Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa" was painted in 1505, but it still remains the most popular work art. Still an unsolved problem is the mysterious expression on the woman's face. In addition, the painting is famous for the unusual execution methods used by the artist and, most importantly, the Mona Lisa was stolen several times. The most notorious case happened about 100 years ago – on August 21, 1911.

Back in 1911, the Mona Lisa, whose full name was “Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo,” was stolen by an employee of the Louvre, Italian mirror maker Vincenzo Perugia. But then no one even suspected him of stealing. Suspicion fell on the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and even Pablo Picasso! The museum administration was immediately fired and the French borders were temporarily closed. Newspaper hype greatly contributed to the growth of the film's popularity.

The painting was discovered only 2 years later in Italy. Interestingly, due to the thief’s own oversight. He made a fool of himself by responding to an advertisement in the newspaper and offering to buy the Mona Lisa to the director of the Uffizi Gallery.

8 facts about Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa that will surprise you

1. It turns out that Leonardo da Vinci rewrote La Gioconda twice. Experts believe that the colors on the original versions were much brighter. And the sleeves of Gioconda’s dress were originally red, the colors just faded over time.

In addition, in the original version of the painting there were columns along the edges of the canvas. Later the picture was cropped, probably by the artist himself.

2. The first place where they saw “La Gioconda” was the bathhouse of the great politician and collector King Francis I. According to legend, before his death, Leonardo da Vinci sold “Gioconda” to Francis for 4 thousand gold coins. At that time it was simply a huge amount.

The king placed the painting in the bathhouse not because he did not realize what a masterpiece he had received, but quite the opposite. At that time, the bathhouse at Fontainebleau was the most important place in the French kingdom. There, Francis not only had fun with his mistresses, but also received ambassadors.

3. At one time, Napoleon Bonaparte liked the Mona Lisa so much that he moved it from the Louvre to the Tuileries Palace and hung it in his bedroom. Napoleon knew nothing about painting, but he highly valued da Vinci. True, not as an artist, but as a universal genius, which, by the way, he considered himself to be. After becoming emperor, Napoleon returned the painting to the museum in the Louvre, which he named after himself.

4. Hidden in the eyes of the Mona Lisa are tiny numbers and letters that are unlikely to be visible to the naked eye. researchers suggest that these are the initials of Leonardo da Vinci and the year the painting was created.

5. During World War II, many works from the Louvre collection were hidden in the Chateau de Chambord. Among them was the Mona Lisa. The location where the Mona Lisa was hidden was kept a closely guarded secret. The paintings were hidden for good reason: it would later turn out that Hitler planned to create the world's largest museum in Linz. And he organized a whole campaign for this under the leadership of the German art connoisseur Hans Posse.

6. It is believed that the painting depicts Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Gioconda, a Florentine silk merchant. True, there are also more exotic versions. According to one of them, Mona Lisa is Leonardo’s mother Katerina, according to another, it is a self-portrait of the artist in a female form, and according to the third, it is Salai, Leonardo’s student, dressed in a woman’s dress.

7. Most researchers believe that the landscape painted behind the Mona Lisa is fictitious. There are versions that this is the Valdarno Valley or the Montefeltro region, but there is no convincing evidence for these versions. It is known that Leonardo painted the painting in his Milan workshop.

8. The painting has its own room in the Louvre. Now the painting is inside a special protective system, which includes bullet-resistant glass, a complex alarm system and an installation to create a microclimate that is optimal for preserving the painting. The cost of this system is $7 million.

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa, of course, is not only the most significant, successful and popular work the Renaissance master da Vinci, but also his most discussed creation.

Analysis

The work template itself is extremely revolutionary, especially in the technique of creating a portrait. Leonardo abandoned the use of a blank background, as he had previously done. The position of the figure from the waist, the position of the arms is an absolute novelty. Although it may seem paradoxical, there is a sense of movement in this painting. The background shrouded in fog, the bridge over the river, the colors used by the artist create a feeling of naturalness and liveliness. It is assumed that the slight blurring of the figure reflects the heroine's heartbeat. The author also uses the author's sfumato technique in his work, creating a haze effect.

Framed work

One element of the work that touches all viewers is the smile of the Mona Lisa, famous throughout the world. The smile is on the verge of recognition. Its presence and shape changes depending on the observation points. It is believed that, with all its mystery, it embodies the impossibility of finding a foothold in human feelings.

Leonardo turns this portrait into perfect image, paying Special attention own vision of reality and nature, which are never in a static position; on the contrary, they are dynamic and alive.

Interpretations and symbolism

There is speculation that the painting depicts Leonardo's androgynous lover. Some scientists believe that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of the artist. The use of modern technologies made it possible to look under the outer layer of paint and see another portrait there, reminiscent of both a rough version of Mona Lisa and an independent work. However, Louvre staff and many experts are skeptical of many studies and do not comment on the main high-profile statements.

Gioconda is a painting that perfectly represents “poetry” Leonardo da Vinci: This work shows the personal experiences of the creator, the complexity of the universe in the smallest detail. The background behind Lisa Gherardini is done in an exceptional way: corrosion and rocks formed by rivers create the landscape with a slight filter. You can trace the transformation of matter from solid, to liquid, and then to gaseous. The woman as the subject of the composition does not contradict this theme, but rather represents the last step of evolution in this list.

