The masterpiece is admired by more than eight million visitors every year. However, what we see today only vaguely resembles the original creation. More than 500 years separate us from the time the painting was created...
THE PICTURE CHANGES OVER THE YEARS
Mona Lisa changes like real woman... After all, today we have before us an image of a faded, faded woman’s face, yellowed and darkened in those places where previously the viewer could see brown and green tones (it’s not for nothing that Leonardo’s contemporaries more than once admired the fresh and bright colors paintings by an Italian artist).
The portrait did not escape the ravages of time and damage caused by numerous restorations. And the wooden supports became wrinkled and covered with cracks. Changed under the influence chemical reactions and the properties of pigments, binders and varnish over the years.
The honorable right to create a series of photographs of the Mona Lisa in the highest resolution was given to the French engineer Pascal Cotte, the inventor of the multispectral camera. The result of his work was detailed photographs of the painting in the range from ultraviolet to infrared spectrum.
It is worth noting that Pascal spent about three hours creating photographs of the “naked” painting, that is, without a frame and protective glass. At the same time, he used a unique scanner of his own invention. The result of the work was 13 photographs of a masterpiece with 240-megapixel resolution. The quality of these images is absolutely unique. It took two years to analyze and verify the data obtained.
RECONSTRUCTED BEAUTY
In 2007, at the exhibition “The Genius of Da Vinci,” 25 secrets of the painting were revealed for the first time. Here, for the first time, visitors were able to enjoy the original color of the Mona Lisa's paints (that is, the color of the original pigments that da Vinci used).
The photographs presented the picture to readers in its original form, similar to how Leonardo’s contemporaries saw it: a sky the color of lapis lazuli, a warm pink complexion, clearly drawn mountains, green trees...
Photographs by Pascal Cottet showed that Leonardo had not completed the painting. We observe changes in the position of the model's hand. It can be seen that at first Mona Lisa supported the bedspread with her hand. It also became noticeable that the facial expression and smile were somewhat different at first. And the stain in the corner of the eye is water damage in the varnish coating, most likely as a result of the painting hanging for some time in Napoleon's bathroom. We can also determine that some parts of the painting have become transparent over time. And see that, contrary to modern opinion, Mona Lisa had eyebrows and eyelashes!
WHO IS IN THE PICTURE
“Leonardo undertook to make a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, for Francesco Giocondo, and, having worked for four years, left it unfinished. While painting the portrait, he kept people playing the lyre or singing, and there were always jesters who moved away from her melancholy and kept her cheerful. That’s why her smile is so pleasant.”
This is the only evidence of how the painting was created belongs to da Vinci's contemporary, the artist and writer Giorgio Vasari (though he was only eight years old when Leonardo died). Based on his words for several centuries now woman portrait, on which the master worked in 1503-1506, is considered to be an image of 25-year-old Lisa, the wife of the Florentine magnate Francesco del Giocondo. This is what Vasari wrote - and everyone believed it. But most likely, this is a mistake, and there is another woman in the portrait.
There is a lot of evidence: firstly, the headdress is a widow’s mourning veil (meanwhile, Francesco del Giocondo lived a long life), and secondly, if there was a customer, why didn’t Leonardo give him the work? It is known that the artist kept the painting in his possession, and in 1516, leaving Italy, he took it to France; King Francis I paid 4,000 gold florins for it in 1517 - fantastic money at that time. However, he didn’t get “La Gioconda” either.
The artist did not part with the portrait until his death. In 1925, art historians suggested that the half depicts Duchess Constance d'Avalos - the widow of Federico del Balzo, the mistress of Giuliano Medici (brother of Pope Leo X). The basis for the hypothesis was a sonnet by the poet Eneo Irpino, which mentions her portrait by Leonardo. In 1957, the Italian Carlo Pedretti put forward a different version: in fact, it was Pacifica Brandano, another mistress of Giuliano Medici, the widow of a Spanish nobleman, who had a gentle and cheerful disposition, was well educated and could brighten up any company. It is no wonder that such a cheerful person. , like Giuliano, became close to her, thanks to which their son Ippolito was born.
In the papal palace, Leonardo was provided with a workshop with movable tables and the diffused light he loved so much. The artist worked slowly, carefully detailing the details, especially the face and eyes. Pacifica (if that's her) came out as if alive in the picture. The spectators were amazed and often frightened: it seemed to them that instead of the woman in the picture, a monster, some kind of sea siren, was about to appear. Even the landscape behind her contained something mysterious. The famous smile was in no way associated with the idea of righteousness. Rather, there was something in the realm of witchcraft here. Exactly this mysterious smile stops, alarms, bewitches and calls the viewer, as if forcing him to enter into a telepathic connection.
Renaissance artists expanded the philosophical and artistic horizons of creativity to the maximum. Man has entered into competition with God, he imitates him, he is obsessed with a great desire to create. He is captured by that one real world, from which the Middle Ages turned away for the sake of the spiritual world.
