Post about Mona Lisa's smile. The secret of Mona Lisa's smile

Everything about Mona Lisa's smile is an optical illusion... It's enough to look at it from an unusual point of view.

It is quite rare for a Russian art lover to experience the great mystery of Davinci’s painting depicting the Mona Lisa with her mysterious smile, a smile that no other artist has been able to reproduce. Most of us, those who do not have the opportunity to often use our foreign passports, we have to be content with the common assertion that this smile is mysterious: we look at the reproduction, at the intricately curved female mouth, try to penetrate its mystery and sometimes, not seeing anything mysterious in it, we step aside irritated - either at ourselves or at the great Renaissance artist who turned out to be unavailable.

At the end of February, the annual conference of AAAS - the American Association for the Advancement of Science - was held in Denver - this is their most important and richest scientific society. As usual, there was a lot interesting messages one of the most different areas science, but the report of Dr. Margaret Livingston from Harvard, who claimed that she had perfectly solved this very mystery of Mona Lisa’s smile, attracted everyone’s attention.

Main mystery Great Smile lies in the fact that a person either sees it or does not see it. First we look at the picture - the woman smiles softly; Let's take a closer look and see that there is no trace of a smile. By the way, nothing depends on changing the angle, which is understandable - the canvas is still two-dimensional. The smile, however, appears and then disappears. Miracles and nothing more!

The Italians even came up with an epithet for Smile - “sfumanto”, which means “vague, indefinite”. Now there seems to be less uncertainty. Moreover, as is sometimes the case with scientists, almost by accident.

Dr. Livingston specializes in the sciences of nervous system. Her area of ​​interest is research into how the eye and brain respond to different levels contrast and lighting. The book she wrote two or three years ago was dedicated to this topic. To prevent the book from looking completely rote, the publisher asked Ms. Livingston to provide it with historical examples. So she was taken to the Louvre, to a small painting by Leonardo, where Mona Lisa was sometimes smiling, sometimes not smiling, to an inexhaustible crowd of two or three hundred spectators. “I noticed the flicker of a smile, but I didn’t understand what it was,” Ms. Livingston recalls, “and it only dawned on me when I was returning home on my bicycle.”

According to Livingston, everything is explained by the structure of our visual perception system. And this system includes two areas of vision - central and peripheral. What falls in the central area is seen clearly, with all colors and details, what we see in peripheral vision is blurry and perceived as black and white shadows and silhouettes.

When people look at someone's face, the first thing they usually look at is the eyes. Concentrating on Mona Lisa's eyes, a person sees with peripheral vision her mouth and shadows on her cheeks - these shadows enhance the impression of the curvature of her lips. But when the observer's gaze moves to the mouth, the shadows cease to play the role of a “smile enhancer” and the Mona Lisa becomes gloomy.

At Dr. Livingston's request, actress Geena Davis tried to copy Mona Lisa's shimmering smile, and they say she succeeded. Thanks to her prominent cheekbones, she managed to achieve such an expression on her face that even when she was not smiling, her face remained smiling. Perhaps an effect similar to this lies at the heart of the iconic faces that burn us with their gaze.

Dr Livingston suggested that the great Leonardo achieved such a striking effect by using a special writing technique - in her opinion, he painted the mouth of Gioconda, looking into the eyes of the portrait. Now, having solved a puzzle that had tormented art historians for half a millennium, she set to work on Monet's famous "Impression - Sunrise", trying to explain the dazzling light of the orange ball in the middle blue sky features of our visual perception.

Ms. Livingston is not alone in her quest to strip the mysteries from great works of art. Recently, we know, the secret of Van Gogh, who amazed enlightened humanity, was revealed in similar ways color schemes their paintings. It turns out that he had a specific disease of the optic nerve, he simply saw differently, his world was very yellow. And if he were healthy, his paintings would be worth nothing. Which, by the way, she was at first.

So goodbye great mysticism art, hello, Hmayak Hakobyan! Elementary Watson!

Photo: AP/Scanpix

The personality, facial features, smile and even the landscape behind the woman drawn more than 500 years ago continue to excite the minds of researchers. While some people study her lips with a magnifying glass, others find coded messages from Leonardo da Vinci in the painting, and still others even believe that the real Mona Lisa is a completely different painting.

"It will soon be four centuries since the Mona Lisa deprives everyone of their sanity who, having seen enough of it, begins to talk about it"

(Gruye, late XIX century).

