A message about the painting of the Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci. Description of the painting by Leonardo da Vinci “Mona Lisa” (La Gioconda)

“From a medical point of view, it is not clear how this woman even lived.”

Her mysterious smile is captivating. Some see divine beauty in it, others see it as secret signs, and others see it as a challenge to norms and society. But everyone agrees on one thing - there is something mysterious and attractive about her. We are, of course, talking about the Mona Lisa - the favorite creation of the great Leonardo. A portrait rich in mythology. What is the secret of Mona Lisa? There are countless versions. We have selected the ten most common and intriguing ones.

Today this painting, measuring 77x53 cm, is kept in the Louvre behind thick bulletproof glass. The image, made on a poplar board, is covered with a network of craquelures. It has gone through a number of not very successful restorations and has noticeably darkened over five centuries. However, the older the painting becomes, the more people attracts: the Louvre is visited annually by 8-9 million people.

And Leonardo himself did not want to part with the Mona Lisa, and perhaps this is the first time in history when the author did not give the work to the customer, despite the fact that he took the fee. The first owner of the painting - after the author - King Francis I of France was also delighted with the portrait. He bought it from da Vinci for incredible money at that time - 4,000 gold coins and placed it in Fontainebleau.

Napoleon was also fascinated by Madame Lisa (as he called Gioconda) and took her to his chambers in the Tuileries Palace. And the Italian Vincenzo Perugia stole a masterpiece from the Louvre in 1911, took it home and hid with her for two whole years until he was detained while trying to hand over the painting to the director of the Uffizi Gallery... In a word, at all times the portrait of a Florentine lady attracted, hypnotized, and delighted. ..

What is the secret of her attractiveness?

Version No. 1: classic

We find the first mention of the Mona Lisa in the author of the famous Lives, Giorgio Vasari. From his work we learn that Leonardo undertook to “make for Francesco del Giocondo a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, and, after working on it for four years, left it unfinished.”

The writer admires the artist’s skill, his ability to show “the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey,” and most importantly, his smile, which “is given so pleasant that it seems as if one is contemplating a divine rather than a human being.” The art historian explains the secret of her charm by saying that “while painting the portrait, he (Leonardo) held people who were playing the lyre or singing, and there were always jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to the portraits being painted.” There is no doubt: Leonardo is an unsurpassed master, and the crown of his mastery is this divine portrait. In the image of his heroine there is a duality inherent in life itself: the modesty of the pose is combined with a bold smile, which becomes a kind of challenge to society, canons, art...

But is this really the wife of the silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, whose surname became the middle name of this mysterious lady? Is it true that the story about the musicians who created the right mood for our heroine? Skeptics dispute all this, citing the fact that Vasari was an 8-year-old boy when Leonardo died. He could not personally know the artist or his model, so he presented only information given by the anonymous author of the first biography of Leonardo. Meanwhile, the writer also encounters controversial passages in other biographies. Take, for example, the story of Michelangelo's broken nose. Vasari writes that Pietro Torrigiani hit a classmate because of his talent, and Benvenuto Cellini explains the injury with his arrogance and impudence: while copying Masaccio's frescoes, during the lesson he ridiculed every image, for which he received a punch in the nose from Torrigiani. Cellini's version is supported by the complex character of Buonarroti, about whom there were legends.

Version No. 2: Chinese mother

It really did exist. Italian archaeologists even claim to have found her tomb in the monastery of St. Ursula in Florence. But is she in the picture? A number of researchers claim that Leonardo painted the portrait from several models, because when he refused to give the painting to the fabric merchant Giocondo, it remained unfinished. The master spent his whole life improving his work, adding features of other models - thereby obtaining a collective portrait ideal woman of his era.

Italian scientist Angelo Paratico went further. He is sure that Mona Lisa is Leonardo's mother, who was actually...Chinese. The researcher spent 20 years in the East studying communications local traditions with the Italian Renaissance, and discovered documents showing that Leonardo's father, the notary Piero, had a wealthy client, and he had a slave whom he brought from China. Her name was Katerina - she became the mother of the Renaissance genius. It is precisely by the fact that eastern blood flowed in Leonardo’s veins that the researcher explains the famous “Leonardo’s handwriting” - the master’s ability to write from right to left (this is how entries were made in his diaries). The researcher also saw oriental features in the model’s face and in the landscape behind her. Paratico suggests exhuming Leonardo's remains and testing his DNA to confirm his theory.