Light plays a fundamental role in this work, it completely “embraces” the woman, creates sharp contrasts with dark fragments, and is also the subject of controversy.

Heritage

Entire books and scientific works are dedicated to Gioconda, the authors of which are trying to understand the content, but the work still hides many secrets. "Mona Lisa" gave rise to many controversies and conversations, still remaining one of the most popular paintings in the history of art. The elusiveness of nature and the human soul, as well as other symbolism, are still being interpreted to this day with the help of the mentioned smile, the colors and colors used, as well as modern technologies.

Painting "Mona Lisa" updated: October 25, 2017 by: Gleb

He spent considerable time on it and, leaving Italy in adulthood, took it with him to France, among some other selected paintings. Da Vinci had a special affection for this portrait, and also thought a lot during the process of its creation; in the “Treatise on Painting” and in those notes on painting techniques that were not included in it, one can find many indications that undoubtedly relate to “La Gioconda” ".

Vasari's message

"Leonardo da Vinci's Studio" in an 1845 engraving: Gioconda is entertained by jesters and musicians

This drawing from the Hyde Collection in New York may be by Leonardo da Vinci and is a preliminary sketch for a portrait of the Mona Lisa. In this case, it is curious that at first he intended to place a magnificent branch in her hands.

Most likely, Vasari simply added a story about jesters to entertain readers. Vasari's text also contains an accurate description of the eyebrows missing from the painting. This inaccuracy could only arise if the author described the picture from memory or from the stories of others. Alexey Dzhivelegov writes that Vasari’s indication that “the work on the portrait lasted four years is clearly exaggerated: Leonardo did not stay in Florence for so long after returning from Caesar Borgia, and if he had started painting the portrait before leaving for Caesar, Vasari would probably , I would say that he wrote it for five years." The scientist also writes about the erroneous indication of the unfinished nature of the portrait - “the portrait undoubtedly took a long time to paint and was completed, no matter what Vasari said, who in his biography of Leonardo stylized him as an artist who, in principle, could not finish any major work. And not only was it finished, but it is one of Leonardo’s most carefully finished works.”

An interesting fact is that in his description Vasari admires Leonardo's talent for conveying physical phenomena, and not the similarity between the model and the painting. It seems that it was this “physical” feature of the masterpiece that left a deep impression on visitors to the artist’s studio and reached Vasari almost fifty years later.

The painting was well known among art lovers, although Leonardo left Italy for France in 1516, taking the painting with him. According to Italian sources, it has since been in the collection of the French king Francis I, but it remains unclear when and how he acquired it and why Leonardo did not return it to the customer.

Other

Perhaps the artist really did not finish the painting in Florence, but took it with him when leaving in 1516 and applied the final stroke in the absence of witnesses who could tell Vasari about it. If so, he completed it shortly before his death in 1519. (In France, he lived in Clos Luce, not far from the royal castle of Amboise).

Although Vasari provides information about the woman’s identity, there was still uncertainty about her for a long time and many versions were expressed:

A note in the margin proved the correct identification of the model of the Mona Lisa.

According to one of the put forward versions, “Mona Lisa” is a self-portrait of the artist

However, the version about the correspondence of the generally accepted name of the picture to the personality of the model in 2005 is believed to have found final confirmation. Scientists from the University of Heidelberg studied the notes in the margins of the tome, the owner of which was a Florentine official, a personal acquaintance of the artist Agostino Vespucci. In notes in the margins of the book, he compares Leonardo with the famous ancient Greek painter Apelles and notes that “da Vinci is now working on three paintings, one of which is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini”. Thus, the Mona Lisa really turned out to be the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo - Lisa Gherardini. The painting, as scholars prove in this case, was commissioned by Leonardo for the new home of the young family and to commemorate the birth of their second son, named Andrea.

Painting

Description

The copy of the Mona Lisa from the Wallace Collection (Baltimore) was made before the edges of the original were trimmed, and allows the lost columns to be seen

The rectangular painting depicts a woman in dark clothes, turning half-turned. She sits in a chair with her hands clasped together, one hand resting on its armrest and the other on top, turning in the chair almost to face the viewer. Parted, smoothly and flatly lying hair, visible through a transparent veil draped over it (according to some assumptions - an attribute of widowhood), falls on the shoulders in two thin, slightly wavy strands. A green dress in thin ruffles, with yellow pleated sleeves, cut out on a white low chest. The head is slightly turned.

Fragment of the Mona Lisa with the remains of the column base

The lower edge of the painting cuts off the second half of her body, so the portrait is almost half-length. The chair in which the model sits stands on a balcony or loggia, the parapet line of which is visible behind her elbows. It is believed that earlier the picture could have been wider and accommodated two side columns of the loggia, from which this moment two column bases remain, fragments of which are visible along the edges of the parapet.

