I could not let the opportunity pass of speaking about one of Leonardo DaVinci’s paintings; The Giaconda, also known as the Mona Lisa. The Monna Lisa, La Joconde in French or Madonna Elisa, is a pictoric work of Leonardo DaVinci. Since the XVI century, this painting was the property of France, and it is exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Its official name is Gioconda (which, translated from Italian is Happy), in honor of the most accepted thesis about the identity model, based on the fact she was the wife of Francesco Bartolomeo del Giocondo and her name was Lisa Gherardini.
This is an oil on canvas on wood of 77 x 53 cm, painted bertween 1503 y 1506,and retouched many times by its author. The technique used was sfumato, a procedure which characterized Leonardo DaVinci’s work, which consisted of difumination of the outline, leaving colors to combine with one another, always leaving something to our imagination (which is evident in the robe and in the smile) of the softness and the dark effect, which is the technique of modeling forms through the contrast of lights and shadows. In the portrait you can observe the sensual hands of the model reflecting this luminous modulation of light and shadow, while the chromatic contrasts are barely utilized.
This technique molded the expression of this melancholic and smiling work of art, that was called the enigmatic smile of the Gioconda. It has been known as the magistrate form as DaVinci applies the technique on the eye brows, the nose and the mouth are united by the light and shadow which defines the facial features. While the forehead, the cheek and chin stand out for their bright light, the lips the nasal parts and the outline of the eyes are difumited giving place to an ambiguous expression.
The background passage is constituted by a nature in movement: rivers that flow, vapors and clouds or haze, games of light and vibrations of colors. None of this is permanent, all is transmutating, sinking. It is in this effect where beauty lies: Mona Lisa is integral and forms part of the background.
The slight opening of the lips in the corners of the mouth was considered in this period a demonstration of elegance. This way Mona Lisa has a slight smile which introduces us to a calming and delicate atmosphere, which is imprinted in the entire paining.
If we look carefully at the painting, we see that both sides are not absolutely equal, which give an aspect of an ideal fantastic background. The left horizon appears to be much lower than on the right. This is why when we center ourselves on the left of the painting, the woman, in some way, appears more erect than if we lean to the right. Her face, also appears to vary with this change of position, because, even here, both sides do not even out exactly.
The colors daVinci utilizes are: gray tones and blues to mark the distance and creat an atmospheric effect (on the superior part of the painting); darker of greenish maroon tones for the hair and dress and light yellow tones and shine especially in the pectoral part of the woman, and in the rest of the skin.
The function of this painting is purely decorative, since it is a portrait, even though you can also say it is the expressive function of the individual world of the artist sinc DaVinci gave himself completely to this painting.
The greatness and serenity that irradicate off the Mona Lisa do not reside in its social importance nor in the richness of the decorations and dress, but in its cheerful depth, in its own psychological intimacy, it seems to mold its physical presence, at the same time desintegrates in the surrounding nature without losing its own identity. This way, creating a perfect simbiosis between the universal and the particular.
It is important to carry out the way the model’s hand was molded, or the sleeves with its intricate foldings. DaVinci could have been as careful as any other of his precursors in the patient observation of nature; but, contrary to what they would do (parted from a preconceived idea of how things were), DaVinci presented these just as he sees, rejecting any other previous idea.
The fame of this painting is not solely based in the technique used or in its beauty, but also in the mysteries that surround it. Also, the theft it suffered in 1911, its multiple enigmas and mysteries such as the theory which is DaVinci’s own face, the recreations, the multiple works of art that have inspired by the painting and the existing parodies contribute to converting the Gioconda in the most famous painting in the world, visited by millions of people yearly.
The first thing that calls for attention in the painting is that Mona Lisa appears to be alive and really appears to change before our eyes and look in a different way every time we turn to it. In the pictures of the painting we can experience this strange effect. All of this sounds somewhat mysterious, and it is; this is the effect a great work of art should produce. However, DaVinci knew for certain how he reached this effect and through which means.
It had been a long time, in a distant past, people looked at paintings with fear, because they thought that by preserving an image, the artist could lock a person’s soul in it. Now, the great scientist, DaVinci, had made some dreams come true and the means for these first painteers.
This way, Leonardo Da Vinci, the first artist that did not advocate for a turn to the classic models of Antiguity, parts from this, but breaks the tradition of the Florentine Quattrocento inaugurating the path that would take art of the XVI century. It is one of the most commentated paintings in the history of paint.
The painter dedicated himself greatly and worked hard in this painting. We will never know what type of fascination he felt by this discrete and unknown woman.
The XX century has definately converted "The Gioconda" in an outstanding image: Marcel Duchamp (1919) added a mustache playing with the undefined sexuality of the painting, Jan Voss (1965) converted it into a label in a can of preserves, the market converted it in a marketing claim and finally, through informative manipulation it has converted the face of the Monna Lisa in DaVinci’s self portrait.
Works Cited:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/vinci.html Web. 6 May 2010.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/hiranoxx/osiema/mona.htm Web. 6 May 2010.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaN3mqo7DVI Web. 6 May 2010.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/vinci/joconde/ Web. 6 May 2010.
http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/davinci.html Web. 6 May 2010.
http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/ Web. 6 May 2010.
http://www.mos.org/leonardo/ Web. 6 May 2010.
