the mona lisa painting?

Question

what is so special about it.all i see is a very ugly woman [she kinda looks like a man] and is leanardo davinci crazy???

Answer 1

Why Is She Famous?
Briefly, there are a variety or reasons:
a) It was painted by a much admired genius who possessed as much
mystique as his subject. It was a revolutionary painting using innovative
techniques contrapposto, sfumato, chiaroscuro and a pyramidal composition.
It was admired as a masterful work, regarded
as such even in his lifetime, copied by many painters including Raphael.
The realism of the painting the translucency of the flesh and the creativity
of the background in relation to the figure all contributed to this.

b) It was purchased by the King of France who kept it in his chateau, The
Fontainebleau, where it dazzled dignitaries and members of the upper class.
By the 1800's it was hanging in Napoleon's bedroom in Tuileries until
1797 when it was moved to the Louvre. France was the center of art and
culture and in the Louvre it became accessible to the masses for viewing.

c) With the advent of the printing press in the late 1800's, images
of the painting were reproduced and circulated all over as it made news.
When it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, there was a barrage of world
wide media attention which brought unprecedented familiarity to all levels
of society. When it was recovered in 1913 it made stops in Italy for viewing
with celebration, adulation and more media.

d) During the 19th century it was subject of poetry, plays and songs. She
was called a femme fatale adding intrigue and mystery to the meaning of
her smile.

e) In 1919, Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp painted a mustache and goatee on a
postcard to mock the painting. This too, received a great deal of attention and
became Duchamp's most famous work of art. The Mona Lisa became famous
for being famous.

f) It toured the US in 1963 where a million and a half people rushed to view
it, toured Japan and Moscow in 1974 where over 2 million came. Viewers
left poems and flowers in front of the painting as if it were a religious
icon.

g) It became an image of universal culture in advertising and has inspired
kitsch and admiration that is even more far reaching today with the Internet.

Answer 2

Mona Lisa has no eyebrows because that was a sign of upperclass-absolutely NO facial hair; they even plucked the hair line back a bit because a normal hair line seemed to neanderthal. As for her smile: all the porttraits of the same time NEVER showed any emotion. Mona Lisa was that first baby step into the teeth showing smiles we know now. Mona Lisa is not a self-portrait of Leonardo its just his style of painting...if you know anyone who creates art-look ask them to draw a face and you'll probably see a resemblance between that face and the artist's. it just proves that the best model is the artist themselves. Another reason why Mona Lisa is so famous is because Leonardo only actually finished 7-8 paintings and, yes, he did carry Mano Lisa around.

Answer 3

The Mona Lisa is one of the earliest examples of an artist painting polar opposites. This style was later copied by artists such as Raphael, who was a great admirer of Da Vinci. No one knows who she, "The Mona Lisa" is, and we will probably never know. The painting was commissioned, and some propose that she may have been a prostitute, or even Da Vinci's lover.
Whoever commissioned the painting, never received it, and Da Vinci kept it for a long period of time.

Answer 4

I had the opportunity to see her at the Louvre in Paris.

This painting is behind bullet proof glass, which makes it a bit harder to see. But very exciting, the gallery is almost always full!!

Leonardo was a genius, not only at art but at many things, science, architecture, and inventions. What makes the Mona LIsa special is the quaity of her smile. Look up the word enimagtic to understand it fully..also Leonardo did not complete a lot of his comissions, so this picture which was his favorite moved with him to France at the end of his life. He feared he would be branded a heretic in Italy for his scientific knowledge...he feared this so much he wrote his journals upside down and right to left.
Leonardo could have changed the medieval world had the Catholic church not feared science.

Answer 5

You can't judge the Mona Lisa based on what we consider today to be attractive. Over time the definition of beauty has changed. But whether or not she's was attractive at the time is irrelivent. Da Vince spent many years on this painting and carried it around with him. No one knew who she was or what she's smiling about. At the time it wasn't common to see pictures of people smiling, because normally for paintings like the Mona Lisa there were people posing, and in order to pose they would have to stand naturally in a position that they could hold for a long time without moving.
I'm sure someone more into art could tell you more about brush-strokes, and someone into symbology could probably tell you about alot of hidden meanings in the picture. All I'm saying is that in order to analyze the paiting you have to understand what it meant at that time, not today.

Answer 6

appreciation in art is a very personal emotion to people. every painting, sketch, impression evokes deep inner feelings in some people that they are willing to part tens of millions of dollars for a painting. a painting such as the mona lisa is considered a priceless work of art and there is no price attached to its replacement as it can never be replaced.

now for the real me to say something:

first of all...this was a commisioned painting. what does this mean? it means that he was PAID to paint some lady. it was not and is not 'high introspective art' that countless people want to say it is.

there is no mystery on who the identity of the person in the painting. endless speculation with twists and turns just shows how people like to make things much, much, much more difficult and complex than it should ever be.

endless art experts along with enthusiasts revel at the 'genius' of leonardo's work, the color textures, brushs strokes etc. many historians have said that he was a man ahead of his time.

on a more personal note: i think the mona lisa is one of the ugliest and beyond overrated paintings in history and i think there was nothing special at all in any of da vinci's artwork. i have seen 9 year old's paint better than him with more complexity, depth and artistry.

people just 'need' to grasp onto 'hope' and the depth of an artist' in order to elevate a doodler to that of a master and a genius.

Answer 7

What's wrong with the Mona Lisa? Who are you to judge the works of Da Vinci? Can you paint like that? No? I didn't think so. Ha! If I saw you in person I might say the same thing.

Answer 8

It's not really about beauty per se. It was significant because it was one of the first frontal portrait paintings of a female. In the early renaissance, most female portraits were profiles and they didn't say much about the woman's personality. All it gave was symbols of her feminine, household roles. Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" is different. You can see that she is more than just a housewife so to speak. She gives you a little smirk. Upon seeing this you can spend time just thinking about her personality and who she really is and it makes you curious of what she's thinking.

The point is to see inner beauty and see who the person is, not just their exterior. It kind of goes along with ancient Greek theme of Kalokagathia (inner beauty, nobility, etc.). It's also similar to Donatello's sculpture "Statue of Habacuc" Prophet Figure (Zuccone). He is disfigured but is still seen as beautiful because of the kind of person he is. You're supposed to see past exterior beauty.

Answer 9

well that paintin is so special coz there r so many opinions for who that woman realy is. lately after x-rays they found out that its leonardo its self.but becoz he believed that every human has two sites a male and a female he made him self but in a female way= ying and yang..u seehe studied chinese filosofy as well. in that paintin there r also the 4 main things 1)fire 2)water 3)air 4)land. also from the one site the womanlooks bigger coz taht site in chinese filosofy its the males site and the right its smaller coz its the female site. da vinci was not crazy. he was the most smart human being on earth until today! if u study art orjust his story u will see how clever he was and he did everythin after studiin it wit mathematics and science

Answer 10

If you ever have a chance go see the Mona Lisa in person. Art can have a phenomenal effect if you let it.