Lisa del Giocondo: biography, interesting facts. Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci "La Gioconda":
History of the painting

August 22, 1911 from the Square Hall of the Louvre disappeared worldwide famous picture Leonardo da Vinci "La Gioconda" At 1 pm, when the museum was opened to visitors, she was not there. Confusion broke out among the Louvre workers. It was announced to visitors that the museum was closed for the whole day due to a water main failure.

The prefect of police appeared with a detachment of inspectors. All exits from the Louvre were closed, the museum began to be searched. But check out the ancient palace of the French kings with an area of ​​​​198 square meters one day is not possible. However, by the end of the day, the police still managed to find a glazed case and a frame from the Mona Lisa on the landing of a small service staircase. The very same picture - a rectangle measuring 54x79 centimeters - disappeared without a trace.

“The loss of the Gioconda is a national disaster,” wrote the French magazine “Illustration”, “since it is almost certain that the one who committed this abduction cannot profit from it. One must fear that he, in fear of being caught, may destroy this fragile work.

The magazine announced a reward: “40,000 francs to the one who brings the Gioconda to the editorial office of the magazine. 20,000 francs to whoever points out where the painting can be found. 45,000 to those who return the Mona Lisa by September 1." The first of September passed, but there was no picture. Then "Illustration" published a new proposal: "The editors guarantee complete secrecy the one who brings the "Gioconda". They will give him 45,000 in cash and they won't even ask for his name." But no one came.

Month after month passed. All this time, the portrait of the beautiful Florentine lay hidden in a pile of rubbish on the third floor of the large Parisian house "Cité du Heroes", in which Italian seasonal workers lived.

A few more months passed, a year, two...
One day, the Italian antiquarian Alfredo Geri received a letter from Paris. On poor school paper, in clumsy letters, a certain Vincenzo Leopardi offered an antiquary to buy a portrait of Mona Lisa that disappeared from the Louvre. Leopardi wrote that he wanted to return to his homeland one of the best works Italian art.
This letter was sent in November 1913.
When, after long negotiations, correspondence and meetings, Leopardi delivered the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, he said:
“This is a good, holy thing! The Louvre is chock-full of treasures that rightfully belong to Italy. I wouldn't be Italian if I looked at it with indifference!"

Fortunately, the two years and three months that the Mona Lisa spent in captivity did not affect the picture. Under police protection, the Gioconda was exhibited in Rome, Florence, Milan, and then after solemn ceremony departed for Paris.

Investigation in the case of Perugia real name kidnapper) went for several months. The arrested man did not hide anything and said that he periodically worked at the Louvre as a glazier. During this time he explored the halls art gallery and met many museum employees. He frankly stated that he had long ago decided to steal the Mona Lisa.

Perugia knew little about the history of painting. He sincerely and naively believed that the Mona Lisa was taken away from Italy during the time of Napoleon.
Meanwhile, Leonardo da Vinci himself brought it to France and sold it to the French king Francis I for 4,000 ecu - a huge amount at that time. For a long time this painting adorned the Golden Cabinet of the royal castle in Fontainebleau, under Louis XIV it was transferred to Versailles, and after the revolution it was transferred to the Louvre.

After a 20-year stay in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence. How things have changed in him hometown! Those he left behind were already at the height of their fame; and about him, who once enjoyed universal worship, has almost been forgotten. His old friends, captured by a whirlwind of unrest and unrest, have changed a lot ... One of them became a monk; another, in despair at the death of the violent Savonarola, gave up painting and decided to spend the rest of his days in the Santa Maria Novella hospital; the third, aged in spirit and body, could no longer be Leonardo's former comrade.

Only one P. Perugino, already experienced in worldly affairs, in the old way he talked with Leonardo and gave him helpful tips. His words were true, and Leonardo da Vinci also really needed these tips. In the service of the duke, he did not earn money for a comfortable life and returned to Florence with meager funds. Leonardo did not even think about large and serious works, and no one ordered them from him. To write at his own risk for the love of art, he had neither the money nor the time. The entire Florentine nobility strove for mediocre masters, and the brilliant da Vinci was in poverty, content with the crumbs that fell to him from the orders of his happy brothers.
But in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci created his masterpiece of masterpieces - the famous painting "La Gioconda".