The DELFI portal introduces the most popular mysteries and theories that surround famous work Leonardo da Vinci.

It is traditionally believed that da Vinci's painting depicts Lisa Gioconda, née Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by her husband Francesco Gioconda in 1503. Da Vinci, who was then unemployed, agreed to fulfill a private order, but did not complete it. Later artist went to France and settled at the court of King Francois I. According to legend, he presented the Mona Lisa to the king, presenting the painting as one of his favorites. According to other sources, the king simply bought it.

In any case, after the death of da Vinci in 1519, the painting remained the property of the king, and after French Revolution became state property and was exhibited in the Louvre. For centuries it was considered a valuable but rather ordinary masterpiece of the Renaissance. She became a world-famous icon only at the beginning of the 20th century, after she was kidnapped in August 1911 former employee Louvre, painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland (the painting was found and returned two years after the theft).

Since then, the Mona Lisa has survived several attempts at vandalism and theft and has become a major magnet for the millions of tourists who visit the Louvre every year. Since 2005, the painting has been kept in a special impenetrable glass “sarcophagus” with a controlled microclimate (the painting has darkened greatly under the influence of time due to da Vinci’s experiments with the composition of paints). About six million people examine it every year, each of whom spends an average of 15 seconds on examination.

Photo: Arhīva foto

It is traditionally believed that the painting depicts Lisa Gioconda, the third wife of the wealthy fabric and silk merchant Francesco Giocondo. Until the 20th century, this version was not particularly disputed, since family friend and historian (as well as artist) Giorgio Vasari in his works mentions as a fact that Francesco’s wife was painted by a certain famous artist. This fact was also reflected on the pages of the book by Agostino Vespucci, a clerk and assistant to the historian Niccolo Machiavelli.

However, this was not enough for many researchers, since at the time when the painting was painted, Gioconda should have been about 24 years old, but the woman depicted in the painting looks much older. Also doubtful was the fact that the painted painting never belonged to the merchant’s family, but remained with the artist. Even if we accept the assumption that da Vinci simply did not have time to complete the painting before moving to France, it is doubtful that the family of an average dealer by any standards was rich enough to commission a painting of this size. Only truly noble and extremely wealthy families could afford such paintings at that time.

Therefore, there are alternative theories that suggest that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself, or that the painting depicts his mother Katrina. The latter explains the artist’s attachment to this work.

A team of scientists is now hoping to solve this mystery by excavating beneath the walls of the Monastery of Saint Ursula in Florence. It is believed that Lisa Gioconda, who retired to a monastery after the death of her husband, could have been buried there. However, experts doubt that among the hundreds of people buried there, the remains of the Mona Lisa can be found. Even more utopian is the hope, using computer reconstruction based on the found skulls, to restore the facial features of all the people buried there in order to find the very woman who posed for the Mona Lisa.

Photo: Arhīva foto

At the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, fully plucked eyebrows were in fashion. One might assume that the woman depicted in the painting definitely followed fashion and lived up to this standard of beauty, but the French engineer Pascal Côté discovered that she actually had eyebrows.

Using a high-resolution scanner, he created a copy of the painting very High Quality, on which traces of eyebrows were found. According to Côté, the Mona Lisa originally had eyebrows, but they disappeared over time.

One of the reasons for their disappearance could be overzealous attempts to preserve the painting. In the Louvre Museum and at the royal court, the masterpiece was regularly cleaned for 500 years, as a result of which some especially delicate elements of the painting could have disappeared.

Another reason for the disappearance of eyebrows could be unsuccessful attempts carry out restoration of the painting. However, it is still unclear how the eyebrows could disappear completely. In any case, traces of a brush stroke can now be seen above the left eye, which indicate that the Mona Lisa did have eyebrows.

Photo: AFP/Scanpix

In the book "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, Leonardo da Vinci's ability to encode information is seriously exaggerated, but during his lifetime the famous master still loved to hide various information in the form of codes and ciphers. Italian History Committee national culture discovered that Mona Lisa's eyes contain tiny letters and numbers.

They are not visible to the naked eye, but with high magnification it is noticeable that the symbols are actually written in the eyes. Hidden in the right eye are the letters LV, which could be the initials of Leonardo da Vinci himself, and in the left eye the letters are blurred and can be either S, B or even CE. Symbols can also be seen on the arch of the bridge, which is located behind the model’s back - combination L2 or 72.