Leonardo da Vinci dissected corpses. He dreamed of taking over nature by learning to change the direction of rivers and drain swamps; he wanted to steal the art of flight from birds. Painting was for him an experimental laboratory, where he constantly searched for more and more new expressive means. The artist's genius allowed him to see the true essence of nature behind the living physicality of forms. And here we cannot help but say about the master’s favorite subtle chiaroscuro (sfumato), which for him was a kind of halo that replaced the medieval halo: this is equally a divine-human and natural sacrament.
The sfumato technique made it possible to enliven landscapes and surprisingly subtly convey the play of feelings on faces in all its variability and complexity. What Leonardo didn’t invent, hoping to realize his plans! The master tirelessly mixes various substances, trying to obtain eternal colors. His brush is so light, so transparent that in the 20th century even X-ray analysis would not reveal traces of its impact. After making a few strokes, he puts the painting aside to let it dry. His eye distinguishes the slightest nuances: sun glare and shadows of some objects on others, a shadow on the pavement and a shadow of sadness or a smile on his face. The general laws of drawing and perspective construction only suggest the path. Our own searches reveal that light has the ability to bend and straighten lines: “Immersing objects in a light-air environment means, in essence, immersing them in infinity.”
WORSHIP
According to experts, her name was Mona Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, ... Although, maybe Isabella Gualando, Isabella d'Este, Filiberta of Savoy, Constance d'Avalos, Pacifica Brandano... Who knows?
The ambiguity of its origins only contributed to its fame. She passed through the centuries in the radiance of her mystery. For many years the portrait of a “court lady in a transparent veil” was a decoration of royal collections. She was seen either in Madame de Maintenon's bedroom or in Napoleon's chambers in the Tuileries. Louis XIII, who frolicked as a child in the Grand Gallery where it hung, refused to give it up to the Duke of Buckingham, saying: “It is impossible to part with a painting that is considered the best in the world.” Everywhere – both in castles and in city houses – they tried to “teach” their daughters the famous smile.
This is how a beautiful image turned into a fashionable stamp. The popularity of the painting has always been high among professional artists (more than 200 copies of La Gioconda are known). She gave birth to a whole school, inspired such masters as Raphael, Ingres, David, Corot. WITH late XIX century, letters began to be sent to “Mona Lisa” with declarations of love. And yet, in the bizarrely unfolding fate of the picture, some touch, some stunning event was missing. And it happened!
On August 21, 1911, newspapers published a sensational headline: "La Gioconda" has been stolen!" The painting was energetically searched for. They mourned over it. They feared that it had died, burned by an awkward photographer who was photographing it with a magnesium flash under open air. In France, even street musicians mourned La Gioconda. “Baldassare Castiglione” by Raphael, installed in the Louvre on the site of the missing one, did not suit anyone - after all, it was just an “ordinary” masterpiece.
La Gioconda was found in January 1913, hidden in a hiding place under the bed. The thief, a poor Italian emigrant, wanted to return the painting to his homeland, Italy.
When the idol of centuries returned to the Louvre, the writer Théophile Gautier sarcastically remarked that the smile had become “mocking” and even “triumphant”? especially in cases where it was addressed to people who are not inclined to trust angelic smiles. The public was divided into two warring camps. If for some it was just a picture, albeit an excellent one, then for others it was almost a deity. In 1920, in the Dada magazine, avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp added a bushy mustache to a photograph of “the most mysterious of smiles” and accompanied the cartoon with the initial letters of the words “she can’t stand it.” In this form the opponents of idolatry expressed their irritation.
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MAIN SECRET...
...Hidden, of course, in her smile. As you know, there are different smiles: happy, sad, embarrassed, seductive, sour, sarcastic. But none of these definitions in this case no good. The archives of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in France contain many different interpretations of the riddle of the famous portrait.
A certain “general specialist” assures that the person depicted in the picture is pregnant; her smile is an attempt to catch the movement of the fetus. The next one insists that she is smiling at her lover... Leonardo. Some even think that the painting depicts a man because “his smile is very attractive to homosexuals.”
According to British psychologist Digby Questeg, a proponent latest version, in this work Leonardo showed his latent (hidden) homosexuality. The smile of “La Gioconda” expresses a wide range of feelings: from embarrassment and indecision (what will contemporaries and descendants say?) to hope for understanding and favor.
From the point of view of today's ethics, this assumption looks quite convincing. Let us remember, however, that the morals of the Renaissance were much more liberated than today, and Leonardo did not make a secret of his sexual orientation. His students were always more beautiful than talented; His servant Giacomo Salai enjoyed special favor. Another similar version? "Mona Lisa" is a self-portrait of the artist. A recent computer comparison of the anatomical features of the faces of Gioconda and Leonardo da Vinci (based on the artist’s self-portrait made in red pencil) showed that geometrically they match perfectly. Thus, Gioconda can be called the female form of a genius!.. But then Gioconda’s smile is his smile.