The Soviet art critic I. Dolgopolov noted that writing about this painting “is simply scary, because poets, prose writers, and art critics have written more than one hundred books about it. Do not count the publications in which every inch of this picture is studied in the most thorough way. And although the history of its creation is quite well-known, the name of the painting, the date of its writing, and even the city in which great Leonardo met my model.

George Vasari in his "Biographies" reports about this picture: "Leonardo undertook to complete for Francesco del Giocondo a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife."
As some researchers now suggest, Vasari must have been wrong. Latest Research show that the painting depicts not the wife of the Florentine nobleman del Giocondo, but some other high-ranking lady. M.A. Gukovsky, for example, wrote several decades ago that this portrait conveys the features of one of the many ladies of the heart of Giulio Medici and was commissioned by him. This is unequivocally reported by Antonio de Beatis, who saw the portrait in the workshop of Leonardo in France.

In his diary dated October 10, 1517, he reports: “In one of the suburbs, the cardinal went with us sinners to see Mr. Luonardo Vinci, a Florentine ... an excellent painter of our time. The latter showed his lordship three paintings - one of some Florentine lady, painted from nature, at the request of the late Magnificent Giulio Medici.

Many researchers were amazed why the merchant del Giocondo did not keep a portrait of his wife. Indeed, the portrait became the property of the artist. And this fact is also perceived by some as an argument in favor of the fact that Leonardo did not depict the Mona Lisa. But, perhaps, the Florentine was a little surprised and surprised? Maybe he simply did not recognize his young wife Mona Lisa Gherardini in the depicted goddess? And Leonardo himself, who painted the portrait for four years and invested so much in it, could not part with it and took the picture from Florence?

Be that as it may, in fact, thanks to D. Vasari, this female image entered the history of world culture under the name of "Mona Lisa", or "La Gioconda". Was she beautiful? Probably, but there were many women in Florence and more beautiful than her.
However, Mona Lisa was surprisingly attractive, although the features of her face were not harmonious. A small smiling mouth, soft hair flowing over her shoulders...
“But her fully developed figure,” writes M. Alpatov, “was perfect and especially perfect form were her well-groomed hands. But what was remarkable about her, despite her wealth, her eyebrows plucked in fashion, her blush and a lot of jewelry on her arms and neck, was the simplicity and naturalness poured into her whole appearance ...
And then her face lit up with a smile and became unusually attractive for the artist - embarrassed and a little sly, as if the lost playfulness of youth and something hidden in the depths of the soul, unsolved, had returned to him.

Whatever tricks Leonardo resorted to, if only his model did not get bored during the sessions. In a beautifully decorated room, among flowers and luxurious furniture, musicians were placed, delighting the ear with singing and music, and a beautiful, refined artist lay in wait for a wondrous smile on Mona Lisa's face.
He invited jesters and clowns, but the music did not quite satisfy the Mona Lisa. She listened to well-known motives with a bored face, and the magician-juggler did not really revive her. And then Leonardo told her a story.

Once upon a time there was a poor man, and he had four sons; three smart, and one this way and that. - no mind, no stupidity. Yes, however, they could not properly judge his mind: he was more silent and liked to walk in the field, to the sea, listen and think to himself; He also loved to look at the stars at night.

And then death came for the father. Before parting with his life, he called his children to him and said to them:
“My sons, soon I will die. As soon as you bury me, lock up the hut and go to the ends of the world to get your own happiness. Let everyone learn something so that he can feed himself.”

The father died, and the sons, having buried him, went to the ends of the world to seek their happiness and agreed that in three years they would return to the clearing of their native grove, where they went for deadwood, and tell each other who had learned what during these three years.
Three years passed, and, remembering the agreement, the brothers returned from the end of the world to the clearing of their native grove. The first brother came to learn carpentry. Out of boredom, he cut down a tree and hewed it, made a woman out of it. Walk away a bit and wait.
The second brother returned, saw a wooden woman, and since he was a tailor, he decided to dress her and at the same moment, like a skilled craftsman, made her beautiful silk clothes.
The third son came, adorned the wooden girl with gold and precious stones, because he was a jeweler and managed to accumulate great wealth.