The official version says that Leonardo was the son of the notary Piero and the “local peasant woman” Katerina. He could not marry a rootless woman, but took as his wife a girl from a noble family with a dowry, but she turned out to be barren. Katerina raised the child for the first few years of his life, and then the father took his son into his home. Almost nothing is known about Leonardo's mother. But, indeed, there is an opinion that the artist, separated from his mother in early childhood, all his life he tried to recreate the image and smile of his mother in his paintings. This assumption was made by Sigmund Freud in his book “Memories of Childhood. Leonardo da Vinci" and it gained many supporters among art historians.

Version No. 3: Mona Lisa is a man

Viewers often note that in the image of Mona Lisa, despite all the tenderness and modesty, there is some kind of masculinity, and the face of the young model, almost devoid of eyebrows and eyelashes, seems boyish. The famous Mona Lisa researcher Silvano Vincenti believes that this is no accident. He is sure that Leonardo posed...the young man in women's dress. And this is none other than Salai - a student of da Vinci, who was painted by him in the paintings “John the Baptist” and “Angel in the Flesh”, where the young man is endowed with the same smile as the Mona Lisa. The art historian, however, made this conclusion not only because external resemblance models, and after studying photographs in high resolution, which made it possible to see Vincenti in the eyes of the model L and S - the first letters of the names of the author of the picture and the young man depicted on it, according to the expert.

"John the Baptist" by Leonardo Da Vinci (Louvre)

This version is also supported by a special relationship - Vasari also hinted at it - between the model and the artist, which may have connected Leonardo and Salai. Da Vinci was not married and had no children. At the same time, there is a denunciation document where an anonymous person accuses the artist of sodomy of a certain 17-year-old boy Jacopo Saltarelli.

Leonardo had several students, with some of whom he was more than close, according to a number of researchers. Freud also discusses Leonardo's homosexuality, and he supports this version with a psychiatric analysis of his biography and the diary of the Renaissance genius. Da Vinci's notes about Salai are also considered as an argument in favor. There is even a version that da Vinci left a portrait of Salai (since the painting is mentioned in the will of the master’s student), and from him the painting came to Francis I.

By the way, the same Silvano Vincenti put forward another assumption: that the painting depicts a certain woman from the retinue of Louis Sforza, at whose court in Milan Leonardo worked as an architect and engineer in 1482-1499. This version appeared after Vincenti saw the numbers 149 on the back of the canvas. This, according to the researcher, is the date the painting was painted, only the last number has been erased. It is traditionally believed that the master began painting Gioconda in 1503.

However, there are many other candidates for the title of Mona Lisa who compete with Salai: these are Isabella Gualandi, Ginevra Benci, Constanza d'Avalos, the libertine Caterina Sforza, a certain secret lover of Lorenzo de' Medici and even Leonardo's nurse.

Version No. 4: Gioconda is Leonardo

Another unexpected theory, which Freud hinted at, was confirmed in the research of the American Lillian Schwartz. The Mona Lisa is a self-portrait, Lilian is sure. Artist and Graphic Consultant at the School visual arts in New York in the 1980s, she compared the famous “Turin Self-Portrait” by a very middle-aged artist and a portrait of Mona Lisa and discovered that the proportions of faces (head shape, distance between the eyes, forehead height) were the same.

And in 2009, Lilian, together with amateur historian Lynn Picknett, presented the public with another incredible sensation: she claims that the Shroud of Turin is nothing more than an imprint of Leonardo’s face, made using silver sulfate using the camera obscura principle.

However, not many supported Lilian in her research - these theories are not among the most popular, unlike the following assumption.

Version No. 5: a masterpiece with Down syndrome

Gioconda suffered from Down's disease - this was the conclusion that English photographer Leo Vala came to in the 1970s after he came up with a method to “turn” the Mona Lisa in profile.

At the same time, the Danish doctor Finn Becker-Christiansson diagnosed Gioconda with congenital facial paralysis. An asymmetrical smile, in his opinion, speaks of mental deviations up to and including idiocy.

