Hang Around the World: Painting #021

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519, Italian polymath)

Mona Lisa

aka La Joconde (Fr.) / the laughing one
- Leonardo da Vinci

- oil on poplar (77 x 53 cm) c.1503–1505/1517

- Louvre (Paris) since 1797

Its fame rests on the elusive smile on the woman's face, its mysterious quality brought about perhaps by the fact that the artist has subtly shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes so that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called "sfumato," or Leonardo's smoke.
Other characteristics found in this work are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details, the dramatic landscape background in which the world seems to be in a state of flux, the subdued colouring and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing oils, but laid on much like tempera and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.
The perfect state of preservation and the fact that there is no sign of repair or overpainting is rare in a panel painting of this date.

Leonardo Painting the Mona Lisa
- Cesare Maccari (1840–1919, Italian)
- oil on canvas (97 x 130 cm) 1863
- Museo Cassioli (Siena)

Backdating to the original colors

Why so Famous?

Lady with an Ermine
(Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)
- Leonardo da Vinci
- oil & tempera on wood panel (55 x 40 cm) 1483/90
- National Museum (Kraków, Poland)

Ginevra de' Benci [a Florentine aristocrat]
- Leonardo da Vinci
- oil on panel (38 × 37 cm) in c.1474
- Nat’l Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

The Virgin and Child with St Anne
- Leonardo da Vinci
- oil (168 x 130 cm) c.1510
- Louvre (Paris)

Mary and her child Jesus (trying to ride on the goat) with her mother Anne. Both Mary and Anne wear the Mona-Lisa smile.

画中有圣母玛利亚与守护着她的母亲安娜，还有年幼的耶稣基督三代同堂。

(L) Leonardo at the Louvre

(R) The Vinci village in Tuscany of Italy

Statue of Leonardo da Vinci at Piazza Scala

King François I of France (1494–1515–1547), who was a prodigal patron of the arts, initiated the French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work on the Château de Chambord, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa with him, which Francis had acquired.