And the fourth brother came. He did not know how to carpentry or sew - he could only listen to what the earth was saying, trees, herbs, animals and birds were saying, he knew the way celestial planets and he could sing wonderful songs. He saw a wooden girl in luxurious clothes, in gold and precious stones. But she was deaf and dumb and did not move. Then he gathered all his art - after all, he learned to talk with everything that is on earth, he learned to revive stones with his song ... And he sang a beautiful song, from which the brothers hiding behind the bushes cried, and with this song he breathed soul into a wooden woman . And she smiled and sighed...

Then the brothers rushed to her and shouted:
- I created you, you must be my wife!
- You should be my wife, I dressed you, naked and unhappy!
- And I made you rich, you should be my wife!

But the girl replied:
- You created me - be my father. You dressed me, and you decorated me - be my brothers. And you, who breathed my soul into me and taught me to enjoy life, you alone will be my husband for life ...
And the trees, and the flowers, and the whole earth, together with the birds, sang to them the hymn of love...

After finishing the story, Leonardo looked at the Mona Lisa. God, what happened to her face! It seemed to be lit up with light, its eyes shone. The smile of bliss, slowly disappearing from her face, remained in the corners of her mouth and trembled, giving it an amazing, mysterious and slightly sly expression.

Leonardo da Vinci hasn't experienced such a huge tide in a long time. creative forces. Everything that was in him most cheerful, bright and clear, he put into his work.
To enhance the impression of the face, Leonardo dressed the Mona Lisa in a simple, unadorned dress, modest and dark. The impression of simplicity and naturalness is enhanced by the skillfully painted folds of the dress and light scarf.

Artists and art lovers who sometimes visited Leonardo saw the Mona Lisa and were delighted:
- What magical skill Messer Leonardo possesses, depicting this lively brilliance, this wetness of the eyes!
She's definitely breathing!
She's laughing now!
- After all, you can almost feel the living skin of this lovely face ... It seems that in the deepening of the neck you can see the beating of the pulse.
What a weird smile she has. It's as if she's thinking about something and doesn't finish it...

Indeed, in the eyes of the "La Gioconda" there is light and a wet sheen, as in living eyes, and the thinnest lilac veins are visible in the eyelids. but great artist created an unprecedented: he also painted the air, permeated with moist vapors and enveloping the figure with a transparent haze.

The most famous, many times studied and described in all languages ​​of the world, "La Gioconda" is still the most mysterious painting of the great da Vinci. It still remains incomprehensible and continues to disturb the imagination for several centuries, perhaps precisely because it is not a portrait in the usual sense of the word. Leonardo da Vinci painted it contrary to the very concept of "portrait", which implies the image real face, similar to the original and with the attributes that characterize it (at least indirectly).
What the artist wrote goes far beyond simple portrait. Every shade of the skin, every fold of clothing, the warm sparkle of the eyes, the life of the arteries and veins - the artist supplied his picture with all this. But before the viewer in the background there is also a steep chain of rocks with ice peaks at the foot of the mountains, a water surface with a wide and winding river flowing out of it, which, narrowing under a small bridge, turns into a miniature waterfall that disappears outside the picture.

The golden warm light of the Italian evening and the magical charm of Leonardo da Vinci's painting pour on the viewer. Intently, understanding everything, looks at the world and the people of the Gioconda. More than one century has passed since the artist created it, and with the last touch of Leonardo's brush, it became eternally alive. He himself had long felt that Mona Lisa lives against his will.

As art critic V. Lipatov writes:
"La Gioconda" was copied many times and always unsuccessfully: it was elusive, it did not even appear on someone else's canvas, it remained true to its creator.
They tried to tear it apart, to select and repeat at least an eternal smile, but in the paintings of students and followers, the smile faded, became false, died, like a creature imprisoned in captivity.
Indeed, not a single reproduction will convey even a thousandth of the charm that flows from the portrait.

The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset wrote that in La Gioconda there is a desire for inner liberation:
“Look at how tense her temples and smoothly shaved eyebrows are, how tightly her lips are compressed, with what hidden effort she tries to lift the heavy load of melancholic sadness. However, this tension is so imperceptible, her whole figure breathes with such graceful calmness, and her whole being is full of such stillness, that this inner effort is more likely to be guessed by the viewer than consciously expressed by the master. It wriggles, bites its tail like a snake, and, closing the movement in a circle, finally giving vent to despair, manifests itself in the famous Mona Lisa smile.