In 1991, the French sculptor Alain Roche decided to embody the Mona Lisa in marble, but it didn’t work out. It turned out that from a physiological point of view, everything in the model is wrong: the face, the arms, and the shoulders. Then the sculptor turned to the physiologist, Professor Henri Greppo, and he attracted a specialist in hand microsurgery, Jean-Jacques Conte. Together they came to the conclusion that right hand The mysterious woman does not lean on her left, because it is possibly shorter and could be prone to convulsions. Conclusion: the right half of the model’s body is paralyzed, which means the mysterious smile is also just a spasm.

Gynecologist Julio Cruz y Hermida collected a complete “medical record” of Gioconda in his book “A Look at Gioconda Through the Eyes of a Doctor.” The result was so scary picture that it is not clear how this woman even lived. According to various researchers, she suffered from alopecia (hair loss), high level cholesterol in the blood, exposure of the neck of the teeth, their loosening and loss, and even alcoholism. She had Parkinson's disease, a lipoma (a benign fatty tumor on her right arm), strabismus, cataracts and iris heterochromia (different eye colors), and asthma.

However, who said that Leonardo was anatomically accurate - what if the secret of genius lies precisely in this disproportion?

Version No. 6: a child under the heart

There is another polar “medical” version - pregnancy. American gynecologist Kenneth D. Keel is sure that Mona Lisa crossed her arms on her stomach reflexively trying to protect her unborn baby. The probability is high, because Lisa Gherardini had five children (the first-born, by the way, was named Pierrot). A hint of the legitimacy of this version can be found in the title of the portrait: Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo (Italian) - “Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo.” Monna is short for ma donna - Madonna, Mother of God (although it also means “my mistress”, lady). Art critics often explain the genius of the painting precisely because it depicts an earthly woman in the image of the Mother of God.

Version No. 7: iconographic

However, the theory that the Mona Lisa is an icon has no place Mother of God occupied by an earthly woman, popular in her own right. This is the genius of the work and that is why it has become a symbol of the beginning new era in art. Used to be art served the church, government and nobility. Leonardo proves that the artist stands above all this, that the most valuable thing is the creative idea of ​​the master. A grand design is to show the duality of the world, and the means for this is the image of Mona Lisa, which combines divine and earthly beauty.

Version No. 8: Leonardo - creator of 3D

This combination was achieved using a special technique invented by Leonardo - sfumato (from Italian - “disappearing like smoke”). It was this painting technique, when paints are applied layer by layer, that allowed Leonardo to create an aerial perspective in the painting. The artist applied countless layers of these, and each one was almost transparent. Thanks to this technique, light is reflected and scattered differently across the canvas, depending on the viewing angle and the angle of incidence of the light. That’s why the model’s facial expression is constantly changing.

The researchers come to a conclusion. Another technical breakthrough of a genius who foresaw and tried to implement many inventions that were implemented centuries later ( aircraft, tank, diving suit, etc.). This is evidenced by the version of the portrait stored in the Prado Museum in Madrid, painted either by da Vinci himself or by his student. It depicts the same model - only the angle is shifted by 69 cm. Thus, experts believe, there was a search for the desired point in the image, which will give the 3D effect.

Version No. 9: secret signs

Secret signs are a favorite topic of Mona Lisa researchers. Leonardo is not just an artist, he is an engineer, inventor, scientist, writer, and probably encrypted some universal secrets in his best painting. The most daring and incredible version was voiced in the book and then in the film “The Da Vinci Code.” Of course, fiction novel. However, researchers are constantly making equally fantastic assumptions based on certain symbols found in the painting.

Many speculations stem from the fact that there is another hidden image of the Mona Lisa. For example, the figure of an angel, or a feather in the hands of a model. There is also an interesting version by Valery Chudinov, who discovered in the Mona Lisa the words Yara Mara - the name of the Russian pagan goddess.

Version No. 10: cropped landscape

Many versions are also related to the landscape against which the Mona Lisa is depicted. Researcher Igor Ladov discovered a cyclical nature in it: it seems worth drawing several lines to connect the edges of the landscape. Just a couple of centimeters are missing for everything to come together. But in the version of the painting from the Prado Museum there are columns, which, apparently, were also in the original. Nobody knows who cropped the picture. If you return them, the image develops into a cyclical landscape, which symbolizes what human life(in a global sense) enchanted just like everything in nature...

