of the Mona Lisa. The word mysterious is associated with this painting and others that have come from his works. The smile that is presented in the Mona Lisa is somewhat puzzling in its own way and the person depicted in the painting is still not 100% known to experts to this day. The eyes that are on the Mona Lisa seem to watch and follow you when you look at the painting. One of the weird myths that

    Read More

  • A Critique of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman that was painted by the famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci. This portrait was painted in oil on white Lombardy Panel Paper. It is an oil painting that utilizes the technique of sfumato. The painting technique sfumato overlays translucent layers of colors. This is used to create a blending of colors so there are no clear transitions seen. The materials used in sfumato are oil paints and a Lombardy Panel Paper. Sfumato is used to create a painting that appears to have no lines. The subject of this painting is said to be a women named Lisa del Giocondo. Meanwhile, many other artists and historians have suggested that the subject of the painting are various other people such as Costanza d’Avalos, Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Francavilla, Isabella d’Este, Cecilia Gallerani, Pacifica Brandano, Caterina Sforza and Isabella Gualanda. Some theories also suggested the woman is actually Leonardo Da Vinci, the artist himself in his own painting. The woman portrayed in the Mona Lisa has no visible eyebrows or eyelashes. The women sits in a stance ...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Portrait Of A Lady And Mona Lisa

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two art pieces are different because the Lady in the portrait is looking down, trying to avoid eye contact in order to look meek and demure. The Mona Lisa’s eyes, on the other hand, appear to follow the viewer as if it is not really looking at you, but into you, like she’s

    Read More

  • Appropriation of Images in Art

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    The appropriation of images in art is a phenomenon new to the twentieth century. Found objects, contemporary images, and images from the past are all appropriated by artists and used in their work. Three twentieth century artists, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenburg are all very influential and appropriators. Although these artists appropriated many different images for many different reasons, there is one image that they all have in common, the Mona Lisa. Each of these artists appropriated and used this image in different ways.

    Read More

  • Leonardo Da Vinci During The High Renaissance

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nearly everything captured the attention of handsome, intelligent, and charming da Vinci. His dream of flying and pursuit of inventing often compelled him to abandon a project for the sake of exploration. Contrary to the beliefs of most notorious figures of the time, da Vinci comprehended the flaws of humanism and relativism. Rather, he recognized a higher authority, which he strove to obey. Today, da Vinci is most frequently recognized as the creative genius behind the fascinating “Mona Lisa.” “Mona Lisa” herself, was likely quite ordinary. In fact, “Mona” is simply an abbreviation of the title, “Mrs.” or “Madonna.” While the subject’s true identity is debatable, da Vinci’s skillful execution is undeniable. The blurred contours and dark undertones of his own technique, sfumato, pair with intentional fuzziness and purposeful shadows to create a portrait with exceptional depth and rich meaning. Opposed to the preferences of many artists of the day, da Vinci favored pleasant subjects. No doubt his employment of musicians and jesters to entertain his subjects is partially responsible for Mona Lisa’s distinguished smile. Indubitably, Leonardo da Vinci’s achievements set the standard for High Renaissance

    Read More

  • An Essay About Leonardo Da Vinci

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most well-known geniuses in human history. This man masters knowledge of all kind: painting, architecture, music, geology, philosophy, biology, math, physics, chemistry, etc. His probably most famous painting, Mona Lisa, fascinated millions of people around the world and the amazing and mysterious details in the painting attracted a number of scientists and scholars to devote their whole career in studying them. Born and lived in Italian Renaissance age, which is a period of time when arts flourished and knowledge was valued, Leonardo was surrounded by many great contemporary artists and a perfect creative environment. These favorable factors supported him to fully exercise his talents.

    Read More

  • Why Is The Birth Of Venus Famous

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    For instance, this artwork was the prime of the Renaissance. “The Birth of Venus (1484-86) remains one of the profound treasures of the Florentine Renaissance” (www.visual-arts-cork.com). Not only do most believe The Birth of Venus is the best art piece to come out of the Renaissance, but some truly believe it as a fact. No other art piece in the world exemplifies the kind of raw and untapped beauty as this piece does. Despite the fact that some may believe Venus did not have a major impact on Greek mythology, she shaped the Greek culture, and changed the perception of Mount Olympus.

    Read More

More about Analyzing The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

Open Document