The numbers 149 were also found on the back of the painting. It can be assumed that the last digit is missing and this is actually the year - 149x. If this is so, then the painting was not painted at the beginning of the 16th century, as was previously believed, but earlier - at the end of the 15th century.

Photo: Arhīva foto

If you look at the lips, you can see that they are tightly compressed, without any hint of a smile. But at the same time, if you look at the picture in general, you get the feeling that the woman is smiling. This optical illusion has given rise to more than one theory about the disappearing smile of the Mona Lisa.

Experts believe that the explanation for this phenomenon is quite simple - the woman depicted in the picture is not smiling, but if the viewer’s eye is “blurred” or he is looking at her using peripheral vision, then the shadow of the face creates the effect of an imaginary upward movement of the corners of the lips.

The fact that the woman was absolutely serious is also proven by x-rays, which made it possible to look at the sketch of the painting, now hidden under a layer of paint. In it, the wife of a Florentine merchant does not look joyful from any angle.

Photo: Arhīva foto

Early copies of da Vinci's work show a much wider panorama than the painting exhibited in the Louvre. They all have columns visible on the sides, whereas in the "real" painting, only part of the column is visible on the right.

For a long time, experts argued about how this happened, and whether the painting was reduced after Da Vinci's death in order to fit a special frame or to be consistent in size with other paintings at the king's court. However, these theories were not confirmed - the edges of the painting under the frame are white, which indicates that the image did not go beyond the frames that we see today.

And in general, the theory that the painting was reduced looks doubtful, since it was painted not on fabric, but on a pine board. If pieces were sawed off from it, the paint layer could be damaged or completely separated, and this would be clearly visible.

Photo: Publicitātes foto

Judging by the columns and the landscape behind the woman in the painting, we can conclude that she was sitting on a balcony or terrace. Today, scientists adhere to the point of view that the depicted mountains, bridge, river and road are fictitious, but characteristic of the Montefeltro region in Italy.

This fact not only sheds light on what exactly is depicted in the background, but once again raises the question of the identity of the woman depicted in the picture. According to one of the Vatican archivists, the painting depicts Pacifica Brandani, a married lady and mistress of Julian de' Medici. At the time when the picture was supposedly painted, the Medici were in exile and lived in this very region.

But regardless of what region the landscape in the painting reflects and what the personality of the woman depicted in it was, it is known that Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in his studio in Milan.

Photo: Arhīva foto

American artist Ron Piccirillo believes that he has discovered a rebus hidden for 500 years in da Vinci's painting. In his opinion, the artist hid the image of the heads of three animals - a lion, a monkey and a buffalo. They are clearly visible if you turn the picture on its side.

He also claims that under the woman's left arm there is something visible that resembles the tail of a crocodile or snake. He came to these discoveries by carefully studying da Vinci's diaries for two whole months.

Photo: Arhīva foto

The Isleworth Mona Lisa, found before World War I in England, is believed to be another, early version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Its name comes from the name of the London suburb in which it was found.

This version of the painting is considered more consistent with the theory that Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpiece when Francesco Gioconda was 24 years old. This work is also more consistent with the legend that da Vinci moved to France without finishing the painting and took it with him as it was.

But at the same time, the history of this painting, unlike the Louvre original, is unknown. It is also unclear how the work came to England and who owned it. Experts cannot believe the version that the famous artist gave or sold the unfinished work to someone.

Photo: Arhīva foto

“Donna Nuda,” a portrait of a partially nude woman with a smile characteristic of da Vinci’s masterpiece, clearly resembles the original, but the author of this painting is unknown. It is interesting that this work is not only similar, but was definitely created at the beginning of the 16th century - at the same time as the Mona Lisa.

Unlike the work exhibited in the Louvre, which rarely leaves its place behind bulletproof glass, "Donna Nuda" changed its owners many times and was regularly exhibited at exhibitions dedicated to creativity da Vinci.

Historians believe that although this work most likely did not belong to the brush of da Vinci himself, it is most definitely a copy of his painting, made by one of the master’s students. The original, for some reason, was lost.

Photo: Arhīva foto

On the morning of August 21, 1911, museum workers in the Louvre found four empty nails at the site of the painting. And although until that moment the painting had not caused much excitement in society, its abduction became a real sensation, which was written about by the press in many countries around the world.

This created problems for the museum administration, since it turned out that security was not properly organized in the museum - the huge rooms with world masterpieces were guarded by only a few people. And almost all the paintings were mounted on the walls so that they could be easily removed and carried away.