It seems that there are as many versions of the solution to the mystery of the Mona Lisa as there are people trying to explore the masterpiece. There was a place for everything: from admiration for unearthly beauty to recognition of complete pathology. Everyone finds something of their own in Mona Lisa and, perhaps, this is where the multidimensionality and semantic multi-layeredness of the canvas is manifested, which gives everyone the opportunity to turn on their imagination. Meanwhile, the secret of Mona Lisa remains the property of this mysterious lady, with a slight smile on her lips...

French researcher and consultant to the Center for the Study of Leonardo da Vinci in Los Angeles, Jean Frank, recently announced that he was able to repeat the unique technique of the great master, thanks to which Mona Lisa seems alive.

"From a technical point of view, the Mona Lisa has always been considered something inexplicable. Now I think I have the answer to this question," says Frank.

Reference: Sfumato technique is a painting technique invented by Leonardo da Vinci. The point is that objects in the paintings should not have clear boundaries. Everything should be like in life: blurred, penetrate one into another, breathe. Da Vinci practiced this technique by looking at damp stains on walls, ash, clouds or dirt. He specially fumigate the room where he worked with smoke in order to look for images in clubs.

According to Jean Frank, the main difficulty of this technique lies in the smallest strokes (about a quarter of a millimeter), which cannot be recognized either under a microscope or using X-rays. Thus, it took several hundred sessions to paint Da Vinci's painting. The image of Mona Lisa consists of approximately 30 layers of liquid, almost transparent oil paint. For such jewelry work, da Vinci apparently had to use a magnifying glass at the same time as a brush.
According to the researcher, he managed to achieve only the level of the master’s early works. However, already now his research has received the honor of being located next to the paintings of the great Leonardo da Vinci. The Uffizi Museum in Florence placed next to the master’s masterpieces 6 tables by Franck, which describe step by step how da Vinci painted the eye of the Mona Lisa, and two paintings by Leonardo that he recreated.

It is known that the composition of the Mona Lisa is built on “golden triangles”. These triangles in turn are pieces of a regular star pentagon. But researchers do not see any secret meanings, they are more likely to explain the expressiveness of Mona Lisa by the technique of spatial perspective.

Da Vinci was one of the first to use this technique; he made the background of the picture unclear, slightly clouded, thereby increasing the emphasis on the outlines of the foreground.

Gioconda's clues

Unique techniques allowed da Vinci to create such a vivid portrait of a woman that people, looking at him, perceive her feelings differently. Is she sad or smiling? Scientists managed to solve this mystery. Computer programs Urbana-Champaign, created by scientists from the Netherlands and the USA, made it possible to calculate that Mona Lisa's smile is 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% full of fear and 2% angry. The program analyzed the main facial features, the curve of the lips and wrinkles around the eyes, and then rated the face according to six main groups of emotions.

If you believe Leonardo da Vinci's biographer Giorgio Vasari, it is not surprising that positive emotions predominate in Mona Lisa: “Since Mona Lisa was very beautiful, while painting the portrait he held people who were playing the lyre or singing, and there were always jesters, maintaining cheerfulness in her and removing the melancholy that painting usually imparts to the portraits it makes. Leonardo's smile in this work is so pleasant that it seems as if one is contemplating a divine rather than a human being; the portrait itself is considered an extraordinary work, for life itself could not be different.”

Less romantic experts in the field of painting argue that the explanation for the mysterious smile is trivial - the woman simply has her eyebrows shaved. If you draw on your eyebrows, then your entire unique image will disappear.

Professor Margaret Livingston of Harvard University claims that Leonardo used the laws of human physiology in his painting. There are two types of vision: direct and peripheral. Direct perceives details well, worse - shadows. So, according to the scientist, Mona Lisa’s smile is visible only if you look not at her lips, but at other details of her face: “The elusive nature of Mona Lisa’s smile can be explained by the fact that almost all of it is located in the low-frequency range of light and is well perceived only by the peripheral vision."

Who is Mona Lisa?

There are many versions. The most plausible of them - the model for the painting was Lisa Gherardini, the second wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo and the mother of five children. At the time of painting (about 1503-1506), the girl was, according to various sources, from 24 to 30 years old. It is because of the husband's surname that the painting is now known under two names.

According to the second version, the mysterious girl was not at all an angelic, innocent beauty. The model for the picture was the very famous courtesan Duchess Caterina Sforzo at that time. At the time of painting, she was already 40 years old. The Duchess was the illegitimate daughter of the ruler of Milan - a legendary hero Italian Renaissance Duke of Sforza and became scandalously famous for her promiscuity: from the age of 15 she was married three times and gave birth to 11 children. The Duchess died in 1509, six years after work on the painting began. This version is supported by a portrait of the twenty-five-year-old duchess surprisingly similar to the Mona Lisa.