The unique "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci was ahead of the development of painting for many centuries to come. They made the most incredible assumptions (that the Gioconda is pregnant, that she is oblique, that this is a man in disguise, that this is a self-portrait of the artist himself), but it is unlikely that it will ever be possible to fully explain why this work, created by Leonardo in his declining years, has such amazing and attractive force For this canvas is a creation of a truly divine, and not a human hand.
"One Hundred Great Paintings" by N.A. Ionina, publishing house "Veche", 2002

Probably there is no more in the world famous canvas, how . It is popular in all countries, widely replicated as a recognizable and catchy image. "Mona Lisa" in its four hundred years of history has been a trademark, and became a victim of abduction, was mentioned in the song Nat King Cola, her name was quoted in tens of thousands of print publications and films, and the expression "Mona Lisa's smile" became set phrase, even a stamped phrase.

The history of the creation of the painting "Mona Lisa"

It is believed that the painting is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Del Giocondo. Time of writing, approximately 1503 - 1505. Created a great canvas. Perhaps, if the picture had been painted by another master, it would not have been enveloped in such a dense veil of mystery.

it small work art size 76.8 x 53 cm painted in oil on a board of poplar wood. The painting is located in where she is assigned a special room that bears her name. It was brought to the artist himself, who moved here under the auspices of King Francis I.

Myths and conjectures

It must be said that the halo of legend and unusualness envelops this canvas only in the last 100 years or more, with light hand Theophile Gauthier, who wrote about the Mona Lisa's smile. Prior to this, contemporaries admired the artist’s skill in conveying facial expressions, virtuoso performance and choice of colors, liveliness and naturalness of the image, but did not see hidden signs, allusions and encrypted messages in the picture.

Now most people are occupied with the notorious mystery of Mona Lisa's smile. She is just a hint of a smile, a slight movement of the corners of her lips. Perhaps the decoding of the smile lies in the very name of the picture - La Gioconda in Italian can mean "cheerful". Maybe all these centuries, "Mona Lisa" just laughs at our attempts to unravel its mystery?

This type of smile is typical for many of the artist's paintings, for example, a canvas depicting John the Baptist or numerous Madonnas (,).

For many years, identification of the identity of the prototype was of interest, until documents were found confirming the reality of the existence of the real Lisa Gherardini. However, there are claims that the painting is an encrypted self-portrait of da Vinci, who always had unconventional inclinations, or even an image of his young student and lover, nicknamed Salai - the Devil. In favor of the latter assumption, such confirmations are cited as the fact that it was Salai who turned out to be Leonardo's heir and the first owner of the Mona Lisa. In addition, the name "Mona Lisa" can be an anagram of "Mon Salai" (my Salai in French).

Of great interest to conspiracy theorists and supporters of the idea that Da Vinci belongs to a series secret societies represents the mysterious landscape in the background. It depicts a strange area that has not been accurately identified to this day. It was painted, like the whole picture, in the sfumato technique, but in a different color scheme, bluish-greenish, and asymmetrical - the right side does not match the left. Besides, in recent times there were allegations that the artist encrypted some letters in the eyes of the Mona Lisa, and numbers in the image of the bridge.

Just a painting or a masterpiece

It is pointless to deny the great artistic merit of this painting. She is an unconditional masterpiece of the Renaissance and a significant achievement in the work of the master, it is not for nothing that Leonardo himself highly appreciated this work of his and did not part with it for many years.

Most people take the mass point of view and treat the painting as mysterious canvas, a masterpiece sent to us from the past by one of the most brilliant and talented masters in the history of art. A minority sees in the "Mona Lisa" an unusually beautiful and talentedly executed picture. Its mystery lies only in the fact that we attribute to it those features that we ourselves want to see.

The most limited, fortunately, group of people is among those who are outraged and annoyed by this picture. Yes, this happens, otherwise how can one explain at least four cases of vandalism, due to which the canvas is now protected by thick bulletproof glass.

Be that as it may, the Gioconda continues to exist and delight all new generations of viewers with its mysterious half-smile and complex unsolved mysteries. Perhaps in the future someone will find answers to existing questions. Or create new legends.