The loggia overlooks a desolate wilderness with meandering streams and a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains that extends to a high skyline behind the figure. “Mona Lisa is represented sitting in a chair against the backdrop of a landscape, and the very juxtaposition of her figure, very close to the viewer, with the landscape visible from afar, like a huge mountain, imparts extraordinary grandeur to the image. The same impression is promoted by the contrast of the heightened plastic tactility of the figure and its smooth, generalized silhouette with a vision-like landscape stretching into the foggy distance with bizarre rocks and water channels winding among them.”

Composition

The portrait of Gioconda is one of the best examples of the portrait genre of the Italian High Renaissance.

Boris Vipper writes that, despite traces of the Quattrocento, “with her clothes with a small cutout on the chest and with sleeves in loose folds, just like her straight pose, slight turn of the body and soft gesture of the hands, Mona Lisa belongs entirely to the era classic style". Mikhail Alpatov points out that “Gioconda is perfectly inscribed in a strictly proportional rectangle, her half-figure forms something whole, her folded hands give her image completeness. Now, of course, there could be no question of the fanciful curls of the early “Annunciation.” However, no matter how softened all the contours are, the wavy strand of Mona Lisa’s hair is in tune with the transparent veil, and the hanging fabric thrown over her shoulder finds an echo in the smooth windings of the distant road. In all this, Leonardo demonstrates his ability to create according to the laws of rhythm and harmony.”

Current state

“Mona Lisa” became very dark, which is considered the result of its author’s inherent tendency to experiment with paints, because of which the “Last Supper” fresco practically died. The artist's contemporaries, however, managed to express their admiration not only for the composition, design and play of chiaroscuro - but also for the color of the work. It is assumed, for example, that the sleeves of her dress may have originally been red - as can be seen from the copy of the painting from the Prado.

The current condition of the painting is quite poor, which is why the Louvre staff announced that they would no longer give it to exhibitions: “Cracks have formed in the painting, and one of them stops a few millimeters above the head of the Mona Lisa.”

Analysis

Technique

As Dzhivelegov notes, by the time of the creation of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo’s mastery “had already entered a phase of such maturity, when all formal tasks of a compositional and other nature were posed and solved, when Leonardo began to think that only the last, most difficult tasks artistic technique deserve to be addressed. And when he found a model in the person of Mona Lisa that satisfied his needs, he tried to solve some of the highest and most difficult problems of painting technique that he had not yet solved. He wanted, with the help of techniques that he had already developed and tried before, especially with the help of his famous sfumato, which had previously given extraordinary effects, to do more than he had done before: to create a living face of a living person and so reproduce the features and expression of this face so that they would reveal to the end inner world person."

Landscape behind the Mona Lisa

Boris Vipper asks the question “by what means was this spirituality achieved, this undying spark of consciousness in the image of the Mona Lisa, then two main means should be named. One is Leonard's wonderful sfumato. No wonder Leonardo liked to say that “modeling is the soul of painting.” It is sfumato that creates Gioconda’s moist gaze, her smile as light as the wind, and the incomparable caressing softness of the touch of her hands.” Sfumato is a subtle haze that envelops the face and figure, softening contours and shadows. For this purpose, Leonardo recommended placing, as he puts it, “a kind of fog” between the light source and the bodies.

Rothenberg writes that “Leonardo managed to introduce into his creation that degree of generalization that allows him to be considered as an image of the Renaissance man as a whole. This high degree of generalization is reflected in all elements figurative language the painting, in its individual motifs - in how a light, transparent veil, covering the head and shoulders of Mona Lisa, unites carefully drawn strands of hair and small folds of the dress into an overall smooth contour; it is palpable in the incomparable softness of the modeling of the face (from which, according to the fashion of that time, eyebrows were removed) and beautiful, sleek hands.”

Alpatov adds that “in the softly melting haze enveloping the face and figure, Leonardo managed to make one feel the limitless variability of human facial expressions. Although Gioconda's eyes look attentively and calmly at the viewer, thanks to the shading of her eye sockets, one might think that they are frowning slightly; her lips are compressed, but near their corners there are subtle shadows that make you believe that every minute they will open, smile, and speak. The very contrast between her gaze and the half-smile on her lips gives an idea of ​​the inconsistency of her experiences. (...) Leonardo worked on it for several years, ensuring that not a single sharp stroke, not a single angular outline remained in the picture; and although the edges of objects in it are clearly perceptible, they all dissolve in the subtlest transitions from half-shadows to half-lights.”

Scenery

Art critics emphasize the organic way with which the artist combined the portrait characteristics of a person with a landscape full of a special mood, and how much this increased the dignity of the portrait.

An early copy of the Mona Lisa from the Prado shows how much a portrait image loses when placed against a dark, neutral background

In 2012, a copy of the “Mona Lisa” from the Prado was cleared, and under the later recordings there was a landscape background - the feeling of the canvas immediately changes.

Whipper considers landscape to be the second medium that creates the spirituality of a painting: “The second medium is the relationship between figure and background. The fantastic, rocky landscape, as if seen through sea water, in the portrait of Mona Lisa has some other reality than her figure itself. The Mona Lisa has the reality of life, the landscape has the reality of a dream. Thanks to this contrast, Mona Lisa seems so incredibly close and tangible, and we perceive the landscape as the radiation of her own dreams.”