This is what a former employee of the Louvre, painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, did, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland. The paintings were found and returned a year after the theft - Perugia himself foolishly responded to an advertisement for the purchase of a masterpiece. Although in Italy his act was received with understanding, the court still sentenced him to prison for two years.

This story became the catalyst for the sharply increased public interest in Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. The press that covered the kidnapping story immediately dug up a case from a year ago when a man committed suicide in the museum, right in front of the painting. Immediately there was talk about a mysterious smile, secret messages and da Vinci codes, the special mystical meaning of the Mona Lisa, etc.

The popularity of the Louvre museum has grown so much since the return of the Mona Lisa that, according to one conspiracy theory, the theft was organized by the museum's management themselves in order to attract international interest to it. This beautiful conspiracy idea is overshadowed only by the fact that the museum management itself did not gain anything from this theft - as a result of the scandal that broke out, it was fired in its entirety.

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The mysterious genius of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci - what do we know about him? Great painter, who wrote so many world masterpieces, why didn’t he finish so many works? The drawings by Leonardo da Vinci known to us convey both the beauty of the world and man, as well as creepy, ugly scenes from life.

He owned not only paintings, but also a variety of inventions, several centuries ahead of their time. The life of this man has always been shrouded in mystery, his achievements are simply amazing. Leonardo da Vinci is not just a man, but a superman living in another dimension.

Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

We will focus on his most amazing mystery - the portrait of Mona Lisa or “La Gioconda” (Louvre).

This is a picture that has been debated for centuries, and every researcher is trying to find a new mystery in this picture in order to solve it. A portrait carries within itself not just a specific reality, but is a generalization of the universal, spiritual origin. This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being” (Leonardo. M. Batkin).

The painting dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. This is a portrait of the wife of a merchant from Florence, Francesco del Giocondo.

The most famous is the riddle of Gioconda's smile. The mastery of the genius here has reached such heights that the expression on Mona Lisa’s face remains elusive, from different points of view - it is always different. Some considered this effect ominous, others - spiritual, hypnotic. This effect is called sfumato (very subtle transitions from light to shadow) - realism and volume as if the picture was painted with many strokes.

But, meanwhile, this is not so! The paint layer is very thin and the strokes are not visible at all. Researchers have long been trying to understand this style of writing using a fluorescent method. A barely perceptible haze shades the lines, making Mona Lisa almost alive. It begins to seem that her lips will part and she will utter a word.

The very first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who wrote that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish, but immediately reports that the portrait reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey. We can say with a great deal of confidence that in the image of Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci depicted not an ordinary woman, but the Mother of God.

Researchers are inclined to conclude that one half of Gioconda’s face is John the Baptist, while the profile of the other half belongs to Jesus Christ.

The left hand lies motionless, in the language of Leonardo “If the figures do not make gestures that express the idea with members of the body human soul, then these figures are twice dead.” The right hand looks more “believable”. All this confirms that in the image of Mona Lisa the artist combined a living and a dead image.

We know that he encrypted many of his works, for example, using the “mirror” writing technique. Thus, the letters LV or L2 were discovered in the right pupil of Mona Lisa. Perhaps these are initials, or perhaps a code - after all, in the Middle Ages, letters could replace numbers.

According to researcher Carla Glory, behind the silhouette of Gioconda on the canvas genius master brushes by Leonardo da Vinci depict the picturesque surroundings of the town of Bobbio, which is located in northern Italy. This conclusion was expressed following a message from the head of the Italian National Committee for the Protection of cultural monuments Silvano Vinceti - journalist, writer and discoverer of the tomb of Michelangelo da Caravaggio.

The publicist said that he examined the outline of letters and numbers on Leonardo’s priceless canvas. It was about the number “72”, which is under the arch of the bridge, viewed from left hand from Mona Lisa. Vinceti himself believes that this is a reference to the mystical theories of Leonardo da Vinci.

Glory Carla believes that the mark “72” indicates the year 1472, when the Trebbia River, which came out during a flood, carried down and destroyed the dilapidated bridge. Later, the Visconti family, which dominated the area at that time, built a new bridge. Everything except the image of the bridge is the magnificent landscape that could be seen from the terraces and windows of the local medieval castle.

The town of Bobbio was famous for the fact that nearby is the grandiose monastery ensemble of San Colombano, which became the prototype for the setting for romantic story Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose.

