Mona Lisa Alive Essay

Submitted By elmartin21
Words: 965
Pages: 4
Open Document
The Mona Lisa: A figure of History
Elizabeth Martin

The Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo Divinci, is one of the most well known paintings ever. People travel around the world just to see this beautiful masterpiece. The Mona Lisa is one of the most deserving paintings to sit in a museum because of the ambiguity of the woman’s expression, the beautiful curves and shape of her body, and the depth and illusion of the background setting. DaVinci used oil on poplar wood to create his masterpiece. He painted the Mona Lisa between 1503 and 1506. There is some debate about who the woman in the painting is but most sources say that is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini. The painting was first owned by King Francis I of France and now resides in The Lourve museum in Paris and has been there since 1797 (Tong, Visual Computer). As a painting with many different interpretations, The Mona Lisa deserves to be in a museum because of its fantastic interpretation of the beauty and mystery within a woman. Leonardo uses various shades of oil paint, diffused light and geometric shapes in his painting. The painting is very mysterious; between the alluring half smile on Mona Lisa’s face and the secrecy behind her eyes, each person has a different interpretation of her expression. (Capps, Pastoral Psychology). Leonardo puts Mona Lisa in a pyramid design with her head as the top of the pyramid and her folded hands in the front corner of the pyramid. His use of a pyramid really makes Mona Lisa stick out as the focus of the painting. She looks very realistic and definitely stands apart from the background behind her. DaVinci utilizes light to soften her look and highlight her womanly features including her face, neck, breasts, and hands. He uses the same degree of light on these four features which makes them stand out. DaVinci uses her dark hair and shadows to frame Mona Lisa’s face making it the main focal point. Her eyes are looking directly at the observer. Leonardo uses a technique called sfumato; he blended colors, light and shade so that everything blended together and there were no harsh borders surrounding Mona Lisa’s features (Smith, Art Bulletin). DaVinci puts Mona Lisa in front of an imaginary background landscape using aerial perspective with the vanishing point right behind Mona Lisa’s eyes. It helps to create depth because the further back the landscape goes, the smaller it gets. The relaxed and comforting look in her eyes and smile helps to create a gentle and easy feeling when looking at the painting. Mona Lisa also has no eyebrows or eyelashes. According to some researchers, it was a common practice to pluck these hairs during this time period (Filipczak, Art Bulletin). The Mona Lisa belongs in a museum because it symbolizes the ideal woman in society during the renaissance period. The role of women was to be a child-bearer, a keeper of the home, and a good wife. Although these were the roles of women during the renaissance period, rarely were they depicted in domestic settings. DaVinci portrays The Mona Lisa with a scenic background representing the beauty of nature. The Mona Lisa represents the “ideal” woman (Bohrn, Psychological science). The light he uses to emphasize her face, neck, hands, and breasts help make her look soft and gentle. The ideal woman is gentle, easy to look at, beautiful, but also alluring DaVinci paints her so that it appears as if her eyes are following you, another sign of the ideal woman because she maintains eye contact with you, as if she is submissive (Ball, Nature). Most researchers say that the woman in the picture is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Florentine silk
Show More

Related Documents: Mona Lisa Alive Essay

Arts Essay

Artworks: Ancient - Statue of Zeus at Olympia Renaissance - Mona Lisa Modern - The Scream Essay Ancient - Statue of Zeus (Phidias) The Statue of Zeus, is a giant sculpted figure created by a man by the name of Phidias. It is located in a sanctuary in Greece and was known to be created approximately 435 BC. The artwork in itself depicts the king of the Greek god’s named ‘Zeus’ and the overall reasoning behind Phidias’ creation was to honour him and portray his significance to their society. The sculpture…

Words 1705 - Pages 7

Leonardo Da Vinci: The Last Supper And The Vitruvius Man

is known as one of the greatest painters of all time and is credited with the first ideas of the parachute helicopter and tank. Leonardo gave inspiration to many artists during the renaissance period with his famous paintings and ideas like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and The Vitruvius Man. Leonardo was born…

