With his Mona Lisa, Leonardo created a new formula, at the same time more monumental and more lively, more concrete and yet more poetic than that of his predecessors. Before him, portraits had lacked mystery; artists only represented outward appearances without any soul, or, if they showed the soul, they tried to express it through gestures, symbolic objects, or inscriptions. The Mona Lisa alone is a living enigma: the soul is there, but inaccessible.
The French king displayed the painting in his Fontainebleau palace where it remained for a century. At the outset of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte kept the painting in his boudoir. Leonardo da Vinci died in , and he is buried at a French castle.
Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage is undertaking an investigation, and plans to dig up his skull.
They want to rebuild Leonardo's face, using CSI-style technology. Will he resemble the mysterious Mona Lisa? It is a painting but not a canvas. Da Vinci's famous masterpiece is painted on a poplar plank. Considering he was accustomed to painting larger works on wet plaster, a wood plank does not seem that outlandish.
Canvas was available to artists since the 14th century, but many Renaissance masters preferred wood as a basis for their small artworks. She has her own room in the Louvre Museum in Paris. A glass ceiling lets in natural light, a shatter-proof glass display case maintains a controlled temperature of 43 degrees F. Jackie Kennedy invited her to visit.
Over the centuries, French officials have only rarely let the painting out of their sight. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa , c. We live in a culture that is so saturated with images, it may be difficult to imagine a time when only the wealthiest people had their likeness captured.
The weathy merchents of Renaissance Florence could commission a portrait, but even they would likely only have a single portrait painted during their lifetime. A portrait was about more than likeness, it spoke to status and position. In addition, portraits generally took a long time to paint, and the subject would commonly have to sit for hours or days, while the artist captured their likeness. The Mona Lisa was originally this type of portrait, but over time its meaning has shifted and it has become an icon of the Renaissance, the most recognized painting in the world.
The Mona Lisa is a likely a portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant, and so her gaze would have been meant for her husband. For some reason however, the portrait was never delivered to its patron, and Leonardo kept it with him when he went to work for Francis I, the King of France. The Mona Lisa exemplifies Leonardo's contribution to the art of oil painting , namely his mastery of sfumato.
This painterly technique involves the smooth, almost imperceptible, transition from one colour to another, by means of ultra-subtle tonal gradations. Evident throughout the painting, Leonardo's use of sfumato is particularly visible in the soft contouring of Lisa Gherardini's face, around the eyes and mouth. It was a technique of oil painting that he had already demonstrated with great success in The Virgin of the Rocks The general impression created by the Mona Lisa portrait is one of great serenity, enriched by a definite air of mystery.
The serenity comes from the muted colour scheme, the soothing sfumato tonality, and the harmony created by the sitter's pyramid-shaped pose and understated drapery. The mystery stems from a number of factors: first, her enigmatic half-smile; second, her gaze, which is directed to the right of the viewer; her hands which have a slightly unreal, lifeless quality - almost as if they belonged to a different body. Created by one of the greatest Old Masters in the history of art, the Mona Lisa is a wonderful example of High Renaissance aesthetics of the early cinquecento , and has become an unmistakable icon of Western culture: a fact recognized by Marcel Duchamp , the father of modern art, in his parody entitled L.
Da Vinci also observed differences between the subject and objects in the background, and used aerial perspective to create the illusion of depth: the farther something is in the distance, the smaller the scale, the more muted the colors and the less detailed the outlines. He takes the approach of a scientist, but translates it into the painting with superb delicacy and finesse.
For him the painting doesn't count. What counts is the knowledge," observes Cuzin.
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