You can often hear the version that Leonardo da Vinci did not go far to find a model for his masterpiece, but simply painted a self-portrait in women's clothing. This version is difficult to reject, because there are obvious similarities between the Mona Lisa and the master’s later self-portrait. Moreover, this similarity was confirmed by computer analysis of the main anthropometric indicators.

The most scandalous version concerns the personal life of the master. Some scholars argue that the model for the painting was da Vinci's student and assistant Giana Giacomo, who was with him for 26 years and may have been his lover. This version is supported by the fact that Leonardo left this painting as an inheritance when he died in 1519.

Two paintings - two models

However, no matter how much you solve the master’s puzzle, there are still more questions than answers. The uncertainty in the title of the painting has caused a lot of speculation regarding its authenticity. There is a version that there are actually two paintings. Contemporaries repeatedly noted that the painting was not finished by the master. Moreover, Raphael, having visited the artist’s studio, made a sketch from the still unfinished painting. It turned out to be everything in the sketch famous woman, on both sides of which there are Greek columns. In addition, according to contemporaries, the painting was larger and was made to order just for Mona Lisa’s husband, Francesco del Giocondo. The author conveyed unfinished painting into the hands of the customer, and it was stored in family archive for many centuries.

However, a completely different painting is on display at the Louvre. It is smaller in size (only 77 by 53 centimeters) and looks completely finished without columns. So, according to historians, the Louvre painting depicts Giuliano Medici’s mistress, Constanza D’Avalos. It was this painting that the artist brought with him to France in 1516. He kept her in his room on an estate near the city of Amboise until his death. From there, the painting ended up in the collection of King Francis I in 1517. This particular painting is called the “Mona Lisa.”

The real painting “La Gioconda” depicts the wife of silk seller Francisco del Giocondo and, perhaps, Leonardo’s secret mistress. According to historians, the original painting, which fully corresponds to the description of its contemporaries, was accidentally bought by a famous British antique dealer in 1914 at a clothing market English city Bass sold for a few guineas and was in London until 1962, when it was bought by a syndicate of Swiss bankers.

The abduction of Gioconda

Skeptics claim that Mona Lisa did not gain her unique fame beautiful eyes And mysterious smile. In their opinion, the Italian painter Vincenzo Peruggia, who stole the painting from the Louvre on August 21, 1911, is responsible for the genuine interest in the masterpiece. The motive for such an unreasonable act turned out to be not a passion for profit, but a patriotic desire to return the Italian pearl to its homeland. The painting was indeed found in Italy, but only two years later, during which time the portrait was on the front pages of all newspapers and magazines. Mona Lisa was examined and processed by restorers and hung in place with honors. Since then, the painting has become an object of cult and worship as a masterpiece of world classics.

Mysteries of Leonardo

Da Vinci left in his creations many riddles and puzzles so complex that humanity has been trying to solve them for five centuries. The inventor wrote with his left hand and in incredibly small letters, from right to left, turning the letters over in a mirror image. He spoke in riddles and made metaphorical prophecies. Leonardo did not sign his works, but left identification marks on them - a bird taking off. According to it, his brainchildren are unexpectedly discovered centuries later. Perhaps we only think that we are finding answers to the riddles of the master, but in fact we are infinitely far from them.

Biography of the artist

Leonardo got his surname from the town of Vinci, west of Florence, where he is believed to have been born on April 15, 1452. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl, but was brought up in the home of his father, and therefore received a thorough education in reading, writing and arithmetic. At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to one of the leading masters early Renaissance Andrea del Verrocchio, and five years later joined the guild of artists. In 1482, being already professional artist, Leonardo moved to Milan. There he painted the famous fresco " last supper"and began to keep his unique records, in which he appears more in the role of an architect-designer, anatomist, hydraulics, inventor of mechanisms, and musician. Long years, moving from city to city, da Vinci was so passionate about mathematics that he could not bring himself to pick up his brushes. In Florence he entered into rivalry with Michelangelo; This rivalry culminated in the enormous battle compositions that the two artists painted for the Palazzo della Signoria (also Palazzo Vecchio). The French, first Louis XII and then Francis I, admired the works of the Italian Renaissance, especially Leonardo's Last Supper. It is therefore not surprising that in 1516 Francis I, well aware of Leonardo's varied talents, invited him to the court, which was then located at the castle of Amboise in the Loire Valley. Leonardo died in Amboise on May 2, 1519; His paintings by this time were scattered mainly in private collections, and his notes lay in various collections almost in complete oblivion for several more centuries.