Such a mysterious smile was indeed characteristic of Leonardo; as evidenced, for example, by Verrocchio’s painting “Tobias with the Fish,” in which the Archangel Michael is painted with Leonardo da Vinci.
Sigmund Freud also expressed his opinion about the portrait (naturally, in the spirit of Freudianism): “The smile of Gioconda is the smile of the artist’s mother.” The idea of the founder of psychoanalysis was later supported by Salvador Dali: “In modern world There is a real cult of Giocondo worship. There were many attempts on Gioconda's life; several years ago there were even attempts to throw stones at her - a clear resemblance to aggressive behavior towards her own mother. If we remember what Freud wrote about Leonardo da Vinci, as well as everything that his paintings say about the artist’s subconscious, then we can easily conclude that when Leonardo was working on La Gioconda, he was in love with his mother. Completely unconsciously, he wrote a new being, endowed with all possible signs motherhood. At the same time, she smiles somehow ambiguously. The whole world saw and still sees today in this ambiguous smile a very definite shade of eroticism. And what happens to the unfortunate poor spectator, who is in the grip of the Oedipus complex? He comes to the museum. A museum is a public institution. In his subconscious it’s just a brothel or simply a brothel. And in that very brothel he sees an image that represents a prototype collective image all mothers. The painful presence of his own mother, casting a gentle glance and giving an ambiguous smile, pushes him to commit a crime. He grabs the first thing he can get his hands on, say a stone, and tears the picture apart, thus committing an act of matricide.”
DOCTORS MAKE A DIAGNOSIS BY SMILE...
For some reason, Gioconda’s smile especially haunts doctors. For them, the portrait of Mona Lisa is an ideal opportunity to practice making a diagnosis without fear of the consequences of a medical error.
Thus, the famous American otolaryngologist Christopher Adur from Oakland (USA) announced that Gioconda has facial paralysis. In his practice, he even called this paralysis “Mona Lisa disease,” apparently achieving a psychotherapeutic effect by instilling in patients a sense of involvement in high art. One Japanese doctor is absolutely sure that Mona Lisa had high cholesterol. Evidence of this is a typical nodule on the skin between the left eyelid and the base of the nose, typical for such a disease. Which means: Mona Lisa didn't eat well.
Joseph Borkowski, an American dentist and painting expert, believes that the woman in the painting, judging by the expression on her face, has lost many teeth. While studying enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski discovered scars around the Mona Lisa's mouth. “Her facial expression is typical of people who have lost their front teeth,” says the expert. Neurophysiologists also contributed to solving the mystery. In their opinion, it’s not about the model or the artist, but about the audience. Why does it seem to us that Mona Lisa's smile fades away and then appears again? Harvard University neuroscientist Margaret Livingston believes that the reason for this is not the magic of Leonardo da Vinci’s art, but the peculiarities human vision: the appearance and disappearance of a smile depends on which part of Gioconda’s face the person’s gaze is directed at. There are two types of vision: central, detail-oriented, and peripheral, less clear. If you are not focused on the eyes of “nature” or are trying to take in her entire face with your gaze, Gioconda smiles at you. However, as soon as you focus your gaze on your lips, the smile immediately disappears. Moreover, the smile of Mona Lisa can be reproduced, says Margaret Livingston. Why, when working on a copy, you need to try to “draw a mouth without looking at it.” But only the great Leonardo seemed to know how to do this.
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Some practicing psychologists say that the Secret of Mona Lisa is simple: it is smiling to yourself. Actually, the advice follows modern women: think how wonderful, sweet, kind, unique you are - you are worth rejoicing and smiling at yourself. Carry your smile naturally, let it be honest and open, coming from the depths of your soul. A smile will soften your face, erase from it traces of fatigue, inaccessibility, rigidity that so scare men away. It will give your face a mysterious expression. And then you will have as many fans as the Mona Lisa.
THE SECRET OF SHADOWS AND TINTS
The mysteries of the immortal creation have haunted scientists from all over the world for many years. Scientists previously used X-rays to understand how Leonardo da Vinci created the shadows on his great masterpiece. The Mona Lisa was one of seven works by Da Vinci studied by scientist Philip Walter and his colleagues. The study showed how ultra-thin layers of glaze and paint were used to achieve a smooth transition from light to dark. An X-ray beam allows you to examine layers without damaging the canvas
The technique used by Da Vinci and other Renaissance artists is known as sfumato. With its help, it was possible to create smooth transitions of tones or colors on the canvas.
One of the most shocking discoveries of our research is that you will not see a single stroke or fingerprint on the canvas,” said Walter, a member of the group.
Everything is so perfect! That’s why Da Vinci’s paintings were impossible to analyze—they didn’t provide easy clues,” she continued.