Carla Glori also suggested that his model was not the wife of a wealthy city dweller, Lisa del Giocondo, but the daughter of the Duke of Milan, Bianca Giovanna Sforza. The place depicted on the canvas is not the central part of Italy, as previously assumed. The father of the proposed model, Lodovico Sforza, was one of Leonardo's main customers and a renowned philanthropist.

The historian Glory suggests that the painter and naturalist visited him both in Milan and in remote Bobbio. There was a library famous in those days, which fell under the authority of the Milanese rulers. Skeptical researchers claim that the patterns of numbers and letters discovered by Vinceti in the pupils of the Mona Lisa's eyes are nothing more than cracks that appeared there over time.

However, this is not necessarily the case. An example of this amazing story research miraculous icon Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is located in Mexico.

The most terrible puzzle of Leonardo da Vinci

Combining the qualities of a scientist and a clairvoyant, in his old age Leonardo made a strange drawing - “The End of the World”, which was not understood then. Today it terrifies us: it is the outline of a huge mushroom growing out of an exploded city...

Some scientists and researchers are confident that some of Leonardo's puzzles have already been solved, for example:

1. “An ominous feathered race will fly through the air; they will attack people and animals and feed on them with a great cry.” It is believed that we are talking about airplanes, helicopters, and missiles.
2. “People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other.” Well, of course, this is a telephone, mobile communications.
3. “Sea water will rise to the high peaks of the mountains, to the heavens and again fall on the homes of people. It will be seen how the most big trees the forests will be carried by the fury of the wind from east to west.”
   It is believed that this prophecy is related to global warming.

It is impossible to list all of Leonardo's works. But even this small part is enough to get an idea of ​​this universal genius, which cannot be compared with anyone who lived in his time.

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.

16:24 21.08.2015

Back in 1911, the Mona Lisa, whose full name was “Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo,” was stolen by an employee of the Louvre, the Italian mirror master 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. What’s interesting is that it was 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 picture was probably cut 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 in Fontainebleau was the most important place in the Kingdom of France. 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.

May 6th, 2017

Her mysterious smile is captivating. Some see divine beauty in her, others - secret signs, third - a challenge to norms and society. But everyone agrees on one thing - there is something mysterious and attractive about her.

What is the secret of Mona Lisa? There are countless versions. Here are the most common and intriguing ones.

This mysterious masterpiece has puzzled researchers and art historians for centuries. Now Italian scientists have added another layer of intrigue, claiming that da Vinci left a series of very small letters and numbers in the painting. When viewed under a microscope, the letters LV can be seen in the Mona Lisa's right eye.

And in the left eye there are also some symbols, but not as noticeable as the others. They resemble the letters CE, or the letter B.

On the arch of the bridge in the background of the painting there is an inscription either “72” or “L2” or the letter L, and the number 2. Also in the painting there is the number 149 and the fourth erased number after them.

Today this painting, measuring 77x53 cm, is kept in the Louvre behind thick bulletproof glass. The image, made on a poplar board, is covered with a network of craquelures. It has gone through a number of not very successful restorations and has noticeably darkened over five centuries. However, the older the painting becomes, the more people attracts: the Louvre is visited annually by 8-9 million people.

And Leonardo himself did not want to part with the Mona Lisa, and perhaps this is the first time in history when the author did not give the work to the customer, despite the fact that he took the fee. The first owner of the painting - after the author - King Francis I of France was also delighted with the portrait. He bought it from da Vinci for incredible money at that time - 4,000 gold coins and placed it in Fontainebleau.

Napoleon was also fascinated by Madame Lisa (as he called Gioconda) and took her to his chambers in the Tuileries Palace. And the Italian Vincenzo Perugia stole a masterpiece from the Louvre in 1911, took it home and hid with her for two whole years until he was detained while trying to hand over the painting to the director of the Uffizi Gallery... In a word, at all times the portrait of a Florentine lady attracted, hypnotized, and delighted. ..

What is the secret of her attractiveness?

Version No. 1: classic

We find the first mention of the Mona Lisa in the author of the famous Lives, Giorgio Vasari. From his work we learn that Leonardo undertook to “make for Francesco del Giocondo a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, and, after working on it for four years, left it unfinished.”

