Leonardo Da Vinci And The Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci was born in the Tuscan Hill town of Vinci on April 15, 1452. During his young life, he was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary. Caterina, a peasant who could have, possibly, been a slave from the Middle East, she could have been his mother. During Leonardo’s early life, he was in the hamlet of Anchiano until he was at the young age of 5. With what limitations were involved, he lived within the household of his father, grandparents, and uncle Francesco, somewhere in the small town of Vinci.
From experiencing his father getting married to a sixteen-year-old named Albiera, only for her to pass away young, it had him involved with a couple of childhood incidents that affected the way he saw the world. For example, at a young age, a kite that fell from the sky touched his face as it descended. Later, within his life, Leonardo worked as an apprentice to Verrocchio at the age of fourteen. During this age, he made his first piece of art was a landscape of the Arno Valley, made out of pen and ink.
As he continued on, he learned different methods of art such as leather, carving, sculptures, drawing, and painting all within a time span of six years. It wasn’t long after till he was known as a “master artist in Florence’s guild of Saint Fluke. ” Even though he acquired his own workshop, his choice was made to work alongside by his teacher for five more years.
Though, art wasn’t his only passion going through life. He was someone who wanted to invent and do his best to change the world. He kept old drawings and ideas, writing them down. In these documents, they feature ideas of inventions, anatomy of many things, argetexture, and even things he thought of creating. Even though there were over 13,000 pages of his ideas, drawings and works, most of them weren’t safe to be experiment on, nor having a great chance of not even working well. But thus, this didn’t stop Leonardo. He continued on to make many different famous paintings such as “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa,” which are still popular to this day.
For the “Mona Lisa,” it was a painting that was made during the years 1503-1505, taking this whole time to perfect the piece of work. This portrait spread many different rumors around the time this was being made and shown in the world. For one example, it was shown that it was one of Leonardo’s relatives dressed up. Though, for the actual lady in the painting, it was Lisa del Giocondo. She was known as being the wife of a silk merchant. The painting was originally the woman’s name. For the name now being “Mona Lisa,” it is theorised that the Giocondo family did commission to him. Though, he never gave up the painting. Another theory resolved that the painting was made for the celebration for the birth of the families’s new child. Regardless, this was an attempt from him to push his limits on making things “Perfect. ”
As the man he was, he did what he can to stay on point with his art. It is said that he was “One of the first to document the form of the human body in the form of a child. ” Staying by science as something he trust for a long time, he did his best to stay accurate with anatomy and ow work is. But alas, he died in the year of 1519 after finishing one last piece for someone.
Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is such an interesting painting to stare at. From the looks of it, he made it well, showing the realism, revealing a life-like picture into reality. The Value of the photos is something I do enjoy. From how the front view of the piece is showing her facial features, to the back view, seeing the edges of the river and mountains. It gives out a dark, gloomy afternoon. Not only that, but the way she smiles is such a mystery to see. I like the way she sits there and smiles. It makes many wonder on why she is smiling, from being told to or she was someone who smiles a lot, or possibly some other reason.
Not only that, but the proportion is well made. It does show off the body positioning and how it is facing, nothing done to out there that can be easily seen. From the hands positioning has shown a little weird to me, if I am being honest. The hand that is resting on top seems to be fatter than the other one. Then again, I don’t know the woman that is in the mural and her hands could be naturally like that. But from the looks of it, the colors do give off the detail of her skin and the shading from her hand, neck area, and even into the clothing.
The texture shows off the usage of layers and mixtures of the paint. Seeing the cracks involved within it shows that it is an antique, showing it’s side of wear and tear. The little river and mountains that is placed on the bottom left of the painting shows off a red coloring. From a closer looks, it is connected to a river into a wilderness of some sort. I go back to the woman and The patterns that is shown in her clothes is a nice touch. From the wrinkles in her sleeves to the overlapping waves in her shirt. You can see the space around her was used by the background, giving that outdoors feel.
I can recognize the shapes that are shown on her. The round circle that is placed on her head, with the nose being the pointed triangle and many different rectangles formed to make out the body, coloring, and detail. It does have that contrast as well. From having her in the middle, she is the center of attention, while other things are being filled around the center, being a darker shade while she is on the opposite side of the scale, being a brighter, and more eye catching, part.
Being shown as the Emphasis of this photo, I can’t see why this painting is bad. It is a well made picture shown with many different elements and principles that makes this photo stand out from the others.