Previous research had already established the basic aspects of the sfumato technology, but Walter's team has uncovered new details about how the great master was able to achieve this effect. The group used x-ray to determine the thickness of each layer applied to the canvas. As a result, it was possible to find out that Leonardo da Vinci was able to apply layers with a thickness of only a couple of micrometers (thousandth of a millimeter), the total layer thickness did not exceed 30 - 40 micrometers.
A MYSTERIOUS LANDSCAPE
Behind Mona Lisa, the legendary canvas by Leonardo da Vinci depicts not an abstract, but a very concrete landscape - the outskirts of the northern Italian town of Bobbio, says researcher Carla Glori, whose arguments are cited on Monday, January 10, by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Glory came to such conclusions after the journalist, writer, discoverer of Caravaggio’s grave and head of the National Italian Committee for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Silvano Vinceti reported that he saw mysterious letters and numbers on Leonardo’s canvas. In particular, under the arch of the bridge located along left hand from the Mona Lisa (that is, from the viewer’s point of view, on the right side of the picture), the numbers “72” were revealed. Vinceti himself considers them a reference to some mystical theories of Leonardo. According to Glory, this is an indication of the year 1472, when the Trebbia River flowing past Bobbio overflowed its banks, demolished the old bridge and forced the Visconti family, which ruled in those parts, to build a new one. She considers the rest of the view to be the landscape that opened from the windows of the local castle.
Previously, Bobbio was known primarily as the place where the huge monastery of San Colombano is located, which served as one of the prototypes for “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco.
In her conclusions, Carla Glory goes even further: if the scene is not the center of Italy, as scientists previously believed, based on the fact that Leonardo began work on the canvas in 1503-1504 in Florence, but the north, then his model is not his wife merchant Lisa del Giocondo, and the daughter of the Duke of Milan Bianca Giovanna Sforza.
Her father, Lodovico Sforza, was one of Leonardo's main customers and a famous philanthropist.
Glory believes that the artist and inventor visited him not only in Milan, but also in Bobbio, a town with a library famous in those days, also subject to the Milanese rulers. However, skeptical experts claim that both the numbers and letters discovered by Vinceti in pupils of the Mona Lisa, nothing more than cracks that formed on the canvas over the centuries... However, no one can exclude the possibility that they were specially applied to the canvas...
IS THE SECRET REVEALED?
Last year, Professor Margaret Livingston of Harvard University said that Mona Lisa's smile is visible only if you look at other features of her face rather than at the lips of the woman depicted in the portrait.
Margaret Livingston presented her theory at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver, Colorado.
The disappearance of a smile when changing the angle of view is due to how human eye processes visual information, says the American scientist.
There are two types of vision: direct and peripheral. Direct perceives details well, worse - shadows.
The elusive nature of Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that almost all of it is located in the low-frequency range of light and is well perceived only by peripheral vision, said Margaret Livingston.
The more you look directly at your face, the less your peripheral vision is used.
The same thing happens if you look at one letter of printed text. At the same time, other letters are perceived worse, even at close range.
Da Vinci used this principle and therefore the smile of Mona Lisa is visible only if you look at the eyes or other parts of the face of the woman depicted in the portrait...
There are many legends regarding the origin of the Great Leonardo's Painting - "Mona Lisa", however, everything is as usual - noisy gossip designed to increase the rating of this Picture and improve the business based on the image of this work - instant recognition and box office revenue are guaranteed to you :)
However, let's return to the source and the main version of who is depicted on Da Vinci's Canvas.
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Mona Lisa (Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo) - this is Lisa Giocondo,
née Girardini Lisa Gherardini
Portrait Mons Lisa(also known as the painting Gioconda, or La Joconde, or Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo) is a portrait by the great Florentine artist Leonardo da Vinci.
The painting is done in oil on a poplar base and was completed around 1503-1519.
The portrait is on permanent display at the Louvre in Paris.
A copy of the 16th century painting is also exhibited in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Identification of the painting.
The traditional work was originally called "Lisa Gherardini".
And the prefix “Mona” (from Monikue - “The Only One”, and the diminutive of Madonna (“Mother of God”) - the Catholic analogue of “The One” in Orthodoxy) today in Italian this abbreviation has the same meaning as “lady”.
Thus the expression "Monna Lisa" is literally understood as " Lisa, wife of Francesco del Giocondo", hence the name in Russian - " Mona Lisa". ***
Lisa del Giocondo
Lisa del Giocondo Italian. Lisa del Giocondo (June 15, 1479 - July 15, 1542, according to other sources c. 1551), also known as Lisa Gherardini, Gioconda and Mona Lisa- a noble Florentine woman, supposedly depicted in the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Little is known about Lisa del Giocondo. Born in Florence into a noble family. She married a cloth merchant at an early age, gave birth to six children, and, in all likelihood, led a quiet, middle-class Renaissance life.