The material was prepared by the online editorswww.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti Agency and other sources

We admire paintings by old masters, but rarely think about what exactly they looked like at the time of creation. For some reason it is believed that dark colors are original look canvases In fact, ALL paintings over 50 years old were completely different. Time destroys the color pigment of many paints. Some disappear, others change.
Therefore, what we see and what the artist wrote, as they say in Odessa: “These are two big differences ".

Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci today.

After a year scientific research, the famous American artist Jenness Cortez announced the completion of her work to restore Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa" as it appeared at the beginning of the 16th century.

The restoration was carried out by order of a private American collector. In her work, Genes Cortes used a copy of the Mona Lisa owned by the Prado Museum and data from the French Research Center for Restoration, published in 2004. In addition, the artist independently analyzed a large number of historical data about the painting and its copies made by Leonardo da Vinci’s contemporaries.

According to Giorgio Vasari (1511 - 1574 ), author of biographies Italian artists, who wrote about Leonardo in 1550, 31 years after his death, Mona Lisa (short for Madonna Lisa) was the wife of a Florentine named Francesco del Giocondo ( Italian Francesco del Giocondo), on whose portrait Leonardo spent 4 years, yet left it unfinished.

“Leonardo undertook to make a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, for Francesco del Giocondo, and, after working on it for four years, he left it unfinished. This work is now in the possession of the French king in Fontainebleau .
This image gives anyone who would like to see to what extent art can imitate nature the opportunity to comprehend this in the easiest way, for it reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey. Therefore, the eyes have that shine and that moisture that is usually visible in a living person, and around them all those reddish reflections and hairs are conveyed that can only be depicted with greatest subtlety skill. Eyelashes, made in the same way as hair actually grows on the body, where it is thicker and where it is thinner, and located according to the pores of the skin, could not be depicted with more naturalness. The nose, with its lovely holes, pinkish and delicate, seems alive. The mouth, slightly open, with the edges connected by the scarlet lips, with the physicality of its appearance, seems not like paint, but real flesh. If you look closely, you can see the pulse beating in the hollow of the neck. And truly we can say that this work was written in such a way that it plunges any arrogant artist, no matter who he is, into confusion and fear.

Having completed the work, Jenes Cortez noted that she does not claim complete similarity of her work with the original of the 16th century: “I do not pretend to be equal in skill to Leonardo. But I put all my experience, intuition, imagination and passion into my work. I would like to think that I was helped by the same muse that helped the great Leonardo. I hope that my Mona Lisa will be accepted by fans of the original painting.”

According to renowned researchers and restorers, the numerous visible changes in the Mona Lisa that have occurred over five centuries are due to the following factors:

Darkening and yellowing of the varnish.

Complete disappearance of some pigments.

Natural chemical reactions that changed the original shades.

Consequences of cleansing and reconstruction.

Changes in the wood panel on which the painting is painted due to humidity.

To understand these and other factors, Genes Cortez relied on the results of laboratory research by French restoration scientists. Generalization of historical, scientific material and own experience The artists allowed us to draw the following conclusions:

1. Many areas of the painting were lighter and more detailed, but changing the color of the varnish also changed the color of the canvas, hiding some of the details of the painting. The hardest hit are blue, brown and green colors, to which the main attention was paid during the restoration.

2. Other pigments also underwent a slight color change. To understand how they changed, a special analysis was carried out.

3. The surface of the painting has many cracks, which were formed primarily as a result of a large number of movements, as well as under the influence of moisture on the wooden base.

4. Some details were destroyed due to intensive cleaning of the painting's surface during reconstruction. For example, in the shadow area between the bridge of the nose and the right eye, as well as on the chin, finer detail was lost. There are unexplained traces of white paint above the top edge of the bodice, which convinced Cortes that the original original had a delicate white trim on the bodice, especially since this detail is quite noticeable on the Italian copy of the painting. Note that the version of the Mona Lisa owned by the Prado Museum was made unknown artist, a contemporary of Leonardo and, very likely, fairly accurately conveys the original.

