Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa ) is a mythical painting painted by Leonardo da Vinci and the most famous work of all time, considered the timeless symbol of Western art. It owes its notoriety to the fact that it represents a woman's face and not a religious scene or a still life. Presumed portrait of Monna Lisa, wife of the Marquis Francesco del Giocondo, the work will be acquired by François Ier and will later become the centerpiece of the Louvre Museum. Leonardo had written:""Do you not see that among human beauties, it is the beautiful face that arrests passers-by, and not the rich ornaments...?".
The Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci's most famous work
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) begins this portrait of Mona Lisa on his return to Florence shortly after the fall of the Sforza family in Milan, his former protectors. The Italian painter worked there for four years, from 1503 to 1506, and used poplar as a support. He takes it with him to France during the reign of François I. When da Vinci died, the painting became part of the royal collection. It was exhibited at the Palace of Versailles in the Cabinet of Louis XIV until 1650, then Napoleon donated it to the National Museum of the Louvre in 1805. For some five centuries, the Mona Lisa has defied art and time, to restore to us intact the magic of this enigmatic feminine smile.
His theft in 1911 by an Italian glazier created a great stir. Found, the painting is the object of all attention. During the two World Wars, he was brought to safety and escaped the voracity of the Nazis. It was exhibited in the United States in 1963 and in Japan in 1974. The work became a real cult object.
The painting is made of a large amount of layers of glaze or filler on a wooden panel. It is an oil painting, added with gasoline, layers allowing to emphasize the chiaroscuro, the "sfumato", this vaporous process, like smoke, dear to Leonardo. Leonardo seized the opportunity of a portrait here to reflect on the relationship between the background and the motif, between the universe (the landscape) and a detail that he extracts from it (the woman). An expression of calm and happiness, the work is also famous for its smile, perhaps the first in the history of painting.
But who is Mona Lisa?
Many hypotheses have been put forward:a young man friend of Leonardo, the Princess d'Este of Mantua, a courtesan of Giuliano de' Medici... It is generally accepted that This is Lisa Gherardini , born in May 1479. She is the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo, son of a silk merchant, with whom she will have three children. It was on the occasion of one of these births that her husband asked Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of this young mother.
The smile of the Mona Lisa is that of a satisfied woman, yet with a chubby face, a slightly yellowish complexion, without eyebrows, installed at the front of a rocky landscape, out of the water, in a gradient of blue and green . Francesco del Giocondi would not have accepted the painting:this smile is incorrect and the young woman is planted in front of a decor that does not conform to the time.
Leonardo da Vinci therefore keeps his work, which will delight thousands of visitors each year who come to contemplate this portrait with an enigmatic smile.
To go further on the Mona Lisa
- Me, Mona Lisa - Confidences of the Mona Lisa, by Francois Diwo. Timely, 2017.
- Leonardo da Vinci The Mona Lisa, by Cecile Scaillierez. El Viso, 2019.
- The Louvre Museum website.