The writer admires the artist’s skill, his ability to show “the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey,” and most importantly, his smile, which “is given so pleasant that it seems as if one is contemplating a divine rather than a human being.” The art historian explains the secret of her charm by saying that “while painting the portrait, he (Leonardo) held people who were playing the lyre or singing, and there were always jesters who kept her cheerful and removed the melancholy that painting usually imparts to the portraits being painted.” There is no doubt: Leonardo is an unsurpassed master, and the crown of his mastery is this divine portrait. In the image of his heroine there is a duality inherent in life itself: the modesty of the pose is combined with a bold smile, which becomes a kind of challenge to society, canons, art...

But is this really the wife of the silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo, whose surname became the middle name of this mysterious lady? Is it true that the story about the musicians who created the right mood for our heroine? Skeptics dispute all this, citing the fact that Vasari was an 8-year-old boy when Leonardo died. He could not personally know the artist or his model, so he presented only information given by the anonymous author of the first biography of Leonardo. Meanwhile, the writer also encounters controversial passages in other biographies. Take, for example, the story of Michelangelo's broken nose. Vasari writes that Pietro Torrigiani hit a classmate because of his talent, and Benvenuto Cellini explains the injury with his arrogance and impudence: while copying Masaccio's frescoes, during the lesson he ridiculed every image, for which he received a punch in the nose from Torrigiani. Cellini's version is supported by the complex character of Buonarroti, about whom there were legends.

Version No. 2: Chinese mother

Lisa del Giocondo (nee Gherardini) really existed. Italian archaeologists even claim to have found her tomb in the monastery of St. Ursula in Florence. But is she in the picture? A number of researchers claim that Leonardo painted the portrait from several models, because when he refused to give the painting to the fabric merchant Giocondo, it remained unfinished. The master spent his whole life improving his work, adding features of other models - thereby obtaining a collective portrait ideal woman of his era.

Italian scientist Angelo Paratico went further. He is sure that Mona Lisa is Leonardo's mother, who was actually...Chinese. The researcher spent 20 years in the East studying communications local traditions with the Italian Renaissance, and discovered documents showing that Leonardo's father, the notary Piero, had a wealthy client, and he had a slave whom he brought from China. Her name was Katerina - she became the mother of the Renaissance genius. It is precisely by the fact that eastern blood flowed in Leonardo’s veins that the researcher explains the famous “Leonardo’s handwriting” - the master’s ability to write from right to left (this is how entries were made in his diaries). The researcher also saw oriental features in the model’s face and in the landscape behind her. Paratico suggests exhuming Leonardo's remains and testing his DNA to confirm his theory.

The official version says that Leonardo was the son of the notary Piero and the “local peasant woman” Katerina. He could not marry a rootless woman, but took as his wife a girl from a noble family with a dowry, but she turned out to be barren. Katerina raised the child for the first few years of his life, and then the father took his son into his home. Almost nothing is known about Leonardo's mother. But, indeed, there is an opinion that the artist, separated from his mother in early childhood, all his life he tried to recreate the image and smile of his mother in his paintings. This assumption was made by Sigmund Freud in his book “Memories of Childhood. Leonardo da Vinci" and it gained many supporters among art historians.

Version No. 3: Mona Lisa is a man

Viewers often note that in the image of Mona Lisa, despite all the tenderness and modesty, there is some kind of masculinity, and the face of the young model, almost devoid of eyebrows and eyelashes, seems boyish. The famous Mona Lisa researcher Silvano Vincenti believes that this is no accident. He is sure that Leonardo posed ... as a young man in a woman's dress. And this is none other than Salai - a student of da Vinci, who was painted by him in the paintings “John the Baptist” and “Angel in the Flesh”, where the young man is endowed with the same smile as the Mona Lisa. The art historian, however, made this conclusion not only because of the external similarity of the models, but after studying photographs in high resolution, which made it possible to see Vincenti in the eyes of the model L and S - the first letters of the names of the author of the picture and the young man depicted on it, according to the expert.

"John the Baptist" by Leonardo Da Vinci (Louvre)

This version is also supported by a special relationship - Vasari also hinted at it - between the model and the artist, which may have connected Leonardo and Salai. Da Vinci was not married and had no children. At the same time, there is a denunciation document where an anonymous person accuses the artist of sodomy of a certain 17-year-old boy Jacopo Saltarelli.

Leonardo had several students, with some of whom he was more than close, according to a number of researchers. Freud also discusses Leonardo's homosexuality, and he supports this version with a psychiatric analysis of his biography and the diary of the Renaissance genius. Da Vinci's notes about Salai are also considered as an argument in favor. There is even a version that da Vinci left a portrait of Salai (since the painting is mentioned in the will of the master’s student), and from him the painting came to Francis I.

