On Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings...?

Question

Is it true that the models for Judas and Jesus were one and the same person? That it was a hardened prisoner who modelled for Judas and when Da Vinci returned to the same prison, he saw the perfect face for Jesus who turned out to be the same prisoner whose face was softened after years of imprisonment? And that the Mona Lisa's smile when turned upside down is actually Da Vinci's smirk?

Answer 1

Last Supper

"A common legend surrounding the painting is that the same model was used for both Jesus and Judas. The story often goes that the innocent-looking young man, a baker, posed at nineteen for Jesus. Some years later Leonardo discovered a hard-bitten criminal as the model for Judas, not realizing he was the same man. There is no evidence that Leonardo used the same model for both figures and the story usually overestimates the time it took Leonardo to finish the mural."

Mona Lisa

It is not believed by experts that smirk/smile theory is true:

"On the perfect beauty of a woman'', by the 16th-century writer Firenzuola, we learn that the slight opening of the lips at the corners of the mouth was considered in that period a sign of elegance. Thus Mona Lisa has that slight smile which enters into the gentle, delicate atmosphere pervading the whole painting. To achieve this effect, Leonardo uses the sfumato technique, a gradual dissolving of the forms themselves, continuous interaction between light and shade and an uncertain sense of the time of day."

Answer 2

No, models weren't the same person. This is just an urban legend/ an allegory for the spiritual decay of a person. The painting was finished in a year, and normally in the story, they say the model was found a few years later to model for Judas. As to the Mona Lisa thing, I haven't heard that theory before, but who knows, it could be true.

Answer 3

The Jesus/Judas story is backwards--the story is that Da Vincii found the perfect model for Jesus. Much later he needed the Judas, and he found a beggar who fit perfectly. When posing for the painting the beggar started crying and when Leonardo asked him was was wrong the beggar pointed to Jesus and admitted that he was the same model, but years of sin had reduced him to a beggar.

It's a nice story, but it's not true. It's one of those legends that have caught on.

Answer 4

About Judas and jesus, yes its true. For Mona Lisa, people say so that it is da Vinci's self portrait in the feminine form. However I think he painted Mary Magdalene. I hope u know who she was.

Answer 5

There is no record of Leonardo using the same model for both Christ and Judas. According to author Robert Wallace who wrote "The World Of Leonardo 1452-1519," Leonardo did use live models and did look among local prisoners for someone to portray Judas, but did not choose the same person as used for Christ. The painting took only two to three years, not seven and there are no accounts of a prisoner being brought from Rome for the sittings.

Now have a look at what the experts at the Louvre have to say about the Mona Lisa's smile. Leave the conspiracy theories to the Dan Browns of this world and the Art History to the professionals.

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 6

the Mona Lisa. If you aren't to into reading for information on it, you may want to watch the Da vinci. I'm not into the movie, but I've heard it will explain it all to you.

Answer 7

No they aren't the same dude, I saw a the exact copy made by an Italian artist in the 1920's the only full-size copy in North America. It's in a church in the bad part of Cleveland, they were 2 different people.

Answer 8

im not sure about Mona Lisa but Judas andJesus is true

Answer 9

Some say that is the story, but who can say if it is true after 600 years.