One of the most famous paintings in the world is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
The painting has intrigued art lovers for centuries, largely because of its mystery. Who was this woman? Why did she have such an enigmatic smile? And why does this painting continue to attract so much attention even today, almost 500 years after it was made?
Leonardo himself said that Mona Lisa was an image of “the many-formed” and described her as “the symbol of a great prince who should come into the world.” Even as he painted her in 1503, he believed that she would be admired for generations to come.
In 1506, when he left Italy for France, Leonardo took it with him. It hung in his Paris studio until 1500, when King Louis XII bought it.
But three years later, Francis I bought it from Louis XII. He hung the painting in his bedroom and enjoyed looking at it every day before he went to sleep.
The next king, Henry II, liked the painting so much that he decided to put it on public display in the Louvre Palace in 1550. In fact, he liked it so much that he never wanted to part with it again! The painting stayed in Paris until 1793, when
Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. The portrait of a woman with an enigmatic smile, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, has been described as the most famous painting in history, and is one of the most valuable works of art ever created.
Wrapped in mystery, intriguing and thought-provoking, it is one of the most written about and most controversial pieces of art. How did this painting become so famous? What made it so important to become a symbol of Renaissance humanism?
The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1517. Leonardo was at the height of his powers when he completed this work which he kept secret for many years. It remained hidden until 1650 when it was bought by King Louis XIV. At the time it was acquired, little was known about its creator and there are only two documents that prove Leonardo’s authorship: one from his apprentice Salai and another from an anonymous source.
The Mona Lisa is sometimes called La Gioconda or La Joconde (her original French name), after her presumed model, Lisa del Giocondo, wife of Francesco del Giocondo who may have commissioned the work. However no documents exist to confirm this. She has
The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world, and one of the most famous works of art ever. It is so famous that many people who have never seen it can recognize a picture of it. The painting was painted by Leonardo da Vinci over 500 years ago. There are several copies of the painting made by other artists, but no one knows which one is the original.
The Mona Lisa is a portrait of a woman named Lisa Gherardini, who lived in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance period. The painting was given to King Francis I of France as a gift from Leonardo da Vinci. When King Louis XIV moved to Paris, he took the painting with him. Today, it is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
When you look at the painting, you notice that Lisa Gherardini has an enigmatic smile on her face. From this observation comes the commonly used phrase “the smile that launched a thousand ships.” It refers to how attractive she appears to be in her portrait and how much men wanted her for their wife or lover. You can see from her eyes that she knows how attractive she is and what power it gives her over men.
There are several versions of why this smile became so famous and
The Mona Lisa is an oil painting of a woman by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). It hangs in the Louvre in Paris, France. The subject is Lisa Gheradini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The Mona Lisa is famous for the mystery surrounding its creation and the fame of the subject.
It was probably begun in 1503 or 1504, although some historians believe that Leonardo may have worked on it as early as 1502. The Mona Lisa is considered to be among Leonardo’s finest works and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
The painting was originally named La Gioconda (the happy woman), after the subject, Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. When it was bought by King Francis I of France in 1516, he changed the name to La Joconde (the beautiful woman). Later this became simply “Mona Lisa,” which means “my lady.”
The Mona Lisa measures 30 inches high by 21 1/2 inches wide and is painted on a single piece of oak paneling. It has been said that if you added together all the hours that have been spent looking at this painting, they would amount to more
The Mona Lisa is a famous painting but the artist is not that well known. Leonardo da Vinci was an artist who was famous for his painting, inventing and science (he designed tanks, helicopters and gliders). His most famous painting is The Mona Lisa. He was born in Italy in 1452.
His father worked as a lawyer and notary. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio, who specialized in painting statues. He then went on to study ancient Greek and Latin. He was also interested in math and science. He was very interested in how things worked realistically. In his free time he drew sketches of people, animals, architecture and machines.
He decided to become an artist instead of a scientist when the Duke asked him to paint a picture for him. He did such a good job that he was invited back to do more paintings for the court.
At this time Leonardo met Giovanni di Pier Francesco de Medici (also known as
The Louvre Museum recently acquired a new painting by the American artist Jackson Pollock. This was quite an achievement, since the only one of his paintings that ever had been sold at auction went for an astounding $140 million in 2006.
The museum paid for its painting with a gift from a private collector named Peggy Guggenheim, who had purchased it in 1951 for just $2,000. The painting was created in 1946, when Pollock was experimenting with dripping paint onto canvases laid out on the floor. He would take paint from cans and pour them directly onto his canvases. Then he would use sticks to spread the paint around.
The resulting works may look chaotic and random, but they weren’t really; Pollock used mathematical calculations to determine how much paint to use and where to drip it. He intended that his work be “non-objective,” meaning that it not represent any part of nature or reality. But one thing that art critics were agreeing on was that Pollock’s paintings were so full of movement and energy that they seemed almost alive — which is how they earned the nickname “drip-paintings.”
Today it’s hard to picture how revolutionary these paintings were when they first appeared, because today’s abstract art is so
But there is a story behind the smile, one that is not often told. The smile was the last thing da Vinci added to the painting; it wasn’t part of his original plan. He meant for her to be serious, unsmiling, and thoughtful. But an art expert named Gautier came to see the painting and said, “It is too sad, somehow. You must add a smile.” Da Vinci didn’t want to. He had already captured something deeper in Lisa’s expression–something he felt was more true. But Gautier would not be denied and pleaded until da Vinci finally gave in and painted Lisa’s smile.
But what do we really know about that smile? What was it really like? Was it nervous? Sweet? Tender? Proud? The truth is we don’t know. We have only seen it through da Vinci’s eyes, which are not our own; they are artist’s eyes. And that has been enough to make us fall in love with her smile–and with her–for almost 500 years now.
