Art Work Details and Description: Mona Lisa

Introduction

The Mona Lisa painting was an artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, it is believed to have been painted around the year 1503-1506 but Leonardo da Vinci is believed to have continued with the work up to around the year 1517. The subject of the artwork is believed to have been Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The Mona Lisa artwork was drawn using oil paint on poplar panel, it has a measurement of 77 centimeters * 53 centimeters. The artwork is located in Musee du Louvre, Paris since the year 1797. The Mona Lisa holds a Guinness World Record of attaining the highest insurance valuation in the year 1927 at an amount of $100 million (Sen).

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Observation of the Mona Lisa Art Work

Composition

The Mona Lisa artwork is considered to be one of the most studied pieces of art in history; this is because of its composition techniques. The framing of the art is considered to be modern as it has qualities of a frame that could be used in the recent years. in addition, the optimal effects that were created by Leonardo were the eyes of the young woman in the paint. While looking at the Mona Lisa, one can feel as if the young lady is watching you. Such a feeling describes Leonardo's skills and ability to use scientific and anatomic knowledge during the painting. The smile of the young woman can be described as magical, legends speak of stories that when her smile was being drawn, Leonardo instructed some musicians to play a song in order to maintain the joyful attitude. Looking at the background of the artwork, Leonardo utilized the sfumato technique to bring out the merges accurately; this is a textbook case a proof of perfection (Elias).

Color

To come up with the magnificent artwork, Leonardo is said to have used oil paints together with the sfumato technique as he wanted this painting to appear real to the viewers. Robert Gamblin indicated that the Mona Lisa's underpainting was made by adding white which was tint and black to pure colors. To enhance the sense of depth, Leonardo diluted the oil paints laying transparent glaze and mixing the pure color and black shades. To create a warm luminosity, the artist applied lighter colors over the already created dark glazes.

Texture

Mona Lisa's texture is cracked and rough surface, the simulated version by Leonardo can be termed to be as smooth as a figure texture and as rough as a backdrop. The artist used different types of lines to make the Mona Lisa bring a perfection in recording his ideas on the art. For example, Leonardo used curved lines so that to bring about the hair, the clothing, and the entire face region (Behera). Organic shapes are the most utilized shapes especially at the curves and the jagged mountains. While looking at the Mona Lisa, the art brings about a feeling of neither sadness nor happiness. This is because Leonardo made use of brown with a tint of grey to bring about the feeling of naturalism. The shading of Mona Lisa is uniquely detailed; this is shown by the creation of the mouth which is specifically shaded at the corner of the lips.

The Shape of the Mona Lisa

The main figure of the art is as the center of the artwork, the follow of direction in the painting is curved. The curve and the central location of the figure give the painting a feeling of gentleness.

Overall Organization of the Mona Lisa

Considered to be the earliest Italian portrait, the Mona Lisa focuses on a lady who is seated at half-length. The paint is large enough to allow the painter to include the arms and hands without touching the frame. The portrait is located in a ratio appropriate scale to bring about a fullness of volume in the painting. Looking at the portrait, the lady in the artwork is seated and is shown in half-length being shown from the head to the waist region. The lady is seated on a chair, resting her arms across on the armchair. To bring out an outstanding smile of the Mona Lisa brings about a feeling of happiness concept on the entire portrait.

Relating the Mona Lisa with other Art Works

The Mona Lisa's background is made up of the landscape, comparing this with other portraits; the Mona Lisa has exhibited a greater distance, more water, and loft peaks to bring about an imposing presence of the lady on the portrait. While comparing the Mona Lisa painting to other portraits, a viewer can imagine that Leonardo used a greenery concept in the background to alter the sitter herself but this is not the case. His desire was to elaborate the details of the entire image and bring out the beauty of the figure which is as the contrast of the background and the sitter (Barolsky). The detail intended by Leonardo gives the Mona Lisa a welcoming look on the face of the sitter and reducing the viewer's attention to the background.

Looking at the techniques used by Leonardo, a keen viewer is likely to notice a big difference in the techniques used. For instance, Mona Lisa redefined the contemporary rules of art at the time of its painting. Scholars have discovered various hidden layers of paintings within the Mona Lisa.

The Mona Lisa also stands out from other paintings due to its wide popularity among the people on earth. It is famous due to the historical heritage it has carried over the years. The painting is dated back to the year 1503 and was worked on for four years. The reason the Mona Lisa was painted to commission the entry to their new home and the welcoming their second son. Some of the historical achievements of the Mona Lisa is that it was once hung on the bedroom wall of Napoleon for 4 years. The paint also boasts of being used as an object for mass duplication of other duplicates. The painting has reproduced about 300 paintings and over 2000 advertisement. Leonardo used the sfumato techniques to ensure that the eyes and the mouth in the painting stand out. While looking at the painting, the mouth of the sitter falls under the peripheral vision of the viewer. This makes the vision of the mouth to be unclear, the shading around the check borne makes the sitter appear as if smiling. To really stand out from other portraits, when a viewer focuses on Mona Lisa's smile, the smile slowly disappears making the image look like it was not meant to smile (Barolsky). The smile disappearing once focused on is what makes the Mona Lisa unique compared to other grand portraits. The smile can be interpreted differently by viewers, some may say it is a genuine smile, others may say it is a deceptive smile while others may conclude the smile to be a sad smile. The mystery of the smile raises a different speculation who was the recipient of the gesture. The smile gesture allows the Mona Lisa an enigmatic look as viewers try to contemplate what the model was thinking about, who was the model really, and why was she looking happy and sad at the same time. On top of its uniqueness, the Mona Lisa portrait is easily recognized by the people who are aware of its existence and those who have studied it. At the same time, no one really understands why almost everybody on earth wishes to see it.

Conclusion

The reason why Mona Lisa was selected in this study is that it provides a wide range of information that can be used by existing artists and those who want to join the venture. The portraits also provide a strong base of analysis and allow scholars and views to acquire knowledge from hidden messages on the painting. the fact that the portrait still remains a mystery to many, it creates a room for curious individuals to learn more.

Work Cited

Barolsky, Paul. Why Mona Lisa smiles and other tales by Vasari. Penn State Press, 2010.

Behera, Monalisa. "Recycled aggregate from C&D waste & its use in concrete-A breakthrough towards sustainability in construction sector." Construction and building materials (2014): 501-516.

Elias, Mady, and Pascal Cotte. ""Multispectral camera and radiative transfer equation used to depict Leonardo's sfumato in Mona Lisa." Applied optics (2008): 2146-2154.

Sen, Souvik,. "You are facing the Mona Lisa: spot localization using PHY layer information."." Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Mobile systems, applicationsand services (2012).