5. On the copy from the Prado Museum, glare in the eyes is also noticeable, although they are not visible on the original. However, Giorgio Vasari, who made the earliest known description of the Mona Lisa, in his book Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, dating from 1550, noted that the woman's gaze in the painting has a "watery sheen." Cortez brought back the sparkle in Gioconda's eyes.

6. Today the picture is quite monotonous appearance, most likely due to Leonardo's extensive use of volatile, organic pigments in fine glazes. The analysis showed a more vivid modeling of the face and hands, and the same Vasari describes “iridescent and tender” nostrils, and “red lips”, and brighter skin tones that accurately convey the color of the flesh. Indeed, some red pigments made from the bodies and secretions of insects were widely used during the Renaissance, but often lost color over time.

7. The sleeves of the dress, which are now bronze in color, may have been red (as can be seen on the copy from the Prado Museum).

8. Mona Lisa's legendary enigmatic expression to a large extent contributes to the absence of eyebrows. Jenes Cortez raised her eyebrows slightly, because it was known that they were there, albeit very thin. Their subtlety also impressed Vasari, which he noted in his book. Cortez treated this part of the painting very delicately, not speculating on the arch, size and color of the eyebrows, feeling that any misunderstanding on her part would unconditionally change the expression on the woman’s face that is familiar to us, and therefore would distort Leonardo’s intention.

9. Lisa’s hair, which today appears almost black, was probably a warm chestnut shade, but turned black over time under the color-changed hairspray.

10. Throughout the entire area of ​​the painting, completed small parts, which are now hidden under the old varnish, but traces of which are visible when

• Year of creation: 1503-1506
• Painting technique: on wood
• Genre:
• Style:Renaissance painting
• Exhibition: Louvre in Paris

"Mona Lisa" is the most famous painting Leonardo da Vinci. This Italian Renaissance painter created his work over a period of almost three years, between 1503 and 1506 to be precise. "Mona Lisa" was painted using the technique on a wooden base measuring 77 x 53 cm and has linear perspective. Today you can see this work of art in the Louvre.

Mysterious central figure the image depicted is probably the Florentine girl Lisa Gherardini, also known as Lisa del Giocondo Monn (hence the second title of the painting, La Gioconda), whose husband commissioned the portrait Italian master brushes She is presented in the middle of the work, although you can see her rather curvaceous, feminine figure, the painting has a fairly precise balance. The girl depicted in the picture has long, dark, straight and falling almond-shaped eyebrows, with thin eyebrows located above them and small eyebrows. The viewer's attention is drawn to the most gentle, almost imperceptible smile. The entire work is complemented by the background - a rocky landscape of brownish-green mountains, slightly covered with fog.

The intriguing smile of Gioconda has long been the subject of much discussion, and it is still not known what the artist had in mind when depicting the girl in this way. Hypotheses say that behind this Mona Lisa smile are hidden blessed, divine qualities of the girl or expressions of pride or ancient harmony. The uncertainty and ambiguity of this work testifies to the versatility of the artist. The viewer can allow himself any interpretation of this painting.

The dominant colors of the image are dark, muted and cold. The painting is dominated by green, which conveys the color of Mona Lisi's clothing and also confirms that she is behind the forest. The composition is static but open. The lady herself, although she is on foreground, is not marked with bright colors, which allows it to fit into the landscape. This is also related to Da Vinci's technique: soft chiaroscuro (Italian "sfumato" - smoke, shaded, blurry). No sharp edges rich colors and the difficulty of diagnosing the various elements makes the atmosphere in the picture idyllic, fabulous and mysterious.

A characteristic feature of this painting is that no matter from which angle one admires the portrait of the Mona Lisa, she will always look directly at us. In addition, da Vinci used a technique to deceive the sense of vision by using the shadows cast by the cheekbones. Thanks to which the Mona Lisa's smile becomes more obvious when we look at her eyes and practically disappears after we look directly at her mouth.

The Mona Lisa has been a source of inspiration for many artists over later eras, including Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, and Andy Warhol.

"Mona Lisa"- portrait of a young woman, the picture is one of the most famous works painting in the world. Belongs to the Renaissance. Exhibited at the Louvre (Paris, France).