Researcher renaissance art Victor Grashchenkov writes that Leonardo, including thanks to the landscape, managed to create not a portrait of a specific person, but a universal image: “In this mysterious picture, he created something more than a portrait image of the unknown Florentine Mona Lisa, the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Appearance and the mental structure of a particular person are conveyed by him with unprecedented syntheticity. This impersonal psychologism corresponds to the cosmic abstraction of the landscape, almost completely devoid of any signs of human presence. In smoky chiaroscuro, not only all the outlines of the figure and landscape are softened, but also everything color tones. In the subtle transitions from light to shadow, almost imperceptible to the eye, in the vibration of Leonard’s “sfumato”, any definiteness of individuality and its psychological state softens to the limit, melts and is ready to disappear. (…) “La Gioconda” is not a portrait. This is a visible symbol of the very life of man and nature, united into one whole and presented abstractly from its individual concrete form. But behind the barely noticeable movement, which, like light ripples, runs across the motionless surface of this harmonious world, one can discern all the richness of the possibilities of physical and spiritual existence.”

“Mona Lisa” is designed in golden brown and reddish tones in the foreground and emerald green tones in the background. “Transparent, like glass, paints form an alloy, as if created not by the hand of a person, but by that internal force of matter that gives birth to crystals of perfect shape from a solution.” Like many of Leonardo's works, this work has darkened over time, and its color relationships have changed somewhat, but even now one can clearly perceive the thoughtful juxtapositions in the tones of carnation and clothing and their general contrast with the bluish-green, "underwater" tone of the landscape .

The place of the painting in the development of the portrait genre

“Mona Lisa” is considered one of the best works in the genre of portraiture, which influenced the works of the High Renaissance and, indirectly through them, all subsequent development of the genre, which “must always return to La Gioconda as an unattainable, but obligatory model.”

Art historians note that the portrait of Mona Lisa was a decisive step in the development of Renaissance portraiture. Rotenberg writes: “although the Quattrocento painters left a number of significant works of this genre, their achievements in portraiture were, so to speak, disproportionate to the achievements in the main painting genres - in compositions on religious and mythological themes. The inequality of the portrait genre was already reflected in the very “iconography” of portrait images. The actual portrait works of the 15th century, for all their undeniable physiognomic similarity and the feeling of inner strength they radiated, were also distinguished by external and internal constraint. All the wealth of human feelings and experiences that characterizes the biblical and mythological images of 15th-century painters was usually not the property of their portrait works. Echoes of this can be seen in earlier portraits of Leonardo himself, created by him in the first years of his stay in Milan. (...) In comparison, the portrait of Mona Lisa is perceived as the result of a gigantic qualitative shift. For the first time, the portrait image in its importance became on par with the most bright images other pictorial genres".

“Donna Nuda” (that is, “Naked Donna”). Unknown artist, late 16th century, Hermitage

In his innovative work, Leonardo transferred the main center of gravity to the face of the portrait. At the same time he used his hands as a powerful tool psychological characteristics. By making the portrait generational in format, the artist was able to demonstrate a wider range of artistic techniques. And the most important thing in the figurative structure of a portrait is the subordination of all details to the guiding idea. “The head and hands are the undoubted center of the picture, to which the rest of its elements are sacrificed. The fabulous landscape seems to shine through the sea waters, it seems so distant and intangible. His the main objective- do not distract the viewer’s attention from the face. And the same role is intended to be performed by the garment, which falls into the smallest folds. Leonardo deliberately avoids heavy draperies, which could obscure the expressiveness of his hands and face. Thus, he forces the latter to perform with special force, the greater the more modest and neutral the landscape and attire, likened to a quiet, barely noticeable accompaniment.”

Leonardo's students and followers created numerous replicas of the Mona Lisa. Some of them (from the Vernon collection, USA; from the Walter collection, Baltimore, USA; and also for some time the Isleworth Mona Lisa, Switzerland) are considered authentic by their owners, and the painting in the Louvre is considered a copy. There is also the “nude Mona Lisa” iconography, presented in several versions (“Beautiful Gabrielle”, “Monna Vanna”, the Hermitage “Donna Nuda”), apparently made by the artist’s own students. A large number of them gave rise to an unprovable version that there was a version of the nude Mona Lisa, painted by the master himself.

Reputation of the painting

"Mona Lisa" behind bulletproof glass in the Louvre and museum visitors crowding nearby

Despite the fact that the Mona Lisa was highly appreciated by the artist’s contemporaries, its fame later faded. The painting was not particularly remembered until the mid-19th century, when artists close to the Symbolist movement began to praise it, associating it with their ideas about feminine mystique. Critic Walter Pater expressed his opinion in his 1867 essay on da Vinci, describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythical embodiment of the eternal feminine, who is "older than the rocks between which she sits" and who has "died many times and learned the secrets of the afterlife." .

The painting’s further rise in fame is associated with its mysterious disappearance at the beginning of the 20th century and its happy return to the museum several years later (see below, section Theft), thanks to which it did not leave the pages of newspapers.

A contemporary of her adventure, critic Abram Efros wrote: “... the museum guard, who now does not leave a single step from the painting, since its return to the Louvre after the abduction in 1911, is guarding not a portrait of Francesca del Giocondo’s wife, but an image of some half-human, half-snake a creature, either smiling or gloomy, dominating the cold, bare, rocky space spread out behind him.”