Several centuries after her death, her portrait, Mona Lisa, purchased global recognition and is currently considered one of the greatest works art in history.
The picture arouses the interest of researchers and amateurs and has become the subject of a wide variety of speculation.
Speculation by scholars and amateurs has made this work of art an internationally recognized icon and object of commercialization.
The final correspondence between Lisa del Giocondo and Mona Lisa was installed in 2005.
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Lisa del Giocondo -
Lisa del Giocondo -
Fragment Mona Lisa (1503-06) Leonardo da Vinci, Louvre
Place of birth: Florence, Italy
Citizenship: Italy
Date of death: 15 July 1542 (age 63)
Place of death: Florence, Italy
Spouse: Francesco del Giocondo
Children: Pierrot, Camilla, Andrea, Gioconda and Marietta
BiographyChildhood
During the Quattrocento era, Florence was one of the largest and richest cities in Europe. Of course, life was not equally good for everyone - at that time there was a huge social inequality. Lisa belonged to an ancient aristocratic family, which lost influence over time.
Her mother, Lucrezia del Caccia, was Italy's third wife. Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini. The other two died during childbirth. Gherardini owned six farms in Chianti, where they grew wheat, produced wine and olive oil and kept livestock.
Lisa was born on June 15, 1479 on Via Maggio. However, for a long time the place of her birth was considered to be the Villa Vignamaggio estate (Italian: Villa Vignamaggio), not far from Italy. Greve. The girl was named Lisa in honor of her paternal grandmother. Lisa had three sisters and three brothers, she was the eldest child in the family.
The family lived in Florence, first near Santa Trinita, later moving to a rented house near Santo Spirito, most likely due to financial problems that did not allow them to maintain the previous house in good condition.
Marriage and later years
On March 5, 1495, at the age of 15, Lisa married Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo, a relatively successful textile merchant, and became his third wife. Lisa's dowry amounted to 170 florins and the San Silvestro farm not far from the family home. Based on these data, we can conclude that, firstly, the Gherardinis were not rich, and, secondly, that the marriage was based on love.
It can be argued that the couple belonged to the middle class. Marriage could increase social status Lisa, since her husband’s family could be richer than her own. On the other hand, the marriage was also beneficial for Francesco, since he became related to an “old family.”
Mona Lisa
Like many other Florentines, Francesco was a connoisseur of art and patronized artists. His son, Bartolomeo, commissioned Antonio di Donnino Mazzieri to decorate the family crypt in the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata with fresco. Andrea del Sarto, commissioned by another family member, painted Madonna. Francesco ordered ital from Domenico Puligo. Domenico Puligo painting depicting Saint Francis of Assisi.
The generally accepted version is that the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo was painted by Leonardo, and in this case, it could have been commissioned from the artist by her husband, probably to celebrate the birth of his son and the purchase of the house. (For a detailed discussion of the versions, as well as a description of the painting, see the corresponding article ***.
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grave Mons Lisa Russian descendants are looking for her
Monu Lisa excavated.
In May 20011 Italian archaeologists began excavations in the Florentine monastery of St. Ursula. It is there, according to scientists, that the body of Lisa Gherardini, the girl who posed for Leonardo da Vinci for his famous “La Gioconda,” may be buried. Today, archaeologists have dug into the first of several underground tombs, but so far have only found a few medallions.
The first piece of evidence in the case Mons Lisa appeared on the first day of excavation. The bone lay on top, under a layer of concrete. Archaeologists doubt the value of the find, but will conduct an examination of any object, even of suspicious origin.
“It looks like a human bone. It could be a humerus. But it is unlikely that it belongs to someone who lived 500 years ago; it lay too shallow,” says anthropologist Giorgio Gruppioni.
A week later, archaeologists were already at a depth of 2 meters 60 centimeters. But in the bag of finds there is no change - the same bone and several ceramic fragments.
The first crypt, which took so long to excavate, turned out to be empty. According to one version, fearing a fire, the monks hid the contents in a more secure place, leaving only a few medallions on the shelves.
But to descendants Mons Lisa everything is interesting. Having abandoned the theater and the family wine business, Princesses Irina and Natalia Strozzi closely monitor the excavations.
They also believe the archives - Lisa Gherardini was buried here, in the monastery of St. Ursula.
A family historian has calculated: to explain how Lisa Gherardini relates to the Tuscan princesses, the prefix “great-” before the word grandmother must be pronounced 15 times.
Ira and Natasha speak Russian (in descendants Mons Lisa Russian blood flows), they adore Russian ballet and even danced at the Mariinsky Theater.
Having abandoned the theater and the family wine business, Princesses Irina and Natalia Strozzi have been monitoring the excavations for a week."
Unlike historians, who have a new version every year, the girls are absolutely sure that Leonardo’s painting depicts exactly Mona Lisa.
And there is convincing evidence: when the sisters stand next to the painting, everyone thinks that if they put on a veil and don’t smile so widely...