/ / Description of the painting by Leonardo da Vinci “Mona Lisa” (La Gioconda)

Leonardo da Vinci (04/15/1452 - 05/2/1519) - a brilliant scientist and artist of the Renaissance. In the visual arts, he adhered to the realistic direction. His legacy as an artist is small, but all paintings are true masterpieces. Among them are famous paintings like "La Gioconda", "Annunciation", " The Last Supper”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “Madonna Litta” and others.

"Mona Lisa", or "La Gioconda", (c. 1503 - 1505) was written in the portrait genre. In the work of Leonardo, this picture occupied a special place. Biographers note that he did not devote so much time and passion to any picture. Leonardo painted a portrait of the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo. During four years the artist selflessly worked on the embodiment of the image of the Madonna Lisa and still did not bring it to completion ...

The picture is a half-length image of a woman sitting in a half-turn. She's wearing a dark dress left hand it lies on the armrest of the chair, the right one lies on top of the left one. Sparse dark hair is parted in the middle and falls to the shoulders in small waves, as if from a perm.

Her head is covered with a barely noticeable veil, which may have been a sign of the expectation of a child. The dress is embellished with graceful gathers in the neckline at the chest and loose pleats in the yellowish sleeves. The woman's head is slightly turned towards the viewer. Art historians note that, according to the fashion of that time, the eyebrows and hair of the upper part of the forehead of Mona Lisa are shaved.

By the location of the figure, it is clear that she is sitting on a balcony, since a parapet is visible behind her. The background of the portrait is a beautiful and majestic landscape. Hills, mountains, a lake, a winding path and the sky brightening over this nature are captured in a light haze. Such a background, of course, gives greatness to the depicted figure. The impression is enhanced by the contrast of the tangible reality of the depicted woman with a foggy, like a dream, landscape.

The foreground of the picture is designed in shades Brown color: from golden to reddish. The background is presented in bluish-green tones, reaching the emerald color. Time has done its job, the picture has darkened, the colors have undergone some changes, but the contrast ratio of the tones of the picture, thought out by the author, has been preserved and still makes an impression.

There was a lot of controversy about the smile, or rather the half-smile, of the Mona Lisa. A slight smile was encountered more than once in the works of Leonardo, but in La Gioconda he brought it to perfection. Mona Lisa's smile has been interpreted in many ways. A.F. Losev even called her a “demonic smile.” Boris Vipper, perhaps, gave the most objective interpretation of the image. He noted that shaved eyebrows and forehead can enhance the impression of mystery. The attraction of the picture, its effect, similar to hypnosis, lies in the spirituality of the image. It was a mistake to look for manifestations of Mona Lisa's individual properties in a smile. Leonardo sought to convey spirituality that is typical, not concrete. And most importantly, it was not the emotional content of the Mona Lisa that was the source of spirituality, but the intellect.

Indeed, in this masterpiece, cracked by time, we see a thinking woman, endowed with a rich inner content and able to conduct a dialogue with Leonardo himself.

Jean Franck, a French researcher and consultant at the Leonardo da Vinci Center in Los Angeles, recently announced that he was able to repeat the unique technique of the great master, thanks to which the Gioconda seems to be alive.

"In terms of technique, the Mona Lisa has always been considered something inexplicable. Now I think I have an answer to this question," says Frank.

Reference: sfumato technique is a painting technique invented by Leonardo da Vinci. It consists in the fact that objects in the paintings should not have clear boundaries. Everything should be like in life: blurry, penetrate one into another, breathe. Da Vinci practiced this technique by looking at damp stains on walls, ash, clouds, or dirt. He deliberately smoked the room where he worked in order to look for images in clubs.

According to Jean Franck, the main difficulty of this technique lies in the smallest strokes (about a quarter of a millimeter) that are not accessible for recognition either under a microscope or using X-rays. Thus, it took several hundred sessions to paint a da Vinci painting. The image of the Gioconda consists of approximately 30 layers of liquid, almost transparent oil paint. For such jewelry work, da Vinci, apparently, had to use a magnifying glass at the same time as a brush.
According to the researcher, he managed to reach only the level of the early works of the master. However, even now his research has been honored to be next to the canvases of the great Leonardo da Vinci. The Uffizi Museum in Florence placed next to the masterpieces of the master 6 tables of Frank, which describe in stages how da Vinci painted the eye of Mona Lisa, and two paintings by Leonardo recreated by him.

