This version stuck, despite the fact that Vasari describes in his biography of Leonardo... a different portrait! With a half-open mouth (the lips are closed in the portrait), with eyebrows (there are none in the portrait)…
There are many different versions who is actually depicted in the portrait; We offer you the simplest of them. Although a little shocking...
Look at these three faces. Similarity with the most famous portrait Leonardo's brushes are obvious, isn't it?
Let's add another face. The question is not for art connoisseurs: who is depicted here? Woman or man?
This is John the Baptist. Man.
And below you see a portrait of a man who served as the artist’s model for the image of John the Baptist. His name is Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno. This is the model, apprentice and student of the great Leonardo.
By the way, it was he who was the first owner of the Mona Lisa after Leonardo’s death. Here is his portrait in adulthood...
How can it be that the model for a woman's image is a man? Very simple. The fact is that angels were the ideal of beauty, and since an angel is neither a man nor a woman, the artist does not care who is inspired when depicting an “angelic appearance.”
You and I often call little children “angels.” Have you ever wondered why? Not just because little children are beautiful. But also because we can’t always determine whether the person in front of us is a boy or a girl...
By the way, let us remember the painting “Unknown” by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. The artist was faced with the task of depicting beautiful woman. Such that there is no doubt left: an exemplary beauty! Do you know whose features he gave to the heroine? Your son Seryozha!
The Mona Lisa by the great Leonardo da Vinci, also known as La Gioconda, is one of the most mysterious works in the history of art. For several centuries now, disputes have not subsided about who is actually depicted in the portrait. According to various versions, this is the wife of a Florentine merchant, a transvestite in women's clothing, the artist's mother, and finally, the artist himself, dressed as a woman... But this is only part of the secrets associated with the painting.
"Mona Lisa" is not "La Gioconda"?
It is believed that the painting was painted around 1503-1505. Model for her official version, served as a contemporary of the great painter, nee Lisa di Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini, whose portrait was allegedly ordered by her husband, the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The full name of the canvas is “Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo” - “Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo.” Gioconda (la Gioconda) also means “cheerful, playing.” So maybe it's a nickname and not a surname.
However, there are rumors among art historians that the famous “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci and his “La Gioconda” are two completely different paintings.
The fact is that none of the great painter’s contemporaries saw the portrait completed. Giorgio Vasari, in his book The Lives of the Artists, claims that Leonardo worked on the painting for four years, but never managed to finish it. However, the portrait now on display in the Louvre is completely completed.
Another artist, Raphael, testifies that he saw La Gioconda in da Vinci's studio. He sketched the portrait. In it, the model poses between two Greek columns. In the well-known portrait there are no columns. Judging by the sources, La Gioconda was also larger than the original Mona Lisa known to us. In addition, there is evidence that the unfinished canvas was transferred to the customer - the model’s husband, Florentine businessman Francesco del Giocondo. Then it was passed down from generation to generation.
The portrait, called the “Mona Lisa,” supposedly depicts the favorite of Duke Giuliano de’ Medici, Constance d’Avalos. In 1516, the artist brought this canvas with him to France. Until da Vinci’s death, the painting was on his estate near Amboise. In 1517, it ended up in the collection of the French king Francis I. It is now on view in the Louvre.
In 1914, a British antique dealer bought an image of the Mona Lisa for just a few guineas at the clothing market in the city of Bass, which he considered a successful copy of Leonardo’s creation. Subsequently, this portrait became known as the “Aiuor Mona Lisa”. It looks unfinished, with two Greek columns in the background, just like in Raphael's memories.
Then the canvas came to London, where it was bought by a syndicate of Swiss bankers in 1962.
Is it really between the two? different women Are there such similarities that they were confused? Or is there only one painting, and the second one is just a copy made by an unknown artist?
Hidden Image
By the way, recently the French expert Pascal Cotte announced that under the layer of paint in the painting there is another image, the real Lisa Gherardini. He came to this conclusion after spending ten years studying the portrait using a technology he himself developed, based on the reflection of light rays.
According to the scientist, it was possible to “recognize” the second portrait under the Mona Lisa. It also depicts a woman who sits in exactly the same position as Mona Lisa, however, unlike the latter, she looks slightly to the side and does not smile.