By the way, the same Silvano Vincenti put forward another assumption: that the painting depicts a certain woman from the retinue of Louis Sforza, at whose court in Milan Leonardo worked as an architect and engineer in 1482-1499. This version appeared after Vincenti saw the numbers 149 on the back of the canvas. This, according to the researcher, is the date the painting was painted, only the last number has been erased. It is traditionally believed that the master began painting Gioconda in 1503.

However, there are many other candidates for the title of Mona Lisa who compete with Salai: these are Isabella Gualandi, Ginevra Benci, Constanza d'Avalos, the libertine Caterina Sforza, a certain secret lover of Lorenzo de' Medici and even Leonardo's nurse.

Version No. 4: Gioconda is Leonardo

Another unexpected theory, which Freud hinted at, was confirmed in the research of the American Lillian Schwartz. The Mona Lisa is a self-portrait, Lilian is sure. Artist and Graphic Consultant at the School visual arts in New York in the 1980s, she compared the famous “Turin Self-Portrait” by a very middle-aged artist and a portrait of Mona Lisa and discovered that the proportions of faces (head shape, distance between the eyes, forehead height) were the same.

And in 2009, Lilian, together with amateur historian Lynn Picknett, presented the public with another incredible sensation: she claims that the Shroud of Turin is nothing more than an imprint of Leonardo’s face, made using silver sulfate using the camera obscura principle.

However, not many supported Lilian in her research - these theories are not among the most popular, unlike the following assumption.

Version No. 5: a masterpiece with Down syndrome

Gioconda suffered from Down's disease - this was the conclusion that English photographer Leo Vala came to in the 1970s after he came up with a method to “turn” the Mona Lisa in profile.

At the same time, the Danish doctor Finn Becker-Christiansson diagnosed Gioconda with congenital facial paralysis. An asymmetrical smile, in his opinion, speaks of mental deviations up to and including idiocy.

In 1991 French sculptor Alain Roche decided to embody the Mona Lisa in marble, but it didn’t work out. It turned out that from a physiological point of view, everything in the model is wrong: the face, the arms, and the shoulders. Then the sculptor turned to the physiologist, Professor Henri Greppo, and he attracted a specialist in hand microsurgery, Jean-Jacques Conte. Together, they came to the conclusion that the mysterious woman’s right hand did not rest on her left because it was possibly shorter and could be prone to cramps. Conclusion: the right half of the model’s body is paralyzed, which means the mysterious smile is also just a spasm.

Gynecologist Julio Cruz y Hermida collected a complete “medical record” of Gioconda in his book “A Look at Gioconda Through the Eyes of a Doctor.” The result was so scary picture that it is not clear how this woman even lived. According to various researchers, she suffered from alopecia (hair loss), high level cholesterol in the blood, exposure of the neck of the teeth, their loosening and loss, and even alcoholism. She had Parkinson's disease, a lipoma (benign fatty tumor on right hand), strabismus, cataracts and heterochromia of the iris (different eye colors) and asthma.

However, who said that Leonardo was anatomically accurate - what if the secret of genius lies precisely in this disproportion?

Version No. 6: a child under the heart

There is another polar “medical” version - pregnancy. American gynecologist Kenneth D. Keel is sure that Mona Lisa crossed her arms over her stomach reflexively trying to protect her unborn baby. The probability is high, because Lisa Gherardini had five children (the first-born, by the way, was named Pierrot). A hint of the legitimacy of this version can be found in the title of the portrait: Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo (Italian) - “Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo.” Monna is short for ma donna - Madonna, Mother of God (although it also means “my mistress”, lady). Art critics often explain the genius of the painting precisely because it depicts earthly woman in the image of the Mother of God.

Version No. 7: iconographic

However, the theory that the Mona Lisa is an icon has no place Mother of God occupied by an earthly woman, popular in her own right. This is the genius of the work and that is why it has become a symbol of the beginning new era in art. Used to be art served the church, government and nobility. Leonardo proves that the artist stands above all this, that the most valuable thing is the creative idea of ​​the master. And the great idea is to show the duality of the world, and the means for this is the image of the Mona Lisa, which combines divine and earthly beauty.