It is known that the composition of "Mona Lisa" is built on "golden triangles". These triangles, in turn, are pieces of a regular stellated pentagon. But researchers do not see any secret meanings, they are rather inclined to explain the expressiveness of the Mona Lisa by the technique of spatial perspective.

Da Vinci was one of the first to use this technique, he made the background of the picture unclear, slightly blurred, thereby increasing the emphasis on the outlines of the foreground.

Riddles of the Mona Lisa

Unique techniques allowed da Vinci to create such a lively portrait of a woman that people, looking at him, perceive her feelings differently. Is she sad or smiling? Scientists have solved this riddle. computer program Urbana-Champaign, created by scientists from the Netherlands and the USA, made it possible to calculate that Mona Lisa's smile is 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry. The program analyzed the main features of the face, the curve of the lips and wrinkles around the eyes, and then ranked the face in six main groups of emotions.

If you believe the biographer of Leonardo da Vinci Giorgio Vasari, it is not surprising that Mona Lisa is dominated by positive emotions: “Since Mona Lisa was very beautiful, while painting the portrait, he kept people who played the lyre or sang, and there were always jesters, maintaining her cheerfulness and removing the melancholy that painting usually imparts to portraits. In Leonardo, in this work, the smile is given so pleasant that it seems as if you are contemplating a divine rather than a human being; the portrait itself is revered as an extraordinary work, for life itself could not be otherwise.”

Less romantic experts in the field of painting argue that the explanation for the mysterious smile is trite - the woman simply has her eyebrows shaved off. If you paint on the eyebrows, then her whole unique image will disappear.

Professor Margaret Livingston of Harvard University claims that Leonardo used the laws of human physiology in his painting. There are two types of vision: direct and peripheral. Direct well perceives details, worse - shadows. So, according to the scientist, Mona Lisa's smile is visible only if you look not at her lips, but at other details of her face: "The elusive nature of Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that almost all of it is located in the low-frequency range of light and is well perceived only by peripheral vision."

Who is Mona Lisa?

There are many versions. The most plausible of them - the model for the picture was Lisa Gherardini, the second wife of the Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo and the mother of five children. At the time of painting (about 1503-1506), the girl was, according to various sources, from 24 to 30 years old. It is because of her husband's surname that the painting is now known by two names.

According to the second version, the mysterious girl was not at all an angelic innocent beauty. The model for the painting was the very famous courtesan Duchess Caterina Sforzo at that time. At the time of writing, she was already 40 years old. The Duchess was the illegitimate daughter of the ruler of Milan - legendary hero Italian Renaissance Duke Sforza and scandalously became famous for her promiscuity: from the age of 15 she was married three times and gave birth to 11 children. The Duchess died in 1509, six years after the start of work on the painting. This version is supported by a portrait of a twenty-five-year-old duchess who looks remarkably like Mona Lisa.

You can often hear the version that Leonardo da Vinci did not go far for a model for his masterpiece, but simply painted a self-portrait in women's clothing. This version is difficult to reject, because there is an obvious similarity between the Mona Lisa and the later self-portrait of the master. Moreover, this similarity was confirmed by a computer analysis of the main anthropometric indicators.

The most scandalous version affects the personal life of the master. Some scholars claim that the model for the painting was da Vinci's student and assistant Gian Giacomo, who was by his side for 26 years and may have been his lover. This version is supported by the fact that Leonardo left this painting to him as a legacy when he died in 1519.

Two paintings - two models

However, no matter how much you solve the master's puzzle, there are still more questions than answers. The ambiguity in the name of the painting has caused a lot of speculation regarding its authenticity. There is a version that there are actually two paintings. Contemporaries have repeatedly noted that the painting was not finished by the master. Moreover, Raphael, having visited the artist's studio, made a sketch from the still unfinished painting. On the sketch turned out to be everything famous woman, on both sides of which the Greek columns are located. In addition, according to contemporaries, the painting was larger and was made to order just for Mona Lisa's husband, Francesco del Giocondo. The author handed over the unfinished painting into the hands of the customer, and it was kept in family archive for many centuries.