"Mona Lisa" today is one of the most famous paintings Western European art. Its resounding reputation is associated not only with its high artistic merits, but also with the atmosphere of mystery surrounding this work.

Everyone knows what an unsolvable riddle the Mona Lisa has been asking for fans who crowd in front of her image for almost four hundred years now. Never before has an artist expressed the essence of femininity (I quote lines written by a sophisticated writer hiding behind the pseudonym Pierre Corlet): “Tenderness and bestiality, modesty and hidden voluptuousness, great secret a heart that restrains itself, a reasoning mind, a personality closed in on itself, leaving others to contemplate only its brilliance.” (Eugene Muntz).

One of the mysteries is related to the deep affection that the author felt for this work. Various explanations were offered, for example, a romantic one: Leonardo fell in love with Mona Lisa and deliberately delayed work in order to stay longer with her, and she teased him with her mysterious smile and brought him to the greatest creative ecstasies. This version is considered simply speculation. Dzhivelegov believes that this attachment is due to the fact that he found in her the point of application for many of his creative quests (see section Technique).

Smile of Gioconda

The Mona Lisa's smile is one of the most famous mysteries of the painting. This light wandering smile is found in many works by both the master himself and the Leonardesques, but it was in the Mona Lisa that it reached its perfection.

Grashchenkov writes: “The endless variety of human feelings and desires, opposing passions and thoughts, smoothed out and fused together, resonates in the harmoniously dispassionate appearance of Gioconda only with the uncertainty of her smile, barely emerging and disappearing. This meaningless fleeting movement of the corners of her mouth, like a distant echo merged into one sound, brings to us from the boundless distance the colorful polyphony of a person’s spiritual life.”

Art critic Rotenberg believes that “there are few portraits in all of world art that are equal to the Mona Lisa in terms of the power of expression of the human personality, embodied in the unity of character and intellect. It is precisely the extraordinary intellectual charge of Leonardo’s portrait that distinguishes it from portrait images Quattrocento. This feature of his is perceived all the more acutely because it relates to portrait of a woman, in which the character of the model was previously revealed in a completely different, predominantly lyrical, figurative tonality. The feeling of strength emanating from the “Mona Lisa” is an organic combination of internal composure and a sense of personal freedom, the spiritual harmony of a person based on his consciousness of his own significance. And her smile itself does not at all express superiority or disdain; it is perceived as the result of calm self-confidence and complete self-control."

Boris Vipper points out that the above-mentioned lack of eyebrows and shaved forehead perhaps involuntarily enhances the strange mystery in her facial expression. He further writes about the power of the painting: “If we ask ourselves what is the great attractive power of the Mona Lisa, its truly incomparable hypnotic effect, then there can only be one answer - in its spirituality. The most ingenious and the most opposite interpretations were put into the smile of “La Gioconda”. They wanted to read pride and tenderness, sensuality and coquetry, cruelty and modesty in it. The mistake was, firstly, in the fact that they were looking for individual, subjective spiritual properties at all costs in the image of the Mona Lisa, while there is no doubt that Leonardo was striving for typical spirituality. Secondly, and this is perhaps even more important, they tried to attribute emotional content to the spirituality of Mona Lisa, whereas in fact it has intellectual roots. The miracle of the Mona Lisa lies precisely in the fact that she thinks; that, standing in front of a yellowed, cracked board, we irresistibly feel the presence of a being endowed with intelligence, a being with whom we can talk and from whom we can expect an answer.”

Lazarev analyzed it as an art scientist: “This smile is not so much an individual feature of Mona Lisa, but a typical formula for psychological revitalization, a formula that runs like a red thread through all of Leonardo’s youthful images, a formula that later turned, in the hands of his students and followers, into traditional stamp. Like the proportions of Leonard's figures, it is built on the finest mathematical measurements, on strict consideration of the expressive values ​​of individual parts of the face. And for all that, this smile is absolutely natural, and this is precisely the power of its charm. It takes away everything hard, tense, and frozen from the face; it turns it into a mirror of vague, indefinite emotional experiences; in its elusive lightness it can only be compared to a ripple running through water.”

Her analysis attracted the attention of not only art historians, but also psychologists. Sigmund Freud writes: “Whoever imagines Leonardo’s paintings is reminded of a strange, captivating and mysterious smile hidden on his lips female images. The smile frozen on his elongated, quivering lips became characteristic of him and is most often called “Leonardian.” In the peculiarly beautiful appearance of the Florentine Mona Lisa del Gioconda, she most captivates and plunges the viewer into confusion. This smile required one interpretation, but found a variety of interpretations, none of which satisfied. (...) The guess that two different elements were combined in Mona Lisa’s smile was born among many critics. Therefore, in the expression on the face of the beautiful Florentine, they saw the most perfect image of the antagonism that governs love life women, restraint and seduction, sacrificial tenderness and recklessly demanding sensuality, absorbing a man as something extraneous. (...) Leonardo, in the person of Mona Lisa, managed to reproduce the double meaning of her smile, the promise of boundless tenderness and ominous threat.”