“Dad has the same half-smile, but we smile broadly, in Russian,” the sisters say.
What their great-great-great-grandmother really was, the computer will tell you. As soon as Mona's grave is found.
Lisa and DNA analysis will confirm that it is her, the machine will draw its own version of Mona Lisa. If it suddenly turns out that the model does not look like Leonardo’s, this could be the beginning of a new search and new excavations.
The list of versions of who is depicted in the portrait is long, and it does not only include women’s names.
One bone and several medallions is not the greatest success yet.
But Mona Lisa somewhere nearby, archaeologists are sure. The ground penetrating radar agrees with them. Research has shown that somewhere in the center of the church there is a crypt - 15 square meters.
www.vesti.ru
At the very beginning of the 16th century, the famous Italian painter and sculptor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) painted one of greatest masterpieces modern civilization– portrait of Mona Lisa or Gioconda. Since then this work of art haunts people. It's safe to say that there is a mystery to the Mona Lisa. Scientists, artists and simply art connoisseurs ask themselves a number of questions. Who is shown in the picture? Why couldn't the artist finish this work? How does it affect people?
But before we begin to unravel the historical charades, let's first understand the title of the work. Why is it called either “La Gioconda” or “Mona Lisa”? It is officially believed that Leonardo took up the task of painting a portrait of Lisa Gherardini. This is a historical figure who lived in Florence. Lisa belonged to noble women. She was born in 1479 and died in 1542. Some experts call the year 1551. At the time of painting the portrait she was 22-24 years old.
At first the painting was called “Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Gioconda.” Gioconda is the surname of the husband of the posing girl. My mistress in Italian means “ma donna”, and is abbreviated as “mona”. That is, “Mona Lisa” is “Mrs. Lisa”. And the portrait was first called “Gioconda” in 1525 by Da Vinci’s student, the artist Salai. Both names took root and have survived to this day in this form.
The greatest interest in the unique portrait is the smile of the Mona Lisa. It has been debated for hundreds of years. But no less a mystery is the image itself captured on the canvas. Officially, this is Lisa, née Gherardini. But there are experts who claim that this is not her at all. There are several assumptions about who the artist really depicted.
The most exotic version claims that La Gioconda is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself. This is by no means idle speculation. The portrait was subjected to computer research, and it showed that the artist’s facial features coincided with the girl’s facial features. Such an amazing similarity made it possible to assert that Leonardo created his self-portrait, reflecting in it the hidden feminine traits of his own nature.
Images of Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa
This version indirectly explains why da Vinci took almost 4 years to paint the picture. Moreover, he did not give it to the customer. The work remained with him, then passed on to a student, and later ended up in the collection of the French king Francis I. One should also take into account the Italian’s predisposition to various puzzles, jokes and riddles. He was very fond of such things and could well “make fun” of future researchers of his work.
But the mystery of the Mona Lisa is not limited to Leonardo’s self-portrait. There is another exotic version. She claims that the portrait shows a young man in a woman's dress. What kind of young man? This is a student of a great artist named Salai. Leonardo and Szalai were together for 25 years. It is assumed that they were connected not only by friendly relations, but also by unconventional orientation. This gave rise to the assumption that Salai dressed in a woman’s dress and posed for the picture. This version also explains why the portrait remained with the great artist.
In the first quarter of the 20th century, it was suggested that the portrait depicts Duchess Constanza d'Avalos (1460-1541). She was given the nickname “The Cheerful”, and in Italian this means “la gioconda”, that is, “Gioconda”. At the time of painting the portrait, the Duchess became a widow. Eneo Irpino sang it in his poem. Interestingly, this poem mentions a portrait of the Duchess, allegedly painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
Portrait of Salai - student of Leonardo da Vinci
It is known that the duchess's lover (widows also have lovers) was Giuliano Medici. It is assumed that it was he who ordered the portrait of his mistress. But a couple of years passed and Giuliano married Filiberte of Savoy. It is quite understandable that an affair on the side could compromise the newly-made husband. Therefore, he disowned the portrait, and Leonardo kept it for himself.
There is also an assumption that the portrait depicts not the Duchess of Constanza, but another mistress of Giuliano, Pacifica, the widow of Giovanni Antonio Brandano. This woman gave birth to Giuliano's son named Ippolito.
There are many other versions and assumptions. However, in 2005, notes from a certain Florentine official were discovered. In particular, he wrote that Leonardo was working on three paintings at the same time. One of them is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini.
Thus, there is indirect evidence that the portrait of the Mona Lisa is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned by him on the occasion of the birth of his second son Andrea. However, the mystery of the Mona Lisa remains so, since this evidence also raises many questions and assumptions.
The Mona Lisa painting has always been an amazing creation of Leonardo da Vinci. Very much interesting stories related to this work. In this article we will tell you some informative facts about the Mona Lisa painting.