However, the Louvre exhibited a completely different canvas. It is smaller in size (only 77 by 53 centimeters) and looks quite finished without columns. So, according to historians, the Louvre painting depicts the mistress of Giuliano Medici - Constanza D'Avalos. It was this picture that the artist brought with him to France in 1516. He kept her in his room in the estate near the city of Amboise until his death. From there, the painting came into the collection of King Francis I in 1517. It is this painting that is called “Mona Lisa”.

The real Gioconda painting depicts the wife of the silk merchant Francisco del Giocondo and, perhaps, secret lover Leonardo. According to historians, the original canvas, which fully corresponds to the description of contemporaries, was accidentally bought by a famous British antiquary in 1914 in the clothing market of the English city of Bass for a few guineas and was in London until 1962, until it was bought by a syndicate of Swiss bankers.

Kidnapping of the Gioconda

Skeptics argue that the Gioconda won unique fame not beautiful eyes and an enigmatic smile. In their opinion, for genuine interest in the masterpiece in response italian painter Vincenso Perugia, who stole the painting from the Louvre on August 21, 1911. The motive for such foolish act turned out to be not at all a passion for profit, but a patriotic desire to return the Italian pearl to its homeland. The painting was indeed found in Italy, but after only two years, during which the portrait was on the front pages of all newspapers and magazines. The Gioconda was examined and processed by the restorers and hung in place with honors. Since then, the painting has become an object of cult and worship, as a masterpiece of world classics.

Mysteries of Leonardo

Da Vinci left in his creations many riddles and puzzles so complex that mankind has been trying to solve them for five centuries. The inventor wrote with his left hand and incredibly small letters, from right to left, turning the letters in a mirror image. He spoke in riddles and poured metaphorical prophecies. Leonardo did not sign his works, but left identification marks on them - a flying bird. According to it, his offspring are unexpectedly discovered through the centuries. Perhaps we only think that we find answers to the riddles of the master, but in fact we are infinitely far from them.

Artist biography

Leonardo got his surname from the town of Vinci, west of Florence, where he was supposedly born on April 15, 1452. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant girl, but was brought up in the house and his father, so he received a thorough education in reading, writing and counting. At the age of 15, he was apprenticed to one of the leading masters early renaissance Andrea del Verrocchio, and five years later joined the Guild of Artists. In 1482, already professional artist, Leonardo moved to Milan. There he wrote famous fresco"The Last Supper" and began to conduct his own unique recordings, in which he acts more as an architect-designer, anatomist, hydraulics, inventor of mechanisms, musician. Long years, moving from city to city, da Vinci was so fascinated by mathematics that he could not bring himself to pick up brushes. In Florence he entered into a rivalry with Michelangelo; this rivalry culminated in the enormous battle compositions that the two artists painted for Palazzo della Signoria (also Palazzo Vecchio). The French, first Louis XII and then Francis I, admired the works of the Italian Renaissance, especially Leonardo's Last Supper. Therefore, it is not surprising that in 1516 Francis I, well aware of Leonardo's various talents, invited him to court, which was then located in the Amboise castle in the Loire Valley. Leonardo died at Amboise on May 2, 1519; his paintings by this time were scattered mainly in private collections, and the notes lay in various collections almost in complete oblivion for several more centuries.

The material was prepared by the online editorialwww.rian.ru based on information from the RIA Novosti Agency and other sources

Details Category: Fine arts and architecture of the Renaissance (Renaissance) Posted on 02.11.2016 16:14 Views: 2542

"Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda") by Leonardo da Vinci is still one of the most famous paintings Western European art.

Her high-profile fame is associated with both high artistic merit, and with the atmosphere of mystery surrounding this work. This mystery began to be attributed to the painting not during the life of the artist, but in subsequent centuries, inflaming interest in it with sensational messages and the results of research on the painting.
We believe it is right to have a calm and balanced analysis of the merits of this picture and the history of its creation.
First, about the painting itself.

