For centuries, audiences have been captivated by the mysterious Mona Lisa. A key piece of Italian master Leonardo da Vinci‘s ouevre and a prime example of High Renaissance painting, the piece has become known as one of the most recognizable and skillfully rendered works of art.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
The Mona Lisa is renowned for both its curious iconography and its unique history. Here, we explore these aspects of the painting in order to answer the question: why is the Mona Lisa famous today?
What is the Mona Lisa?
The Mona Lisa is an oil painting by Italian artist, inventor, and writer Leonardo da Vinci. Likely completed in 1506, the piece features a portrait of a seated woman set against an imaginary landscape.
Photo: Galerie de tableaux en très haute définition via Wikimedia Commons {{PD-1923}}
In addition to being one of the most famous works of art, it is also the most valuable. Permanently located in the Louvre Museum, it is estimated to be worth an impressive $800 million today.
Content
Rendered similarly to Renaissance portrayals of the Virgin Mary, the piece features a female figure—believed by most to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of cloth and silk merchant Francesco Giocondo—from the waist up. She is shown seated in a loggia, or a room with at least one open side.
Behind her is a hazy and seemingly isolated landscape imagined by the artist and painted using sfumato, a technique resulting in forms “without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane.”
‘Mona Lisa’ detail
The figure sits with her arms folded as she gazes at the viewer and appears to softly smile—an aesthetic attribute that has proven particularly eye-catching over centuries. The halfhearted or even ambiguous nature of this smile makes the iconic painting all the more enigmatic, prompting viewers to try to understand both the mood of its muse and the intention of its artist.
‘Mona Lisa’ detail
In addition to its mysterious appearance, her expression has resonated most strongly with art historians for its possible symbolism, as many believe it to be a clever “visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word ‘gioconda’ in Italian.”
The post The History and Legacy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mysterious “Mona Lisa” appeared first on My Modern Met.
Source: mymodernmet.com