Version No. 8: Leonardo - creator of 3D

This combination was achieved using a special technique invented by Leonardo - sfumato (from Italian - “disappearing like smoke”). It was this painting technique, when paints are applied layer by layer, that allowed Leonardo to create aerial perspective in the picture. The artist applied countless layers of these, and each one was almost transparent. Thanks to this technique, light is reflected and scattered differently across the canvas, depending on the viewing angle and the angle of incidence of the light. That’s why the model’s facial expression is constantly changing.

The Mona Lisa is the first 3D painting in history, researchers conclude. Another technical breakthrough of a genius who foresaw and tried to implement many inventions that were implemented centuries later (aircraft, tank, diving suit, etc.). This is evidenced by the version of the portrait stored in Madrid Museum Prado, painted either by da Vinci himself or by his student. It depicts the same model - only the angle is shifted by 69 cm. Thus, experts believe, there was a search for the desired point in the image, which will give the 3D effect.

Version No. 9: secret signs

Secret signs are a favorite topic of Mona Lisa researchers. Leonardo is not just an artist, he is an engineer, inventor, scientist, writer, and probably encrypted some universal secrets in his best painting. The most daring and incredible version was voiced in the book and then in the film “The Da Vinci Code.” Of course, fiction novel. However, researchers are constantly making equally fantastic assumptions based on certain symbols found in the painting.

Many speculations stem from the fact that there is another one hidden under the image of the Mona Lisa. For example, the figure of an angel, or a feather in the hands of a model. There is also an interesting version by Valery Chudinov, who discovered in the Mona Lisa the words Yara Mara - the name of the Russian pagan goddess.

Version No. 10: cropped landscape

Many versions are also related to the landscape against which the Mona Lisa is depicted. Researcher Igor Ladov discovered a cyclical nature in it: it seems worth drawing several lines to connect the edges of the landscape. Just a couple of centimeters are missing for everything to come together. But in the version of the painting from the Prado Museum there are columns, which, apparently, were also in the original. Nobody knows who cropped the picture. If you return them, the image develops into a cyclical landscape, which symbolizes what human life(in a global sense) enchanted just like everything in nature...

It seems that there are as many versions of the solution to the mystery of the Mona Lisa as there are people trying to explore the masterpiece. There was a place for everything: from admiration unearthly beauty- until complete pathology is recognized. Everyone finds something of their own in Mona Lisa and, perhaps, this is where the multidimensionality and semantic multi-layeredness of the canvas is manifested, which gives everyone the opportunity to turn on their imagination. Meanwhile, the secret of Mona Lisa remains the property of this mysterious lady, with a slight smile on her lips...

Today, experts say that the elusive half-smile of Gioconda is a deliberately created effect that Leonardo da Vinci used more than once. This version arose after it was recently discovered early work"La Bella Principessa" ("The Beautiful Princess"), in which the artist uses a similar optical illusion.

The mystery of Mona Lisa's smile is that it is only noticeable when the viewer looks above the woman's mouth in the portrait, but as soon as one looks at the smile itself, it disappears. Scientists explain this by an optical illusion, which is created by a complex combination of colors and shades. This is facilitated by the characteristics of human peripheral vision.

Da Vinci created the effect of an elusive smile using the so-called "sfumato" technique ("vague", "undefined") - blurred outlines and specially applied shadows around the lips and eyes visually change depending on the angle at which a person looks at the picture. Therefore, the smile appears and disappears.

For a long time, scientists debated whether this effect was created consciously and intentionally. The portrait “La Bella Principessa” discovered in 2009 allows us to prove that da Vinci practiced this technique long before the creation of “La Gioconda”. On the girl's face there is the same barely noticeable half-smile, like the Mona Lisa.

Comparing the two paintings, scientists came to the conclusion that da Vinci also used the effect of peripheral vision there: the shape of the lips visually changes depending on the viewing angle. If you look directly at the lips, the smile is not noticeable, but if you look higher, the corners of the mouth seem to rise up, and the smile appears again.

Professor of psychology and expert in the field of visual perception Alessandro Soranzo (UK) writes: “A smile disappears as soon as the viewer tries to catch it.” Under his leadership, scientists conducted a number of experiments.

To demonstrate the optical illusion in action, volunteers were asked to look at da Vinci’s paintings from different distances and, for comparison, at the painting “Portrait of a Girl” by his contemporary Pollaiuolo. The smile was only noticeable in Da Vinci's paintings, depending on a certain angle of view. When blurring images, the same effect was observed. Professor Soranzo has no doubt that this was intentionally created by da Vinci optical illusion, and he developed this technique over several years.

sources