PAINTING FOREVER

“Gioconda” or Mona Lisa, is possibly the most famous painting in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1503 and 1514. The painting is valued at more than $1 billion and is probably the greatest treasure of Renaissance art. Housed in the Louvre Museum, Paris, the French call her La Joconde. The painting is commonly known to Italians as La Gioconda. Mona Lisa is unarguably the finest example of portrait art, and one of the greatest Renaissance paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Mona Lisa exemplifies Leonardo's contribution to the art of oil painting. The painterly technique used by Leonardo Da Vinci involves the smooth transition from one color to another, by means of ultra-subtle tonal gradations.

Mona Lisa: a detailed analysis

The woman in the portrait is Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a Florentine dignitary and wealthy silk merchant. She is sitting upright and sideways in a chair, with her face and chest turned slightly towards the viewer. Her left arm rests comfortably on the armrest of the chair and is clasped by the hand of her right arm which crosses her front. The background landscape behind her was created using an aerial perspective, with its smoky blues and unclearly defined vanishing point. Another interesting feature to note about the Mona Lisa is her lack of eyebrows and eyelashes. Early scans do show that originally she was given both. It is possible that the color pigment used for these facial features has faded over time or inadvertently removed during cleaning and restoration. Behind Mona Lisa’s shoulder, on the right, is a low bridge, with several arches: this is identical to the bridge at Buriano that still crosses the Arno river today.

The general impression made by the Mona Lisa's portrait is of great serenity, enriched by a certain mystery. The serenity comes from the muted color scheme, the soothing tones of the colors, and the harmony created by the pyramidal poses and drapes. The secret of the mystery lies in a number of factors: her semi-mysterious smile; her gaze, which is directed to the right of the audience; her hands, which have a somewhat surreal quality, lifeless - almost as if they belonged to another body.

History of ‘Mona Lisa’

Leonardo Da Vinci in 1503 or 1504 in Florence. Other lecturers argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo might have painted the paintings from 1513. According to Vasari, "after he had lingered over it 4 years, he left it unfinished". In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King Francis I to painting at the Clos Lucé close to the Châteaud'Amboise; it is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and endured to painting on it after he moved to France.

The Mona Lisa became popular with the general public when it was famously stolen in 1911. An incredible theft that was carried out on the night between 20th – 21st August 1911 by an Italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, a former employee of the Louvre Museum. He wanted to return the painting to Italy where it originally belonged and that it should not remain in France. He locked himself in a storeroom overnight and left the museum the next morning with the painting under his coat. The press jumped on the event: people wanted to know who could have stolen the Mona Lisa painting, why. The painting was found, along with Vincenzo Peruggia. During the trial, the thief turned into said to be “mentally disabled” and imprisoned for seven months and fifteen days.

During the World War II the Mona Lisa, was declared as the most-endangered artwork in the Louvre. It was hence evacuated to various locations in France’s countryside, returning to the museum in 1945 after the world war ended and peace had been declared. It later traveled to the United States in 1963, attracting about 40,000 people every day during its six-week stay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was displayed in museums of Tokyo and Moscow in 1974.

Today, even as excavation work keeps to recover the mortal remains of Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo inside the former convent of Sant’Orsola, in Florence the National Committee for the valorization of ancient, cultural and environmental assets in Italy has launched an appeal to collect one hundred thousand signatures inquiring for the ‘Mona Lisa’ to be brought lower back to Italy in order that it is able to be exhibited in Florence, 100 years after Leonardo da Vinci’s legendary portray, stolen from the Louvre in Paris, was located.

Other Mona Lisas around

Other copies of the Mona Lisa or the so-called Isleworth Mona Lisa, which some commentators say were Leonardo’s first version of the famous portrait. This claim was quite controversial andhas been denied by scholars. Numerous interpretations or copies that do exist, were likely to be completed by Leonardo’s students.

A Recent Discovery

An important copy of the Mona Lisa was recently found in the Prado Collection in Madrid. It was thought to have been painted years after the original. However, during restoration of the painting in the early 2010s, and detailed examination which included using infrared reflectology to observe the work beneath the surface, experts discovered that the painting had some astounding changes that mirrored those of the original. The findings suggested that the artist was likely one of the Leonardo’s assistants—painted the copy as Leonardo worked on the Mona Lisa in his studio. It is possible artist sat next to Leonardo and copied his work; brushstroke to brushstroke. Thus, the Prado version is the only known copy which was completed during Leonardo’s lifetime. The conservators who cleaned the entire painting and removed its black background, found a detailed landscape resembling Leonardo’s version with more vibrant colors. The copy gives us an idea of what the Mona Lisa will look like when the yellow varnish layer is removed, which darkened over the years.

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