Week : 1 The Mona Lisa

Many people are curious about the painting of Leonardo da Vinci, “Mona Lisa or La Gioconda (La Jaconde)”. Base on What I’ve read Mona Lisa is a 16^th Century portrait painted in oil on a paper panel by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa during the Renaissance of Italy. This particular painting “The Mona Lisa” is the most famous painting in the world. I think I heard Mona Lisa when I was only 10 years old and I Didn’t know that it is a painting of a woman smiling to her viewers. Based on What I’ve read on the net, Mona Lisa Was Painted by a celebrated genius who didn’t create a lot of paintings during his life time. Leonardo Started painting The Mona Lisa in 1502 according to Vasari. After he had lingered his four years, he had continued to work on it for three years after he moved to France to finished shortly before he died in 1519. Leonardo took the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when king Francois invited the painter to work at dos cuce near the king’s castle.

King Francois bought the painting for 4,000 ecus and kept it at fantainebleua. It remains until moved by King Louis XIV. The Mona Lisa is an art of the Renaissance period. The painting was not well-known until the mid-19^th century. When the Artists of the emerging symbolist began to appreciate it then is was known by many people. It becomes a mystery that why Leonardo da Vinci created this painting. With their ideas of feminine mystique critic Walter Pater, in his essay on 1867 on Leonardo da Vinci, express his viewed by describing the figure of the painting. Then Walter Pater said on his essay that it is a mythic embodiment of eternal feminity. Who is older than the rock among which she sits and who has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave. Walter Pater is very Intrigue of Leonardo’s painting.

Based on what I've read the painting of Mona Lisa is a real women that Leonardo da Vinci painted. Leonardo's assistant salai owned the portrait named in his personal papers. Leonardo use a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of painting. The portrait is the first painting to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape. Then the enigmatic woman portrayed seated in what it appears to be an open loggia in dark places. We can see that The Mona Lisa painting has no visible facial hair at all. Then this painting has been restored for several times.