The full title of the painting is Portrait of Lady Lisa del Giocondo.

Who is the author of the Mona Lisa?

Mona Lisa description of the painting

The Mona Lisa painting cannot be described in words: the longer you look at it, the more captivated you become.

Like many paintings of that period, this portrait did not escape the ravages of time at the hands of inept restorers. But despite all this, he has not lost his special beauty and charm, and his beautiful face still radiates a calm and bewitching smile.

The dimensions of the Mona Lisa painting are only 30 inches in height.

The Mona Lisa is shown seated on a low folding chair; her body is turned to the left, her right hand resting on her left forearm. The face is facing the viewer at a slight angle, while Brown eyes looking straight at you.

Brown hair, parted in the middle and combed smoothly to the temples, falls in beautiful soft curls to the shoulders. A transparent veil is draped over the head and curls over the shoulders. The dress, originally a greenish color with a plunging neckline, is enlivened by lighter sleeves that must once have been yellow.

In the background is a fantastic landscape with hills and mountains, warm and soft colors, receding into the distance, with a gradually brightening sky above it. The two columns at the edges of the landscape are covered by the current picture frame. All the details in this painting are beautiful, but what grabs your attention first of all is the face.

The famous Italian architect and historian Vasari, who lived in that brilliant era, wrote about the Mona Lisa:

“Leonardo agreed to paint a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, for Francesco del Giocondo. He wrote it for four years and then left it unfinished. Now this painting is owned by the French King Francis. Anyone who wants to see how close art can come to a natural original should take a close look at this beautiful head.

All its details are executed with the greatest diligence. The eyes have the same shine and are just as moisturized as in life. Around them we see faint reddish-blue circles, and the eyelashes could only have been painted with a very skillful brush. You can notice where the eyebrows are wider and where they become thinner, emerging from the pores of the skin and rounding downwards. Everything is as natural as it can be portrayed. Small, beautifully carved nostrils, pinkish and delicate, executed with the greatest truth. The mouth, the corners of the lips, where the pink tint turns into the natural, vibrant complexion, are written so superbly that they seem not drawn, but as if they were living flesh and blood.

Anyone who looks closely at the hollow in the neck begins to think that he is about to be able to see the pulse beating. Indeed, this portrait is painted so perfectly that it makes any established artist, and indeed anyone who looks at it, tremble with excitement.

The Mona Lisa was immensely beautiful, and Leonardo always invited someone to her sessions who could act and sing or joke, so that her face would not look tired or dull, which often happens when posing for a portrait.

On the contrary, a most charming smile plays on this face, and it seems that it is the creation of Heaven, and not of human hands, and what is most surprising is that it is full of life.”

These are the words of Vasari, which have great significance and authenticity, because in his time the canvas was in excellent condition.

Who is depicted in the Mona Lisa painting?

Mona Lisa was 24 years old when her portrait began to be created in 1503, and Leonardo was then 51 years old. The painting was never completed and remained with Leonardo, and later passed to Francis I, King of France.

Many would give anything to own this painting. One of these people was the Duke of Buckingham. Later this led to dramatic story the theft of a painting from the Louvre and its subsequent return.

Being highest point, the pinnacle of Leonardo’s creativity, this painting is, as it were, a crystallization of his genius, innermost thoughts and inspiration.

Very little is known about the Mona Lisa other than a few minor facts, making it difficult to answer very important question, often asked and discussed: was she just beautiful model for Leonardo, or she was his muse and even his love, which many would like to believe.

There are some facts confirming the correctness of the last assumption, and this may explain the special magic of the picture. But whatever the truth, what a remarkable person she must have been to bring out the best in this giant of the Renaissance! She helped this genius leave to his descendants a unique masterpiece that has inspired thousands and thousands of people over the centuries.

The enormous influence of the people around them on artists is all too well known, even if these people themselves remained in the shadows. Interaction between the personalities of the model and the artist, especially if they are connected mutual sympathy and attraction often leads to the creation of masterpieces.

IN in this case The Mona Lisa was able to awaken such inspiration in Leonardo that he created one of the most beautiful treasures in the world. The immortal aura surrounding all the creations of this greatest genius is confirmed by his own words: “If a person is virtuous, do not drive him away, but honor him, so that he has no reason to leave you. If you meet such people, honor them, since they are Gods on this Earth and deserve the same worship as sacred statues and images.”