Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?

Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?

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Painting

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. Image from WikiArt.

Title: Mona Lisa, Monna Lisa, La Jocande, or La Gioconda

Artist: Leonardo Da Vinci

Date Created: c. 1503 CE

Medium: oil painting on poplar wood.

Size: 21 x 30 inches or 76 x 53 centimeters (approximately)

Art Period: Italian High Renaissance

Current Location: Louvre, first floor of the Denon Wing


Quickie

  • One of less than twenty paintings attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci

  • New Portrait style (3/4 length of sitter) which was revolutionary in Italian Art at the time

  • Layers of glaze and a technique called sfumato are used to create an aerial perspective as well as an enigmatic expression

  • The Louvre, where the painting resides, is one of the most visited places in the world

  • It was stolen in 1911

 


The Mona Lisa is a fairly small painting of an unidentified woman sitting in front of a landscape. She wears no jewelry or overly ornate robes to establish identity or status. Yet, she is one of the most famous faces in the world.

Leonardo Da Vinci began the painting sometime around 1503. It is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gheradini, the wife of a Florentine merchant. For some reason, Da Vinci never delivered the portrait and when he went to France to work for the court of Francois I, he took the painting with him. Da Vinci died in France and paintings from his estate, including the Mona Lisa, were bought by Francois I. The Mona Lisa has been part of the French collection ever since, through the French Revolution, Empire, and Republic, eventually ending in the Louvre in its permanent position behind Plexiglas.



Identity

The principal belief is that the sitter is Lisa di Antionio Maria Gheradini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. This identity is how the painting derived its titles. This identity of the Mona Lisa is based on the writings of Georgio Vasari, who wrote more than thirty years after Da Vinci’s death. Vasari would often pad his writing with fabricated details which makes the identification problematic. There are not any corroborative documents, like contracts or monetary records, from the Giocondo estate. Other ideas proffered have identified the sitter as an acolyte of Da Vinci, other titled women (such as Isabella d’Este), or even Leonardo himself.

Portraits of nobility and wealthy people, such as the title states (Mona/Monna is a diminutive of ‘Ma Donna’ or ‘My Lady’) would have other identifying features, such as ornate clothing, jewelry, or medals that would also showcase the wealth of the sitter. Here, the sitter wears simple clothing without jewelry. This creates a result of the sitter as her own individual rather than an example of status.



Technique

Much of the enigmatic gaze that the Mona Lisa is famous for is created through the use of multiple layers of thin glaze. Etiquette books at the time stressed that women should not look directly into the eyes of a man, but Mona Lisa looks out at the sitter with eyes that are direct, yet hazy. Another standard of status was for a person to look serene about their status (their wealth, the materials, their lifestyle) but Mona Lisa has a hint of a smile, which is a contrast to the fashion. It’s an interesting choice as Mona Lisa follows the mode by having a shaved hairline and no eyebrows yet refuses the social norms.

Leonardo Da Vinci creates this beguiling facial composition through successive translucent layers of pigment. The layering of paint helps create depth by creating light and dark that’s more believable to the eye. There are no harsh lines in the painting. Instead, Da Vinci uses a technique called sfumato, which is when colors shift into one another in a manner that creates a hazy effect.



Portraiture

Mona Lisa is sitting in a loggia, in front of a hazy background. It is considered a three-quarter profile, in which she looks towards the viewer. The previous style for portraiture was a profile (cut off at the shoulders) but here, half of Mona Lisa’s body is shown. Her hands rest comfortably on the arm of a chair, whereas previous portraits would show hands raised, sometimes clasping identifying objects. This type of portraiture was new to Italian art and seemed to influence other contemporary artists to change their style.

Mona Lisa is sitting in between two columns and her body creates a pyramidal shape that brings your eye to her face and then down to her hands before continuing around the background.

Layers of varnish have yellowed over time, muting the colors and vibrancy of the painting. This was an unintentional effect but the original colors were bright.



Image: Juan Di Nella

Image: Juan Di Nella

Background

Columns frame the background, creating a frame for the landscape view. Only the base of the columns can be seen, on either side of the shoulders of the Mona Lisa. The landscape looks barren until a bridge forms out of the haze on the lower right side of the picture. The roads in the foreground wind their way between rocky outcrops and then disappear.

Some of the brilliance of the background comes from Da Vinci’s use of atmospheric perspective to create a realistic view. Distance is created by having fewer details in the background of the painting eventually concluding into a haze. The perspective ends behind the head of Mona Lisa at one single vanishing point. One strange thing about the background is that the horizon line is not the same across. Each side of the landscape seems to be on a different level.



Theft

The event that catapulted the Mona Lisa to international fame was actually its theft. Before the painting was stolen, it was only famous amongst the intelligentsia. Newspapers were taking off in a global market and the tensions between countries in Europe made the theft (thought to have been done by a member from another state) hot news.

In 1911, Vincenzo Peruggia took the Mona Lisa painting from its frame and walked out of the museum. Peruggia was an Italian painter who had been hired to work at the Louvre in maintenance. Despite a large police investigation, no helpful clues turned up. The press seized on the theft and investigation, printing the image of the Mona Lisa, cementing her status.

Two years later, Peruggia returned to Italy and contacted an art dealer, Alfredo Geri, in hopes of selling the painting for 500,000 lire. Peruggia claimed he stole the painting to return it to Italy for nationalistic purposes. Geri was suspicious and asked the director of the Uffizi Gallery to see the painting with him. Once they established that the painting was not fake, they called the police and Peruggia was arrested.

At his court appearance, Peruggia admitted that he chose the Mona Lisa to steal because of its small size. After going on tour in Italy, the Mona Lisa was returned to France in 1914.



World War II and Tours

During World War II, many paintings and sculptures from the Louvre were evacuated and moved to various secret locations throughout France. Not every item could be moved and there was worry about an invasion, looting, and destruction of French treasures. The Mona Lisa was one of the paintings that could be moved and during the war was often moved around France for safekeeping.

The painting has also gone on international tours as a sign of French goodwill. When it was in New York City, USA, 1.6 million people lined up for a quick glimpse over seven weeks.



Image: Alina Grubnyak


Articles

  1. The Science Behind Mona Lisa Smile: How Leonardo Da Vinci Made Mona Lisa Smile by The Atlantic Magazine

  2. Why The Mona Lisa Stands Out by 1843 Magazine by The Economist

Location

 


Works Cited

The Theft of the Mona Lisa

The Theft of the Mona Lisa

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