Mona Lisa painting. Facts that will impress you:
Mona Lisa's eyebrows and eyelashes
In the painting, the Mona Lisa has neither eyelashes nor eyebrows. However, in 2007, a French engineer, using a camera with high resolution found thin brush strokes in the area of the eyebrows and eyelashes that had disappeared over time, probably as a result of careless restoration or simply faded.
There is another "Mona Lisa"
The Prado Museum in Spain houses a second Mona Lisa, which was probably painted by one of da Vinci's students. If you superimpose two Mona Lisa paintings, a 3-D effect appears, which, in fact, makes this painting the first stereoscopic image in history.
Pablo Picasso was suspected...
When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, Pablo Picasso was questioned as a suspect.
Fine work..
When painting the image of La Gioconda, Leonardo da Vinci created about 30 layers, many of which are thinner than a human hair.
Relaxed atmosphere
When painting the Mona Lisa, the artist made sure that the model was in in a great mood, and so that she doesn't get bored. For this purpose, six musicians were invited to play especially for the Mona Lisa, and a musical fountain, invented by da Vinci himself, was installed.
Various magnificent works and a Persian cat and a greyhound were present, in case the sitter wanted to play with them.
The painting was not painted on canvas
"Mona Lisa" was painted not on canvas, but on three types wood, about an inch and a half thick.
12 long years...
Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors, played the viola, and spent 12 years painting the lips of the Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa and Napoleon
The Mona Lisa painting hung in Napoleon's bedroom.
An attempt at cubism...
A Swedish designer has created a replica of the Mona Lisa from fifty translucent polygons.
Scam of the century...
As you know, in 1911 the painting “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre. The theft was led by Argentine fraudster Eduardo de Valfierno, all in order to sell six counterfeits to six different collectors around the world. No charges were brought against him, since he was not formally involved in the kidnapping.
I just took it out of the museum...
In 1911, Vincenzo Perugia (an employee of the Louvre and a mirror maker) wished to return the Mona Lisa back to Italy after the painting "was captured by Napoleon." Perugia entered the Louvre, removed the painting from the wall, carried it to the nearest service staircase, took the painting out of the frame, put it under his work coat and left the museum as if nothing had happened.
Insolent...
In 1956, a Bolivian tourist threw a rock at the Mona Lisa and damaged the painting.
What is the price of the Mona Lisa?
The cost of the Mona Lisa painting is estimated at approximately $782 million.
Mona Lisa from toast..
In 1983, Tadahiko Ogawa created a copy of the Mona Lisa consisting entirely of t O stov.
Save from the Nazis
During World War II, the Mona Lisa was moved from the Louvre twice. And all in order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Nazis.
Mona Lisa with mustache
“Mona Lisa with a Mustache” is a work owned by surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp. He called the painting “L.H.O.O.Q.” , which means “I have a hot ass” in French.
Painting of Mona Lisa with mustache
You can love forever...
In 1963, the Mona Lisa was exhibited for a month at the National Gallery of Art. The painting was under 24-hour guard by American Marines and, despite the fact that the gallery's visiting hours were extended, people often stood in line for about two hours just to get a glimpse of the painting.
The tiniest copy of the Mona Lisa
The most microscopic copy of the Mona Lisa is only 30 microns in size.
Self-portrait
There is a version that the portrait of the Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait of da Vinci in women's clothing.
Details Category: Fine arts and architecture of the Renaissance (Renaissance) Published 02.11.2016 16:14 Views: 2542"Mona Lisa" (La Gioconda) by Leonardo da Vinci is still one of the most famous paintings Western European art.
Its great fame is associated both with its high artistic merits and with the atmosphere of mystery surrounding this work. This mystery began to be attributed to the painting not during the artist’s life, but in subsequent centuries, fueling interest in it with sensational reports and the results of research on the painting.
We believe it is correct to have a calm and balanced analysis of the merits of this painting and the history of its creation.
First, about the picture itself.
Description of the painting
Leonardo da Vinci “Portrait of Madame Lisa Giocondo. Mona Lisa" (1503-1519). Board (poplar), oil. 76x53 cm. Louvre (Paris)
The painting depicts a woman (half-length portrait). She sits in a chair with her hands clasped together, one hand resting on its armrest and the other resting on top. She turned in her chair almost to face the viewer.
Her smooth, parted hair is visible through a transparent veil draped over it. They fall onto the shoulders in two thin, slightly wavy strands. Yellow dress, dark green cape...
Some researchers (in particular, Boris Vipper - Russian, Latvian, Soviet art historian, teacher and museum worker, one of the creators national school historians of Western European art) indicate that traces of Quattrocento fashion are noticeable in the face of Mona Lisa: her eyebrows and hair on the top of her forehead are shaved.
Mona Lisa sits in a chair on a balcony or loggia. It is believed that earlier picture could be wider and accommodate two side columns of the loggia. Perhaps the author himself narrowed it down.