16th century copy located in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The viewer is especially fascinated by the demonic charm of this smile. Hundreds of poets and writers have written about this woman, who seems to be either smiling seductively or frozen, looking coldly and soullessly into space, and no one unraveled her smile, no one interpreted her thoughts. Everything, even the landscape, is mysterious, like a dream, tremulous, like a pre-storm haze of sensuality (Muter).

History of the painting in modern times

At the time of his death in 1525, Leonardo's assistant (and possibly lover) named Salai was in possession, according to references in his personal papers, of a portrait of a woman named "La Gioconda" ( quadro de una dona aretata), which was bequeathed to him by his teacher. Salai left the painting to his sisters who lived in Milan. It remains a mystery how, in this case, the portrait got from Milan back to France. It is also unknown who and when exactly trimmed the edges of the painting with columns, which, according to most researchers, based on comparison with other portraits, existed in the original version. Unlike another cropped work by Leonardo - “Portrait of Ginevra Benci”, the lower part of which was cropped because it was damaged by water or fire, in this case the reasons were most likely of a compositional nature. There is a version that Leonardo da Vinci himself did this.

Crowd in the Louvre near the painting, our days

King Francis I is believed to have bought the painting from Salai's heirs (for 4,000 ecus) and kept it in his castle of Fontainebleau, where it remained until the time of Louis XIV. The latter transported her to the Palace of Versailles, and after the French Revolution she ended up in the Louvre. Napoleon hung the portrait in his bedroom at the Tuileries Palace, then it returned to the museum.

During World War II, for safety reasons, the painting was transported from the Louvre to the Castle of Amboise (the place of Leonardo's death and burial), then to Loc-Dieu Abbey, and finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban, from where it was safely returned to its place after the victory.

Vandalism

In 1956, the lower part of the painting was damaged when a visitor threw acid on it. On December 30 of the same year, a young Bolivian, Hugo Ungaza Villegas, threw a stone at her and damaged the paint layer at her elbow (the loss was later recorded). After this, the Mona Lisa was protected with bulletproof glass, which protected it from further serious attacks. Still, in April 1974, a woman, upset by the museum’s policy towards the disabled, tried to spray red paint from a can while the painting was on display in Tokyo, and on April 2, 2009, a Russian woman, who had not received French citizenship, threw a clay cup at the glass. Both of these cases did not harm the picture.

In art

Kazimir Malevich. "Composition with the Mona Lisa."

• Kazimir Malevich made “Composition with the Mona Lisa” in 1914.
• In 1919, Dadaist Marcel Duchamp created the work “L.H.O.O.Q.”, a landmark for subsequent works by artists. , which was a reproduction famous painting with a drawn mustache.
• Fernand Léger painted "Mona Lisa with Keys" in 1930.
• Rene Magritte in 1960 created the painting “La Gioconda”, where there is no Mona Lisa, but there is a window.
• Andy Warhol in 1963 and 1978 made the composition “Four Mona Lisas” and “Thirty Are Better Than One Andy Warhol” (1963), “Mona Lisa (Two Times)” ().
• Salvador Dali painted Self-Portrait as the Mona Lisa in 1964.
• Representative of figurative art

Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo (Mona Lisa or Gioconda). 1503-1519. Louvre, Paris.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is the most mysterious picture. Because she is very popular. When there is so much attention, an unimaginable number of secrets and speculations appear.

So I couldn’t resist trying to solve one of these mysteries. No, I won't look for encrypted codes. I will not unravel the mystery of her smile.

I'm worried about something else. Why does the description of the Mona Lisa's portrait by Leonardo's contemporaries not coincide with what we see in the portrait from the Louvre? Is there really a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, hanging in the Louvre? And if this is not the Mona Lisa, then where is the real Gioconda kept?

The authorship of Leonardo is indisputable

Almost no one doubts that he painted the Louvre Mona Lisa himself. It is in this portrait that the master’s sfumato method (very subtle transitions from light to shadow) is revealed to the maximum. A barely perceptible haze, shading the lines, makes the Mona Lisa almost alive. It seems that her lips are about to part. She will sigh. The chest will rise.

Few could compete with Leonardo in creating such realism. Except that . But in applying the method, sfumato was still inferior to him.

Even compared to earlier portraits of Leonardo himself, the Louvre Mona Lisa is an obvious advance.

Leonardo da Vinci. Left: Portrait of Ginerva Benci. 1476 National Gallery Washington. Middle: Lady with an ermine. 1490 Czartoryski Museum, Krakow. Right: Mona Lisa. 1503-1519 Louvre, Paris

Leonardo's contemporaries described a completely different Mona Lisa

There is no doubt about Leonardo's authorship. But is it correct to call the lady in the Louvre the Mona Lisa? Anyone may have doubts about this. Just read the description of the portrait, a younger contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci. Here's what he wrote in 1550, 30 years after the master's death:

“Leonardo undertook to make a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, for Francesco del Giocondo, and, having worked on it for four years, left it unfinished... the eyes have that shine and that moisture that is usually visible in a living person... The eyebrows could not be more natural: the hair grow densely in one place and less often in another in accordance with the pores of the skin... The mouth is slightly open with the edges connected by the redness of the lips... Mona Lisa was very beautiful... her smile is so pleasant that it seems as if you are contemplating a divine rather than a human being... ”

Notice how many details from Vasari's description do not match the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.