Words 990 - Pages 4

Fra Angelico Research Paper

at the time. He had a brother named Benedetto and was the son of Pietro, I could not find the mother or anyone else that was some how related to him. I could also not find any notes about his early life education. Of all the years Fra Angelico was alive he had never had a wife or kids. The first time Fra Angelico was recorded as an artist was near 1417. I could not find what made him want to become an artist.…

Words 525 - Pages 3

How Did Jfk Influence On American Culture

history; so she chose a commission of scholars to select 1,500 volumes to put in the presidential library and to make the list available to the public (Coleman). Jacqueline Kennedy had a way of convincing people; she convinced France to loan her the Mona Lisa. Her attractive personality and interest in culture magnetized U.S congressman and soon-to-be president John Fitzgerald…

Words 727 - Pages 3

Creative: Leonardo Da Vinci and Creative Process Essay

Lost. William Shakespeare was a part of the literature part of the Renaissance. He wrote “Romeo and Juliet”. He was widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. Leonardo da Vinci was an artist who was best known for panting the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The generalization that I would make about John Milton and his creativity would be the use of his personal life and experiences. His own marriage was not a happy one and as you can see he wrote about divorce a lot. I would…

Words 901 - Pages 4

Inspector Zraine Incident

A As Susanna was solving a three year old bank robbery in London, England she noticed the visiting detective at Scotland Yard and was surprised to see it was Detective Digger from NYPD. When she saw the detective she began to carefully avoid bumping into him and was glad to leave on an assignment. It seems that in Paris, France she was named in a criminals letter and so Inspector Zraine found and asked for her assistance in the capture of Wolfe. Upon her arrival in Paris Inspector Zraine picked…

Words 1171 - Pages 5

A Moment That Changed My Life Essay

John Trimble 9 January 2003 How Fight Club Changed My Life Once, I was a young boy who believed everything I heard, yet I knew nothing. I was impressionable and weak. Above all else, I was confused. I did not understand myself, and I did not realize why I wasn’t happy. Everything always went wrong. I felt my life slipping away into oblivion with no palpable meaning. My life was an endless array of homework, band camp, theater, girls, and a myriad other things that were not making me happy…

Words 1127 - Pages 5

Steven Paul Jobs: The Creator Of Apple

and father Abdulfattah Jandali (attending college in America at the time, and is now Vice President of the Boomtown Casino and Hotel in Reno) ( Bio 1). His mother and father however had given him up for adoption seeing as they could not care for Steven Jobs and Mona Simpson : Steven jobs sister ( Bio 1). He was orphaned as a child, but was then later adopted by Paul Jobs: a machinist at Garcia 2 Spectra Industries and Clara Jobs: an accountant ( Scientist 1). Steven Jobs had been very interested with technology from his father’s work at Spectra…

Words 3909 - Pages 16

Leonardo Da Vinci Essay

but da Vinci’s drawing is unique in that the male figure applies two different positions within the same illustration. Da Vinci’s figure simultaneously is inside the square and circle, the active arms and legs suggest that there is movement (alive). Alive because da Vinci’s face and untamed hair is portrayed within the model’s facial features and strong limbs. The subject is very active; the pen lines are very fine and light, but yet affective by showing the significant points that imply the proportion…

Words 4734 - Pages 19

Essay on Summary of History of Graphic Design by Meggs

Chapter 1: The Invention of Writing - From the early Paleolithic to the Neolithic period (35,000 BC to 4,000 BC), early Africans and Europeans left paintings in caves, including the Lascaux caves in Southern France. - Early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. - Petroglyphs are carved or scratched signs on rock. - These images became symbols for what would be the first spokenlanguage. - Cuneiform – Wedged shaped writing, created in 3000BC. Started…

Words 14951 - Pages 60