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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 3: Leonardo da Vinci- About Leonardo
- Letter to the Duke of Milan
- Leonardo: Anatomist - by Nature Video
- Leonardo and his drawings
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Adoration of the Magi
- Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon)
- The Last Supper
- The Last Supper
- The Last Supper
- Mona Lisa
- Mona Lisa
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Mona Lisa
By Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris
Portraits were once rare
We live in a culture that is so saturated with images, it may be difficult to imagine a time when only the wealthiest people had their likeness captured. The wealthy merchants of renaissance Florence could commission a portrait, but even they would likely only have a single portrait painted during their lifetime. A portrait was about more than likeness, it spoke to status and position. In addition, portraits generally took a long time to paint, and the subject would commonly have to sit for hours or days, while the artist captured their likeness.
The most recognized painting in the world
The Mona Lisa was originally this type of portrait, but over time its meaning has shifted and it has become an icon of the Renaissance—perhaps the most recognized painting in the world. The Mona Lisa is a likely a portrait of the wife of a Florentine merchant. For some reason however, the portrait was never delivered to its patron, and Leonardo kept it with him when he went to work for Francis I, the King of France.
The Mona Lisa's mysterious smile has inspired many writers, singers, and painters. Here's a passage about the Mona Lisa, written by the Victorian-era (19th-century) writer Walter Pater:
"We all know the face and hands of the figure, set in its marble chair, in that circle of fantastic rocks, as in some faint light under sea. Perhaps of all ancient pictures time has chilled it least. The presence that thus rose so strangely beside the waters, is expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years men had come to desire. Hers is the head upon which all 'the ends of the world are come,' and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed!"
Piero della Francesca's Portrait of Battista Sforza is typical of portraits during the Early Renaissance (before Leonardo); figures were often painted in strict profile, and cut off at the bust. Often the figure was posed in front of a birds-eye view of a landscape.
A new formula
With Leonardo's portrait, the face is nearly frontal, the shoulders are turned three-quarters toward the viewer, and the hands are included in the image.
Leonardo uses his characteristic sfumato—a smokey haziness—to soften outlines and create an atmospheric effect around the figure. When a figure is in profile, we have no real sense of who she is, and there is no sense of engagement. With the face turned toward us, however, we get a sense of the personality of the sitter.
Northern Renaissance artists such as Hans Memling (see the Portrait of a Young Man at Prayer) had already created portraits of figures in positions similar to the Mona Lisa. Memling had even located them in believable spaces. Leonardo combined these Northern innovations with Italian painting's understanding of the three dimensionality of the body and the perspectival treatment of the surrounding space.
A recent discovery
An important copy of the Mona Lisa was recently discovered in the collection of the Prado in Madrid. The background had been painted over, but when the painting was cleaned, scientific analysis revealed that the copy was likely painted by another artist who sat beside Leonardo and copied his work, brush-stroke by brush-stroke. The copy gives us an idea of what the Mona Lisa might look like if layers of yellowed varnish were removed.
Additional resources
Read a Reframing Art History chapter that discusses Leonardo da Vinci—"Art in Sovereign States of the Italian Renaissance, c. 1400–1600."
Theresa Flanigan, "Mona Lisa’s Smile: Interpreting Emotion in Renaissance Female Portraits," Studies in Iconography, vol. 40 (2019), pp. 183–230.
Essay by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Want to join the conversation?
it totally looks the same but... I still have a question the one on the left whos painting is that cuz its Not Leonardo Da Vincis painting(5 votes)
The caption state that the painter is unknown.(2 votes)
How did Da Vinci make it so that whatever position you're at it always seems like she's looking straight at you?(2 votes)
From the author:Actually, they don't. The sitter is represented looking to her left as you can see by noting the placement of her pupils. Now if this were a real person, the eye would be convex obscuring part of the pupil when turned away from you. However, this is not a real person, this is a painting, and it is flat. Therefore, you can still see the pupil no matter where you stand in front of it. This is true of all naturalistically rendered portraits.(4 votes)
- You state that The copy gives us an idea of what the Mona Lisa might look like if layers of yellowed varnish were removed. I appreciate the point, but aren't the proportions of the sitter's face different, e.g the copy has a more slender face and aquiline nose? I noted the qualifiers idea and might but I still expect the patron and subject would be far more flattered by the copy than by Leonardo's original.(2 votes)
- Yes, there are differences, as one would expect.(2 votes)
- Hi, what is the date this article was published? I would like to cite it(1 vote)
Cite this page as: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, "Leonardo, Mona Lisa," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015,(3 votes)
how de vinci is good artist(1 vote)- how can I cite the pic of Mona Lisa. I don't see a citation tool. I know the author. Who is the publisher? Is it Khan Academy?(1 vote)
Why does Mona Lisa's eyes look dreary when they put the filter on the painting? Does this make Mona Lisa's smile look different?(1 vote)
They're painted by two different people, so the two paintings wouldn't be exact. That's why the eyes look dreary in the second one. It's not because of the "filter", it's just because they're different.(1 vote)
- Monalisas invadem as ruas de Porto Alegre!! É #streetart #arteurbana - http://meucantonomundo.com/monalisas-de-mosaico-invadem-porto-alegre/(1 vote)
Thanks. What a great article. Could you please address the hair net that appears to be worn over the face. At first I thought it was just an aging painting with lines now cracking in the paint. Why such detail is there in the painting of the net over the face? What is the significance of the net historically?(0 votes)- Part of a veil, which was customary headgear for married women of the time period.(2 votes)