At the time of painting the portrait, Lisa was no more than 25 years old. The Mona Lisa from the Louvre is clearly older. This is a lady who is over 30-35 years old.

Vasari also talks about eyebrows. Which the Mona Lisa doesn't have. However, this can be attributed to poor restoration. There is a version that they were erased due to unsuccessful cleaning of the painting.

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (fragment). 1503-1519

Scarlet lips with a slightly open mouth are completely absent in the Louvre portrait.

One can also argue about the charming smile of the divine being. It doesn't seem that way to everyone. It is sometimes even compared to the smile of a confident predator. But this is a matter of taste. One can also argue about the beauty of the Mona Lisa mentioned by Vasari.

The main thing is that the Louvre Mona Lisa is completely finished. Vasari claims that the portrait was abandoned unfinished. Now this is a serious inconsistency.

Where is the real Mona Lisa?

So if it’s not the Mona Lisa hanging in the Louvre, where is it?

I know of at least three portraits that fit Vasari's description much more closely. In addition, they were all created in the same years as the Louvre portrait.

1. Mona Lisa from Prado

Unknown artist (student of Leonardo da Vinci). Mona Lisa. 1503-1519

This Mona Lisa received little attention until 2012. Until one day restaurateurs cleared the black background. And lo and behold! Under the dark paint was a landscape - an exact copy of the Louvre background.

Pradovskaya Mona Lisa younger than years by 10 of its competitor from the Louvre. Which corresponds to the real age of the real Lisa. She looks nicer. She has eyebrows after all.

However, experts did not claim the title of the main picture of the world. They admitted that the work was done by one of Leonardo's students.

Thanks to this work, we can imagine what the Louvre Mona Lisa looked like 500 years ago. After all, the portrait from the Prado is much better preserved. Due to Leonardo's constant experiments with paints and varnish, the Mona Lisa became very dark. Most likely, she also once wore a red dress, not a golden brown one.

2. Flora from the Hermitage

Francesco Melzi. Flora (Columbine). 1510-1515 , Saint Petersburg

Flora fits Vasari's description very well. Young, very beautiful, with an unusually pleasant smile of scarlet lips.

In addition, this is exactly how Melzi himself described his teacher Leonardo’s favorite work. In his correspondence he calls her Gioconda. The painting, he said, depicted a girl of incredible beauty with a Columbine flower in her hand.

However, we do not see her “wet” eyes. In addition, it is unlikely that Signor Giocondo would allow his wife to pose with her breasts exposed.

So why does Melzi call her La Gioconda? After all, it is this name that leads some experts to believe that the real Mona Lisa is not in the Louvre, but in.

Perhaps there has been some confusion over the 500 years. From Italian “Gioconda” is translated as “Merry”. Maybe that’s what the students and Leonardo himself called his Flora. But it so happened that this word coincided with the name of the portrait’s customer, Giocondo.

Unknown artist (Leonardo da Vinci?). Isleworth Mona Lisa. 1503-1507 Private collection

This portrait was revealed to the general public about 100 years ago. An English collector bought it from Italian owners in 1914. They allegedly had no idea what treasure they had.

A version was put forward that this is the same Mona Lisa that Leonardo painted to order for Signor Giocondo. But he didn’t finish it.

It is also assumed that the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Louvre was already painted by Leonardo 10 years later. Already for himself. Taking as a basis the already familiar image of Signora Giocondo. For the sake of my own artistic experiments. So that no one would bother him or demand a painting.

The version looks plausible. In addition, Isleworth's Mona Lisa is unfinished. I wrote about this. Notice how undeveloped the woman's neck and the landscape behind her are. She also looks younger than her Louvre rival. It’s as if they really portrayed the same woman 10-15 years apart.

The version is very interesting. If not for one big BUT. Isleworth's Mona Lisa was painted on canvas. Whereas Leonardo da Vinci wrote only on the board. Including the Louvre Mona Lisa.

Crime of the century. The abduction of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre

Maybe the real Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre. But Vasari described it too inaccurately. And Leonardo has nothing to do with the three paintings above.

However, in the 20th century, one incident occurred that still casts doubt on whether the real Mona Lisa hangs in the Louvre.

In August 1911, the Mona Lisa disappeared from the museum. They searched for her for 3 years. Until the criminal revealed himself in the most stupid way. Placed an advertisement in the newspaper for the sale of the painting. A collector came to see the painting and realized that the person who submitted the ad was not crazy. Under his mattress was actually the Mona Lisa collecting dust.

Louvre. Crime scene photo (Mona Lisa disappeared). 1911

The culprit turned out to be Italian Vincenzo Perugia. He was a glazier and artist. Worked for several weeks at the Louvre on glass protective boxes for paintings.

According to his version, patriotic feelings awoke in him. He decided to return to Italy the painting stolen by Napoleon. For some reason he was sure that all the paintings Italian masters The Louvre has been stolen by this dictator.

