painting - Mona Lisa
Photograph by Noah Scalinon Flickr.
Critic Walter Pater, in his 1867 essay on da Vinci, expressed this view by describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythic embodiment of eternal femininity, who is older than the rocks among which she sits and who has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave. Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo, The sitter s identity was ascertained at the University of Heidelberg in 2005 by a library expert who discovered a 1503 margin note written by Agostino Vespucci. The painting s title stems from a description by Giorgio Vasari in his biography of da Vinci published in 1550, 31 years after the artist s death. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish, to mask areas that had been covered initially by an older frame.
The crack extends down to the hairline of the figure. Other aspects of the painting that have been subject to speculation are the original size of the painting, whether it is the original, why it was painted, and various explanations for how the effect of an enigmatic smile was achieved. The avant-garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa s popularity.
A butterfly brace prevents the panel from further cracking. The picture is currently kept under strict, climate controlled conditions in its bullet-proof glass case. In 1906, Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard performed watercolor retouches on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel.
Since the brightly lit face is practically framed with various much darker elements (hair, veil, shadows), the observer s attraction to Mona Lisa s face is brought to even greater extent. BĂ©roud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed for marketing purposes.
The flexible oak frame (added 1951) and crossbraces (1970) help to keep the panel from warping further. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side.
The sensuous curves of the woman s hair and clothing, created through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her. Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife…. In Italian, ma donna means my lady.
Sometime between 1888 and 1905, or perhaps at some point during the picture s theft, the upper brace fell out. In 1913, when the painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again called upon to work on the Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa …was an open text into which one could read what one wanted; probably because she was not a religious image; and, probably, because the literary gazers were mainly men who subjected her to an endless stream of male fantasies. During the 20th century, the painting was stolen, an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning and speculation, and was reproduced in 300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements . Visitors generally spend about 15 seconds viewing the Mona Lisa. From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington D.C. He effectively modified this formula in order to create the visual impression of distance between the sitter and the observer.
In both cases, the painting was undamaged. The Mona Lisa has survived for more than 500 years, and an international commission convened in 1952 noted that the picture is in a remarkable state of preservation. At some point in its history, the Mona Lisa was removed from its original frame. The blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm are characteristic of da Vinci s style.
In modern Italian, the short form of madonna is usually spelled Monna, so the title is sometimes Monna Lisa, rarely in English and more commonly in Romance languages such as French and Italian. At his death in 1525, da Vinci s assistant Salai owned the portrait named in his personal papers la Gioconda which had been bequeathed to him by the artist. Because of the painting s overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures.
The work is owned by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Denizard was directed to clean the picture without solvent, and to lightly touch up several scratches to the painting with watercolor.
This became madonna, and its contraction mona. In 1906, the countess of BĂ©arn gave the portrait its current frame, a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa.
In French, the title La Joconde has the same double meaning. Da Vinci used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. To compensate for fluctuations in relative humidity, the case is supplemented with a bed of silica gel treated to provide 55% relative humidity. Because the Mona Lisa s poplar support expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping.
This was intended as a Freudian joke, Salvador DalĂ, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. . During the mid-1800s, ThĂ©ophile Gautier and the Romantic poets were able to write about Mona Lisa as a femme fatale because Lisa was an ordinary person.
Some researchers claim that it was common at this time for genteel women to pluck them out, since they were considered to be unsightly. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence.
The unconstrained poplar panel was allowed to warp freely with changes in humidity, and as a result, a crack began to develop near the top of the panel. In 2004-2005, a conservation and study team replaced the maple crosspieces with sycamore ones, and an additional metal crosspiece was added for scientific measurement of the panel s warp.
Da Vinci referred to a seemingly simple formula for seated female figure: the images of seated Madonna, which were widespread at the time. The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, but no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed. The first and most extensive recorded cleaning, revarnishing, and touch up of the Mona Lisa was an 1809 wash and re-varnish undertaken by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel, who was responsible for restoration of paintings for the galleries of the Musée Napoléon.
Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated. At the time, the painting was believed to be lost forever, and it would be two years before the real thief was discovered. It is perhaps the most famous and iconic painting in the world. The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose facial expression is often described as enigmatic. Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, during the Italian Renaissance and, according to Vasari, after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished…. Mona Lisa was not well known until the mid-19th century when artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique.
Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. During World War II, the painting was again removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban. For modern viewers the missing eyebrows add to the slightly semi-abstract quality of the face. The Mona Lisa painting now hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.
The humidity is maintained at 50% ±10%, and the temperature is maintained between 18 and 21°C. However, where the Mona Lisa should have stood, he found four iron pegs.
In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honor the anniversary of Da Vinci s 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces. In the mid 18th to early 19th century, someone attempted to stabilize the crack by inlaying two butterfly shaped walnut braces into the back of the panel to a depth of about 1/3 the thickness of the panel.
A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the section head of the museum, and it was confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. Mona is thus a polite form of address, similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English.
In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow. Before the 1962–3 tour, the painting was assessed, for insurance purposes, as valued at $100 million; the insurance was not bought, instead more money was spent on security. Although the sitter has traditionally been identified as Lisa del Giocondo, a lack of definitive evidence has long fueled alternative theories, including the possibility that da Vinci used his own likeness. This was treated on the spot with carbon tetrachloride, and later with an ethylene oxide treatment.
Her breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands. In April 1974, a handicapped woman, upset by the museum s policy for the disabled, sprayed red paint at the painting while it was on display at the Tokyo National Museum.
Her folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid. A later restorer glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth.
This is a manner of implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability). In 1952, the varnish layer over the background in the painting was evened out.
In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged when a vandal doused the painting with acid. The use of bulletproof glass has shielded the Mona Lisa from more recent attacks. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in investigation of the theft. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be burnt down, came under suspicion; he was arrested and put in jail.
The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch up of color, and revarnishing the painting. Due to the expressive synthesis that da Vinci achieved between sitter and landscape it is arguable whether Mona Lisa should be considered as a traditional portrait, for it represents an ideal rather than a real woman.
The next day, Louis Béroud, a painter, walked into the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential Dadaists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription, when read out loud in French sounds like Elle a chaud au cul (literally translated - she has a hot ass .
The painting s increasing fame was further emphasized when it was stolen on August 21, 1911. In 1985, the spot was again treated with carbon tetrachloride as a preventive measure. On April 6, 2005—following a period of curatorial maintenance, recording, and analysis—the painting was moved to a new location within the museum s Salle des États.
The Mona Lisa has had many different decorative frames in its history, owing to changes in taste over the centuries. Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde), is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel in Florence by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance.
The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles. After the second 1956 attack, restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up the damage to Mona Lisa s left elbow with watercolor. In 1977, a new insect infestation was discovered in the back of the panel as a result of crosspieces installed to keep the painting from warping.
The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter s faint smile—reflects the idea of a link connecting humanity and nature. Mona Lisa has no visible facial hair—including eyebrows and eyelashes. Already in 1883, a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe was shown at the Incoherents show in Paris.
It is displayed in a purpose-built, climate-controlled enclosure behind bullet-proof glass. Historian Donald Sassoon catalogued the growth of the painting s fame. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains.
Thus, the composition of the figure evokes an ambiguous effect: we are attracted to this mysterious woman but have to stay at a distance as if she were a divine creature. In 1970, the beech crosspieces were switched to maple after it was found that the beech wood had been infested with insects.
This flexible frame, which is used in addition to the decorative frame described below, exerts pressure on the panel to keep it from warping further. This work was skillfully executed, and has successfully stabilized the crack.
Italian for jocund, happy or jovial, Gioconda was a nickname for the sitter, a pun on the feminine form of her married name Giocondo and her disposition. Only her gaze is fixed on the observer and seems to welcome them to this silent communication.