Fatal smile
And the famous smile of Mona Lisa? What hypotheses have not been put forward about it! It seems to some that Gioconda does not smile at all, to others that she has no teeth, and to others there seems to be something sinister in her smile...
Also in XIX century French writer Stendhal noted that after admiring the painting for a long time, he experienced an inexplicable loss of strength... Workers at the Louvre, where the painting now hangs, say that viewers often faint in front of the Mona Lisa. In addition, museum employees noticed that when the public is not allowed into the hall, the painting seems to fade, but as soon as visitors appear, the colors seem to become brighter, and the mysterious smile appears more clearly... Parapsychologists explain the phenomenon by saying that “La Gioconda” is a painting - a vampire, she drinks the life force of a person... However, this is just an assumption.
Another attempt to solve the mystery was made by Nitz Zebe from the University of Amsterdam and his American colleagues from the University of Illinois. They took advantage of a special computer program, checking the image human face with a database of human emotions. The computer issued sensational results: it turns out that extremely mixed feelings are read on Mona Lisa’s face, and among them only 83% are happiness, 9% belong to disgust, 6% to fear and 2% to anger...
Meanwhile, Italian historians discovered that if you look at Mona Lisa's eyes under a microscope, some letters and numbers become visible. So, in the right eye you can see the letters LV, which may, however, represent just the initials of the name Leonardo da Vinci. It has not yet been possible to recognize the symbols in the left eye: either the letters CE or B...
In the arch of the bridge located in the background of the picture, the number 72 “flaunts”, although there are other versions, for example, that it is 2 or the letter L... The number 149 is also visible on the canvas (the four has been erased). This may indicate the year the painting was created - 1490 or later...
But be that as it may, the mysterious smile of Gioconda will forever remain a model the highest art. After all, the divine Leonardo was able to create something that will excite descendants for many, many centuries...
IN Royal castle Amboise (France) Leonardo da Vinci completed the famous "La Gioconda" - "Mona Lisa". It is generally accepted that Leonardo is buried in the Chapel of St. Hubert at Amboise Castle.
Hidden in Mona Lisa's eyes are tiny numbers and letters that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Perhaps these are the initials of Leonardo da Vinci and the year the painting was created.
"Mona Lisa" is considered the most mysterious picture ever created. Art experts are still unraveling its secrets. At the same time, the Mona Lisa is one of the most disappointing attractions in Paris. The fact is that huge queues line up every day. Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass.
On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen. She was kidnapped by Louvre employee Vincenzo Perugia. There is an assumption that Perugia wanted to return the painting to its historical homeland. The first attempts to find the painting led nowhere. The museum administration was fired. As part of this case, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and later released. Pablo Picasso was also under suspicion. The painting was found two years later in Italy. On January 4, 1914, the painting (after exhibitions in Italian cities) returned to Paris. After these events, the picture gained unprecedented popularity.
In the DIDU cafe there is a large plasticine Mona Lisa. It was sculpted over the course of a month by ordinary cafe visitors. The process was led by artist Nikas Safronov. Mona Lisa, which was sculpted by 1,700 Muscovites and city guests, was included in the Guinness Book of Records. It became the largest plasticine reproduction of the Mona Lisa made by people.
During World War II, many works from the Louvre collection were hidden in the Chateau de Chambord. Among them was the Mona Lisa. The photographs show emergency preparations for sending the painting before the Nazis arrived in Paris. 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.
According to the History Channel movie Life After People, after 100 years without people, the Mona Lisa is eaten by bugs.
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.
At the very beginning of the 16th century, the famous Italian painter and sculptor Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) painted one of the greatest masterpieces of modern civilization - a portrait of the Mona Lisa or Gioconda. Since then this piece of art haunts people. It's safe to say that there is a mystery to the Mona Lisa. Scientists, artists and simply art connoisseurs ask themselves a number of questions. Who is shown in the picture? Why couldn't the artist finish this work? How does it affect people?
But before we begin to unravel the historical charades, let's first understand the title of the work. Why is it called either “La Gioconda” or “Mona Lisa”? It is officially believed that Leonardo took up the task of painting a portrait of Lisa Gherardini. This is a historical figure who lived in Florence. Lisa belonged to noble women. She was born in 1479 and died in 1542. Some experts call the year 1551. At the time of painting the portrait she was 22-24 years old.