The story is very suspicious. Why did he not let anyone know about himself for 3 years? It is possible that he or his customer needed time to make a copy of the Mona Lisa. As soon as the copy was ready, the thief made an announcement that would obviously lead to his arrest. By the way, he was sentenced to a ridiculous term. Less than a year later, Perugia was already free.

So it may well be that the Louvre received back a very high-quality fake. By that time, they had already learned how to artificially age paintings and pass them off as originals.

Louvre workers do not call the most famous portrait in the world the Mona Lisa. Among themselves they refer to her as the “Florentine Lady.” Apparently, many of them are sure that it is unlikely that she was the wife of Signor Giocondo. So the real Mona Lisa is somewhere else..?

Read about other titans of painting in the article “

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Portrait of a lady Lisa del Giocondo(Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo) was written by Leonardo da Vinci around 1503-1519. It is believed that this is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a silk merchant from Florence. del Giocondo translated from Italian sounds like cheerful or playful. According to the writings of biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo da Vinci painted this portrait for 4 years, but left it unfinished (however, modern researchers claim that the work is completely finished and even carefully completed). The portrait is made on a poplar board measuring 76.8x53 cm. Currently hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Mona Lisa or Mona Lisa - the painting of the great artist is the most mysterious work of painting today. There are so many mysteries and secrets associated with it that even the most experienced art critics sometimes do not know what is actually drawn in this picture. Who is Gioconda, what goals did da Vinci pursue when he created this painting? If you believe the same biographers, Leonardo, at the time he was painting this picture, kept around him various musicians and jesters who entertained the model and created a special atmosphere, which is why the canvas turned out to be so exquisite and unlike all other creations of this author.

One of the mysteries is that under ultraviolet and infrared radiation this picture looks completely different. The original Mona Lisa, which was dug up under a layer of paint using a special camera, was different from the one that visitors now see in the museum. She had a wider face, a more emphatic smile and different eyes.

Another secret is that Mona Lisa has no eyebrows and eyelashes. There is an assumption that during the Renaissance, most women looked like this and this was a tribute to the fashion of that time. Women of the 15th and 16th centuries got rid of any facial hair. Others claim that the eyebrows and eyelashes were actually there, but faded over time. A certain researcher Cott, who is studying and thoroughly researching this work of the great master, has debunked many myths about Mona Lisa. For example, the question once arose about the hand of Mona Lisa. From the outside, even an inexperienced person can see that the hand is bent in a very bizarre way. However, Cott discovered the smoothed features of a cape on his hand, the colors of which faded over time and it began to seem that the hand itself had a strange unnatural shape. Thus, we can safely say that Gioconda at the time of her writing was very different from what we see now. Time has mercilessly distorted the picture to such an extent that many are still looking for secrets of the Mona Lisa that simply do not exist.

It is also interesting that after painting the portrait of Mona Lisa, da Vinci kept it with him, and then it went into the collection of the French king Francis I. Why, after completing the work, the artist did not give it to the customer remains unknown. In addition, at different times, various assumptions have been put forward as to whether Lisa del Giocondo is correctly considered the Mona Lisa. The following women are still vying for her role: Caterina Sforza, the daughter of the Duke of Milan; Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan; Cecilia Gallerani aka Lady with an Ermine; Constanza d'Avalos, also called the Merry or La Gioconda; Pacifica Brandano is the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici; Isabela Galanda; A young man in women's clothing; Self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci himself. In the end, many are inclined to believe that the artist simply depicted the image ideal woman what she is in his opinion. As you can see, there are a lot of assumptions and they all have the right to life. And yet, researchers are almost one hundred percent sure that the Mona Lisa is Lisa del Giocondo, as they found a recording of one Florentine official who wrote: “Now da Vinci is working on three paintings, one of which is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini.”

The greatness of the painting, which is conveyed to the viewer, is also the result of the fact that the artist first painted the landscape and then the model itself on top of it. As a result (whether it was planned or happened by chance, it is unknown) the figure of Gioconda was very close to the viewer, which emphasizes its significance. The perception is also influenced by the existing contrast between the gentle curves and colors of the woman and the bizarre landscape behind, as if fabulous, spiritual, with the sfumato inherent to the master. Thus, he combined reality and fairy tale, reality and dream into one whole, which creates an incredible feeling for everyone who looks at the canvas. By the time of painting this painting, Leonardo da Vinci had achieved such skill that he created a masterpiece. The painting acts as hypnosis, the secrets of painting elusive to the eye, mysterious transitions from light to shadow, attracting demonic smile, act on a person like a boa constrictor looking at a rabbit.

The secret of Mona Lisa is linked to the most precise mathematical calculation of Leonardo, who by that time had developed the secret of the painting formula. With the help of this formula and precise mathematical calculations, a work of terrifying power came out of the master’s brush. The power of her charm is comparable to something alive and animate, and not drawn on a board. There is a feeling that the artist painted Gioconda in an instant, as if clicking a camera, and did not draw her for 4 years. In an instant, he caught her sly glance, a fleeting smile, one single movement that was embodied in the picture. How the great master of painting managed to figure it out is not destined to be revealed to anyone and will remain a secret forever.

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