Five
centuries after Leonardo da
Vinci painted the Mona Lisa(1503–19), the portrait hangs
behind bulletproof glass within the Louvre Museum and
draws thousands of jostling spectators each day. It is the most famous painting
in the world, and yet, when viewers manage to see the artwork up close, they
are likely to be baffled by the small subdued portrait of an ordinary woman.
She’s dressed modestly in a translucent veil, dark robes, and no jewelry. Much
has been said about her smile and gaze, but viewers still might wonder what all
the fuss is about. Along with the mysteries of the sitter’s identity and her
enigmatic look, the reason for the work’s popularity is one of its many
conundrums. Although many theories have attempted to pinpoint one reason for
the art piece’s celebrity, the most compelling arguments insist that there is
no one explanation. The Mona Lisa’s fame is the result of many chance
circumstances combined with the painting’s inherent appeal.
This
beautiful Madonna has her own room in the Louvre, designed specifically for her
protection. She has captured the heart of art-lovers and the general public
alike world over. So what is it that made this seemingly simple portrait so
captivating? Let’s start with the woman herself, seen sitting amidst a
landscape, with a center of calmness and quiet about her. The
Mona Lisa,
also known as La Gioconda, depicts the wife of one Francesco Del Gioconda, Lisa
Gherardini. No records of such a commission from Francesco exist, and the
sitter has never been conclusively identified. The word “Gioconda” itself in Italian
translates literally to the happy one. Therein lies the beauty of Mona Lisa’s
smile, the simplest sign of the ideal of happiness and contentment. Da
Vinci’s most famous work strived to bring out the soul of the fair Lady through
her eyes and her smile, making her a living enigma, with a soul you can see but
never get close to.
Now
let’s look into the background. 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. At the chest level
of the Mona Lisalies a winding road, leading into a distant bridge with
greenery all around. These landscapes have been painting in bright and warm
colors to depict the world of Man, places of familiarity. However, as you move
further back, the landscape changes, into rockier mountainous terrains, and
never-ending streams of water. The artist began this landscape at the eye-level
of the sitter, and used heavier and thicker strokes, to shown the wilderness
beyond the worlds we know and inhabit. For added fun, if you take the closest
of close looks at this enigma’s right eye, you will see the artist’s initials.
The
figure is shown seated in a loggia, or a room with at least one open side.
She 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. 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
subject’s softly sculptural face shows Leonardo’s skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic
technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to model form, and
shows his understanding of the skull beneath the skin. The delicately painted
veil, the finely wrought tresses, and the careful rendering of folded fabric
reveal Leonardo’s studied observations and inexhaustible patience. And,
although the sitter’s steady gaze and restrained smile were not regarded as
mysterious until the 19th century, viewers today can appreciate her equivocal
expression. Leonardo painted a complex figure that is very much like a
complicated human.
The Mona
Lisa is renowned for both its curious iconography and its unique history. Before
finding a permanent home at the Louvre, she originally had a place with King
Francois I for over a century. It was then that King Louis the XIV removed her
from her previous owner's possession and placed her in the Grand Palace of
Versailles. It was just before her shift to the Louvre that the Mona Lisa also
sat in the boudoir of Napolean Bonaparte.
Since
entering the Louvre in the late 18th century, it has famously faced theft and
vandalism. In 1911, it was stolen by Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia—though modern artist Pablo Picasso was first
falsely accused—who believed the piece rightfully belonged in Italy, the home
of Leonardo. Since her arrival to the Louvre in 1815, the Mona Lisa has
been the recipient of numerous flowers and love letters. In 1956, both acid and
a rock were thrown at the painting in separate attacks and all that kept her in
the news. Her mysterious and aloof demeanor still continues to seize the
attention and hearts of people all across the world!
Due
to both its tumultuous past and its contemporary fame, today, the Mona Lisa is
exhibited behind a layer of bulletproof glass. Even in such a unique and
controversial display, the painting remains one of the most popular pieces in
the Louvre and, unsurprisingly, one of the most viewed and visited paintings in
the world.
So
what makes Mona Lisa so famous? That the painting’s home is the Louvre, one of
the world’s most-visited museums, is a fortuitous circumstance that has added
to the work’s stature. It arrived at the Louvre via a circuitous path beginning
with Francis I, king of France, in whose court Leonardo spent the last
years of his life. The painting became part of the royal collection, and, for
centuries after, the portrait was secluded in French palaces until the Revolution claimed
the royal collection as the property of the people. Following a stint in
Napoleon’s bedroom, the Mona Lisa was installed in the Louvre Museum.
As
interest in the Renaissance grew in the 19th century, Leonardo became more
popularly seen not only as a very good painter but also as a great scientist
and inventor whose designs prefigured contemporary inventions. The myth of
Leonardo as a genius has continued well into the 21st century, contributing to
the Mona Lisa’s popularity.
The
theft of the painting in 1911 and the ensuing media frenzy brought it worldwide
attention. When news of the crime broke on August 22 of that year, it caused an
immediate sensation. People flocked to the Louvre to gape at the empty space
where the painting had once hung, the museum’s director of paintings resigned,
accusations of a hoax splashed across newspapers, and Pablo Picasso was
even arrested as a suspect! Two years later the painting was found in Italy
after an art dealer in Florence alerted the local authorities that a man had
contacted him about selling it. The man was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian
immigrant to France, who had briefly worked at the Louvre fitting glass on a
selection of paintings, including the Mona Lisa. He and two other workers
took the portrait from the wall, hid with it in a closet overnight, and ran off
with it in the morning. Unable to sell the painting because of the media
attention, Peruggia hid it in the false bottom of a trunk until his capture. He
was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for the theft while the painting toured
Italy before it made its triumphant return to the Louvre. By then, many French
people had come to regard the work as a national treasure that they had lost
and recovered.
A
tour of the painting to the United States in 1963 and to Japan in 1974 elevated
it to celebrity status. The Mona Lisa traveled to the United States
in no less than a first-class cabin on an ocean liner and drew about 40,000
people a day to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and the National Gallery
of Art in Washington, D.C., during the portrait’s six-week
stay. Large crowds greeted the portrait in Japan about ten years later. And
with air travel, more and more individuals have been able to visit Paris and
pay their respects in person to the genius of Leonardo.
Over
the decades, as technology improved, the painting was endlessly reproduced,
sometimes manipulated and sometimes not, so that the sitter’s face became one
of the most well known in the world, even to those who had little interest in
art. All this has worked together with the painting’s inherent appeal to make
the Mona Lisa the world’s most famous painting ever.
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