Behind Mona Lisa is a deserted area with winding streams and a lake surrounded by snowy mountains; the terrain extends towards the high horizon line. This landscape gives the very image of a woman majesty and spirituality.
V. N. Grashchenkov, a Russian art critic who specialized in the art of the Italian Renaissance, believed that Leonardo, including thanks to the landscape, managed to create not a portrait of a specific person, but a universal image: "In this mysterious picture he created something more than a portrait of the unknown Florentine Mona Lisa, the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The appearance and mental structure of a particular person are conveyed by him with unprecedented syntheticity... “La Gioconda” is not a portrait. This is a visible symbol of the very life of man and nature, united into one whole and presented abstractly from its individual concrete form. But behind the barely noticeable movement, which, like light ripples, runs across the motionless surface of this harmonious world, one can discern all the richness of the possibilities of physical and spiritual existence.”
The famous smile of Gioconda
Mona Lisa's smile is considered one of the most important mysteries of the painting. But is this really so?
Smile of Mona Lisa (detail of the painting) by Leonardo da Vinci
This slight wandering smile is found in many of the works of the master himself and in the Leonardesques (artists whose style was strongly influenced by the manner of Leonardo of the Milanese period, who were among his students or simply adopted his style). Of course, in the Mona Lisa she achieved her perfection.
Let's look at some pictures.
F. Melzi (student of Leonardo da Vinci) “Flora”
The same slight wandering smile.
Painting " Holy family" Previously, it was attributed to Leonardo, but now even the Hermitage has recognized that it is the work of his student Cesare da Sesto
The same slight wandering smile on the face of the Virgin Mary.
Leonardo da Vinci "John the Baptist" (1513-1516). Louvre (Paris)
The smile of John the Baptist is also considered mysterious: why does this stern Forerunner smile and point upward?
Who was the prototype of La Gioconda?
There is information from the anonymous author of the first biography of Leonardo da Vinci, which Vasari refers to. It is this anonymous author who writes about the silk merchant Francesco Giocondo, who ordered a portrait of his third wife from the artist.
But there were so many opinions regarding the identification of the model! There were many assumptions: this is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself, a portrait of the artist’s mother Katerina, called different names contemporaries and contemporaries of the artist...
But in 2005, scientists from the University of Heidelberg, studying notes in the margins of a Florentine official’s tome, found a note: “...da Vinci is now working on three paintings, one of which is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini.” The wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo was Lisa Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by Leonardo for the young family's new home and to commemorate the birth of their second son. This mystery is almost solved.
The history of the painting and its adventures
The full title of the painting is “ Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo"(Italian) - "Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo." In Italian ma donna Means " my lady", in an abbreviated version this expression was transformed into monna or mona.
This painting occupied a special place in the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Having spent 4 years on it and leaving Italy in adulthood, the artist took it with him to France. It is possible that he did not finish the painting in Florence, but took it with him when he left in 1516. If so, he completed it shortly before his death in 1519.
The painting then became the property of his student and assistant Salai.
Salai in Leonardo's drawing
Salai (died 1525) left the painting to his sisters who lived in Milan. It is unknown how the portrait got from Milan back to France. King Francis I bought the painting from Salai's heirs and kept it in his castle of Fontainebleau, where it remained until Louis XIV. He transported her to the Palace of Versailles, after French Revolution in 1793 the painting ended up in the Louvre. Napoleon admired La Gioconda in his bedroom at the Tuileries Palace, and then she returned to the museum.
During World War II, the painting was transported from the Louvre to the Castle of Amboise (where Leonardo died and was buried), then to Loc-Dieu Abbey, then to the Ingres Museum in Montauban. After the end of the war, La Gioconda returned to its place.
In the 20th century the painting remained in the Louvre. Only in 1963 did she visit the USA, and in 1974 – in Japan. On the way from Japan to France, La Gioconda was exhibited at the Museum. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow. These trips increased her success and fame.
Since 2005, it has been located in a separate room in the Louvre.
"Mona Lisa" behind bulletproof glass in the Louvre
On August 21, 1911, the painting was stolen by an employee of the Louvre, Italian Vincenzo Perugia. Perhaps Perugia wanted to return La Gioconda to its historical homeland. The painting was found only two years later in Italy. It was exhibited in several Italian cities and then returned to Paris.
“La Gioconda” also experienced acts of vandalism: they poured acid on it (1956), threw a stone at it, after which they hid it behind bulletproof glass (1956), as well as a clay cup (2009), they tried to spray red paint on the painting from a can ( 1974).
Leonardo's students and followers created numerous replicas of the Mona Lisa, and avant-garde artists of the 20th century. began to mercilessly exploit the image of Mona Lisa. But that's a completely different story.
"La Gioconda" is one of the best examples of the portrait genre of the Italian High Renaissance.