UNIT 2
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) marks the beginning of the High Renaissance in painting. The history of western civilization records no man as gifted as Leonardo da Vinci. He was outstanding as a painter, musician, architect, engineer, scientist and philosopher, and was unquestionably the most glittering personality of the High Renaissance in Italy.
Few of his paintings come down to us. Leonardo’s main contribution to art was the way he rendered the real world around him. This was possible because of his understanding of light and shade (chiaroscuro) and of perspective. Unlike other Renaissance masters who sought to convey a clear and understandable message through their paintings, Leonardo created a problem to which he gives no answers.
“Mona Liza” is the supreme example of Leonardo’s unique ability to create a masterpiece which lies between the realm of poetry and concrete realism of a portrait. The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination.
Mona Liza is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.
At his death in 1525, Leonardo's assistant Salai owned the portrait named in his personal papers la Gioconda which had been bequeathed to him by the artist. Italian for jocund, happy or jovial, Gioconda was a nickname for the sitter, a pun on the feminine form of her married name Giocondo and her disposition. In French, the title La Joconde has the same double meaning.
Leonardo used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Her folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid. Her breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands. The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles. Leonardo referred to a seemingly simple formula for seated female figure: the images of seated Madonna, which were widespread at the time. He effectively modified this formula in order to create the visual impression of distance between the sitter and the observer. The armrest of the chair functions as a dividing element between Mona Liza and the viewer.
The woman sits markedly upright with her arms folded, which is also a sign of her reserved posture. Only her gaze is fixed on the observers and seems to welcome them to this silent communication. Since the brightly lit face is practically framed with various much darker elements (hair, veil, shadows), the observer's attraction to Mona Liza's face is brought to even greater extent. Thus, the composition of the figure evokes an ambiguous effect: we are attracted to this mysterious woman but have to stay at a distance as if she were a divine creature.
The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing, created through sfumato, are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her. The blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm are characteristic of Leonardo's style. Due to the expressive synthesis that Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape it is arguable whether Mona Liza should be considered as a traditional portrait, for it represents an ideal rather than a real woman. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter's faint smile—reflects Leonardo's idea of a link connecting humanity and nature.
“Mona Liza” is one of Leonardo’s greatest works because of its plasticity, the delicate rendering of the light and shade, and the poetic use of sfumato. This painting with light and deep transparent shadows over figures, anatomically perfect and strongly plastic, gives the forms a vibrant and living quality.
Actually, the portrait is the fusion of Leonardo’s artistic beliefs – that it is possible to represent nature visually in all the fullness of the realism; the deep nostalgia characteristic of Leonardo’s generation for calm and remote beauty; and the individual characterization which was the aim of Renaissance portraiture.