At first the painting was called “Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Gioconda.” Gioconda is the surname of the husband of the posing girl. My mistress in Italian means “ma donna”, and is abbreviated as “mona”. That is, “Mona Lisa” is “Mrs. Lisa”. And the portrait was first called “Gioconda” in 1525 by Da Vinci’s student, the artist Salai. Both names took root and have survived to this day in this form.
The greatest interest in the unique portrait is the smile of the Mona Lisa. It has been debated for hundreds of years. But no less a mystery is the image itself captured on the canvas. Officially, this is Lisa, née Gherardini. But there are experts who claim that this is not her at all. There are several assumptions about who the artist really depicted.
The most exotic version claims that La Gioconda is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself. This is by no means idle speculation. The portrait was subjected to computer research, and it showed that the artist’s facial features coincided with the girl’s facial features. Such an amazing similarity made it possible to claim that Leonardo created his self-portrait, reflecting in it the hidden feminine traits of his own nature.
Images of Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa
This version indirectly explains why da Vinci took almost 4 years to paint the picture. Moreover, he did not give it to the customer. The work remained with him, then passed on to a student, and later ended up in the collection of the French king Francis I. One should also take into account the Italian’s predisposition to various puzzles, jokes and riddles. He was very fond of such things and could well “make fun” of future researchers of his work.
But the mystery of the Mona Lisa is not limited to Leonardo's self-portrait. There is another exotic version. She claims that the portrait shows a young man in a woman's dress. What kind of young man? This is a student of a great artist named Salai. Leonardo and Szalai were together for 25 years. It is assumed that they were connected not only by friendly relations, but also homosexual. This gave rise to the assumption that Salai dressed in a woman’s dress and posed for the picture. This version also explains why the portrait remained with the great artist.
In the first quarter of the 20th century, it was suggested that the portrait depicts Duchess Constanza d'Avalos (1460-1541). She was given the nickname “The Cheerful”, and in Italian this means “la gioconda”, that is, “Gioconda”. At the time of painting the portrait, the Duchess became a widow. Eneo Irpino sang it in his poem. Interestingly, this poem mentions a portrait of the Duchess, allegedly painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
Portrait of Salai - student of Leonardo da Vinci
It is known that the duchess's lover (widows also have lovers) was Giuliano Medici. It is assumed that it was he who ordered the portrait of his mistress. But a couple of years passed and Giuliano married Filiberte of Savoy. It is quite clear that love affair on the side could compromise her newly-made husband. Therefore, he disowned the portrait, and Leonardo kept it for himself.
There is also an assumption that the portrait depicts not the Duchess of Constanza, but another mistress of Giuliano - Pacifica, the widow Giovanni Antonio Brandano. This woman gave birth to Giuliano's son named Ippolito.
There are many other versions and assumptions. However, in 2005, notes from a certain Florentine official were discovered. In particular, he wrote that Leonardo was working on three paintings at the same time. One of them is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini.
Thus, there is indirect evidence that the portrait of the Mona Lisa is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned by him on the occasion of the birth of his second son Andrea. However, the mystery of the Mona Lisa remains so, since this evidence also raises many questions and assumptions.
(1479-06-15 )Several centuries after her death, her portrait, the Mona Lisa, was acquired global recognition and is currently considered one of the greatest works art in history. The painting is of interest to researchers and amateurs and has become the subject of a wide variety of speculation. The final match between Lisa del Giocondo and the Mona Lisa was established in 2005.
Biography
Childhood
Mona Lisa
Like many other Florentines, Francesco was a connoisseur of art and patronized artists. His son, Bartolomeo, commissioned Antonio di Donnino Mazzieri to decorate the family crypt in the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata with fresco. Andrea del Sarto, commissioned by another family member, painted Madonna. Francesco ordered ital from Domenico Puligo. Domenico Puligo painting depicting Saint Francis of Assisi.
The generally accepted version is that the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo was painted by Leonardo, and in this case, it could have been commissioned from the artist by her husband, probably to celebrate the birth of his son and the purchase of the house.
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Literature
In English
- Pallanti, Giuseppe. Mona Lisa Revealed: The True Identity of Leonardo's Model. - Florence, Italy: Skira, 2006. - ISBN 88-7624-659-2.
