what is with Mona Lisa smile that ppl have to pay million to own that freaking painting??

Answer 1

Have a look at what the Louvre have to say about why she's special.

This portrait was doubtless painted in Florence between 1503 and 1506. It is thought to be of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo - hence the alternative title, La Gioconda. However, Leonardo seems to have taken the completed portrait to France rather than giving it to the person who commissioned it. It was eventually returned to Italy by Leonardo's student and heir Salai. It is not known how the painting came to be in François I's collection.



Description


Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco Giocondo

The history of the Mona Lisa is shrouded in mystery. Among the aspects which remain unclear are the exact identity of the sitter, who commissioned the portrait, how long Leonardo worked on the painting, how long he kept it, and how it came to be in the French royal collection.
The portrait may have been painted to mark one of two events - either when Francesco del Giocondo and his wife bought their own house in 1503, or when their second son, Andrea, was born in December 1502 after the death of a daughter in 1499. The delicate dark veil that covers Mona Lisa's hair is sometimes considered a mourning veil. In fact, such veils were commonly worn as a mark of virtue. Her clothing is unremarkable. Neither the yellow sleeves of her gown, nor her pleated gown, nor the scarf delicately draped round her shoulders are signs of aristocratic status.


A new artistic formula


The Mona Lisa is the earliest Italian portrait to focus so closely on the sitter in a half-length portrait. The painting is generous enough in its dimensions to include the arms and hands without them touching the frame. The portrait is painted to a realistic scale in the highly structured space where it has the fullness of volume of a sculpture in the round. The figure is shown in half-length, from the head to the waist, sitting in a chair whose arm is resting on balusters. She is resting her left arm on the arm of the chair, which is placed in front of a loggia, suggested by the parapet behind her and the two fragmentary columns framing the figure and forming a "window" looking out over the landscape. The perfection of this new artistic formula explains its immediate influence on Florentine and Lombard art of the early 16th century. Such aspects of the work as the three-quarter view of a figure against a landscape, the architectural setting, and the hands joined in the foreground were already extant in Flemish portraiture of the second half of the 15th century, particularly in the works of Hans Memling. However, the spacial coherence, the atmospheric illusionism, the monumentality, and the sheer equilibrium of the work were all new. In fact, these aspects were also new to Leonardo's work, as none of his earlier portraits display such controlled majesty.


An emblematic smile

The Mona Lisa's famous smile represents the sitter in the same way that the juniper branches represent Ginevra Benci and the ermine represents Cecilia Gallerani in their portraits, in Washington and Krakow respectively. It is a visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is this notion which makes the work such an ideal. The nature of the landscape also plays a role. The middle distance, on the same level as the sitter's chest, is in warm colors. Men live in this space: there is a winding road and a bridge. This space represents the transition between the space of the sitter and the far distance, where the landscape becomes a wild and uninhabited space of rocks and water which stretches to the horizon, which Leonardo has cleverly drawn at the level of the sitter's eyes.

Answer 2

The Mona Lisa has recently been appraised at a cool billion dollars. No other painting would ever top that . It took Leonardo 4 years to finish that painting which started as a commision portrait of another Florentine woman. The artwork is actually Leonardo's portrait of Maria Magdalena- the controversial woman in the Bible. That "slutty" smile is what made her 'specially close' to Jesus. But Da Vinci feared the controversy and troubles that such painting would create so he decided to call it Mona Lisa and not Magdalena. The Louvre is not selling it even at that price.

Answer 3

Nothing, just a lot of hype and a clear case of mystification. Actually, the painting is split into two. Leonardo fused two different angles of the same subject into one and this creates the supposedly strange effect of the Mona Lisa smile. It's probably one of Leonardo's experiments in painting. If you look at it carefully, you'll see it (also notice the background.)

What can I say. Our world is bored and loves to make elephants out of molehills. There are other paintings by Leonardo far superior to "La Gioconda."

Answer 4

As with any great artist Leonardo was, is and will ever be an master in the circles of art and paint. I encourage you to research his work. if you don't like to read about it just look at some of his paintings , sketches and early works .This man was inspired by something grand. The details , every stroke was methodical and perfect. I wonder if you have seen it in person. It's breathtaking. If you find Leonardo's work not worthy of a million dollars i cant imagine what you think of the Sistine chapel.

Answer 5

It's the "natural" thing to do for a portraiture, don't you think?! My question has always been, "Why does the Mona Lisa command so much attention? She's not even particularly, if at ALL, pretty?" Didn't Leonardo have ANYONE else to spend so much time on? Or was she his paramour? Edit to UncleBen: Sorry! It wasn't Michaelangelo that painted the Mona Lisa. And Michaelangelo is his FIRST NAME. It was. . . .Leonardo DaVinci!

Answer 6

What makes that smile so enigmatic and enchanting has a lot to do with the background of the painting.
The landscape on the left pulls the eye downward and the landscape on the right pushes the eye upward.
It's an optical illusion that makes the eye see a hint of a smile and makes it seem like she's going to smile big at any minute.

Answer 7

if your asking this......
i'm not sure you've ever seen this painting or studied it.......

find a good copy of it and put it up on a wall and move around the room.........
She's always watching you...........
The Mona Lisa is a painting
Mona Lisa Smile is a movie- which really doens't have anything to do with the painting........

Answer 8

The smile is an enigma in a mystery. What does she know that she is smiling about? Seriously, it is a work that he did not make many copies of. Of his works of a creative lifetime, this is the only painting that he kept with himself, and when he died at Chateau Amboise, the painting was there in his room.

Answer 9

Pay a million??? Yeah, right.

That painting is priceless. Probably the most costly piece of art in the world. IF (not that they ever would) but IF the Louve ever sold it, it would fetch minimum ONE BILLION DOLLARS

Answer 10

I think the painting is great but what really draws me in is the fact that davinci, who was this really dynamic and mysterious man, loved this painting. It was one of the only paintings he carried with him when he left italy. so when I am left to ponder this painting I always ask why did davinci like this painting so much?