- Sassoon, Donald (2001). "". History Workshop Journal(Oxford University Press) 2001 (51): Abstract. DOI:10.1093/hwj/2001.51.1. ISSN.
Excerpt characterizing Lisa del Giocondo
And add secret sweetnessTo these tears that I feel flowing.]
Julie played Boris the saddest nocturnes on the harp. Boris read aloud to her Poor Lisa and more than once interrupted his reading from the excitement that took his breath away. Meeting in large society, Julie and Boris looked at each other as the only people in a world of indifferent people who understood each other.
Anna Mikhailovna, who often went to the Karagins, making up her mother’s party, meanwhile made correct inquiries about what was given for Julie (both Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests were given). Anna Mikhailovna, with devotion to the will of Providence and tenderness, looked at the refined sadness that connected her son with the rich Julie.
“Toujours charmante et melancolique, cette chere Julieie,” she said to her daughter. - Boris says that he rests his soul in your house. “He has suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive,” she told her mother.
- Oh, my friend, how attached I am to Julie Lately“,” she told her son, “I can’t describe it to you!” And who can not love her? This is such an unearthly creature! Ah, Boris, Boris! “She fell silent for a minute. “And how I feel sorry for her maman,” she continued, “today she showed me reports and letters from Penza (they have a huge estate) and she is poor, all alone: she is so deceived!
Boris smiled slightly as he listened to his mother. He meekly laughed at her simple-minded cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.
Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholic admirer and was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of disgust for her, for her passionate desire to get married, for her unnaturalness, and a feeling of horror at the renunciation of the possibility true love still stopped Boris. His vacation was already over. He spent whole days and every single day with the Karagins, and every day, reasoning with himself, Boris told himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in the presence of Julie, looking at her red face and chin, almost always covered with powder, at her moist eyes and at the expression of her face, which always expressed a readiness to immediately move from melancholy to the unnatural delight of marital happiness, Boris could not utter a decisive word: despite the fact that for a long time in his imagination he considered himself the owner of Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed the use of income from them. Julie saw Boris's indecisiveness and sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was disgusting to him; but immediately the woman’s self-delusion came to her as a consolation, and she told herself that he was shy only out of love. Her melancholy, however, began to turn into irritability, and not long before Boris left, she undertook a decisive plan. At the same time that Boris's vacation was ending, Anatol Kuragin appeared in Moscow and, of course, in the Karagins' living room, and Julie, unexpectedly leaving her melancholy, became very cheerful and attentive to Kuragin.
“Mon cher,” Anna Mikhailovna said to her son, “je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils a Moscou pour lui faire epouser Julieie.” [My dear, I know from reliable sources that Prince Vasily sends his son to Moscow in order to marry him to Julie.] I love Julie so much that I would feel sorry for her. What do you think, my friend? - said Anna Mikhailovna.
The thought of being a fool and wasting this whole month of difficult melancholy service under Julie and seeing all the income from the Penza estates already allocated and properly used in his imagination in the hands of another - especially in the hands of the stupid Anatole, offended Boris. He went to the Karagins with the firm intention of proposing. Julie greeted him with a cheerful and carefree look, casually talked about how much fun she had at yesterday's ball, and asked when he was leaving. Despite the fact that Boris came with the intention of talking about his love and therefore intended to be gentle, he irritably began to talk about women's inconstancy: how women can easily move from sadness to joy and that their mood depends only on who looks after them. Julie was offended and said that it was true that a woman needs variety, that everyone will get tired of the same thing.
“For this, I would advise you...” Boris began, wanting to tell her a caustic word; but at that very moment the offensive thought came to him that he could leave Moscow without achieving his goal and losing his work for nothing (which had never happened to him). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so as not to see her unpleasantly irritated and indecisive face and said: “I didn’t come here at all to quarrel with you.” On the contrary...” He glanced at her to make sure he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her restless, pleading eyes were fixed on him with greedy expectation. “I can always arrange it so that I rarely see her,” thought Boris. “And the work has begun and must be done!” He blushed, looked up at her and told her: “You know my feelings for you!” There was no need to say any more: Julie’s face shone with triumph and self-satisfaction; but she forced Boris to tell her everything that is said in such cases, to say that he loves her, and has never loved any woman more than her. She knew that she could demand this for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests and she got what she demanded.