Description of the picture

Leonardo da Vinci "Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo. Mona Lisa" (1503-1519). Board (poplar), oil. 76x53 cm Louvre (Paris)
The painting depicts a woman (half-length portrait). She sits in a chair with her hands together, one hand resting on his armrest and the other on top. She turned in her chair almost to face the viewer.
Her smooth hair, parted in the middle, is visible through the transparent veil thrown over them. They fall on the shoulders in two sparse, slightly wavy strands. Yellow dress, dark green cape...
Some researchers (in particular, Boris Vipper, a Russian, Latvian, Soviet art historian, teacher and museum figure, one of the founders of the national school of historians of Western European art) point out that traces of Quattrocento fashion are noticeable in the face of Mona Lisa: her eyebrows are shaved and hair on the top of the forehead.
Mona Lisa sits in an armchair on a balcony or loggia. It's believed that earlier picture could be wider and accommodate two side columns of the loggia. Perhaps the author himself narrowed it down.
Behind Mona Lisa desert area with meandering streams and a lake surrounded by snowy mountains; the terrain extends to a high horizon line. This landscape gives the very image of a woman majesty and spirituality.
V. N. Grashchenkov, a Russian art critic who specialized in the art of the Italian Renaissance, believed 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 more than portrait image unknown Florentine Mona Lisa, the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The appearance and mental structure of a particular person are conveyed to them with unprecedented syntheticity ... "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 their individual concrete form. But behind the barely noticeable movement, which, like light ripples, runs along the motionless surface of this harmonious world, one can guess all the richness of the possibilities of physical and spiritual existence.

The famous Mona Lisa smile

Mona Lisa's smile is considered one of the main mysteries of the picture. But is it really so?

Smile of Mona Lisa (detail of the painting) by Leonardo da Vinci
This slight wandering smile is found in many works of the master himself and among the Leonardesques (artists whose style was strongly influenced by the manner of Leonardo of the Milan period, who were among his students or simply adopted his style). Of course, in "Mona Lisa" she reached her perfection.
Let's look at some pictures.

F. Melzi (student of Leonardo da Vinci) "Flora"
The same easy wandering smile.

Painting " holy family". Previously, it was attributed to Leonardo, but now even the Hermitage has recognized that this is the work of his student Cesare da Sesto
The same light wandering smile on the face of the Virgin Mary.

Leonardo da Vinci "John the Baptist" (1513-1516). Louvre (Paris)

The smile of John the Baptist is also considered mysterious: why is this stern Forerunner smiling and pointing upwards?

Who was the prototype of the Mona Lisa?

There is information from the anonymous author of the first biography of Leonardo da Vinci, to which Vasari refers. It is this anonymous author who writes about the silk merchant Francesco Giocondo, who ordered a portrait of his third wife from the artist.
But what opinions did not exist about the identification of the model! There were many assumptions: this is a self-portrait of Leonardo himself, a portrait of the artist’s mother Katerina, were called various names contemporaries and contemporaries of the artist ...
But in 2005, scientists from the University of Heidelberg, studying notes on the margins of a Florentine official's tome, found an entry: "... now da Vinci is working on three paintings, one of which is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini." The wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo was Lisa Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by Leonardo for the young family's new home and to commemorate the birth of their second son. This mystery is almost solved.

The history of the painting and its adventures

The full title of the painting Ritratto di Monna Lisa del Giocondo"(Italian) -" Portrait of Mrs. Lisa Giocondo ". In Italian ma donna means " my lady”, in an abbreviated version, this expression was transformed into monna or mona.
This picture occupied a special place in the work of Leonardo da Vinci. After spending 4 years on it and leaving Italy at a mature age, the artist took her with him to France. It is possible that he did not finish the painting in Florence, but took it with him when he left in 1516. In this case, he completed it shortly before his death in 1519.
Then the painting was the property of his student and assistant Salai.

Salai in a drawing by Leonardo
Salai (died 1525) left the painting to his sisters who lived in Milan. It is not known how the portrait got from Milan back to France. King Francis I bought the painting from Salai's heirs and kept it in his castle of Fontainebleau, where it remained until the time Louis XIV. He moved her to the Palace of Versailles, after French Revolution in 1793 the painting ended up in the Louvre. Napoleon admired the La Gioconda in his bedroom of the Tuileries Palace, and then she returned to the museum.
During the Second World War, the painting was moved from the Louvre to the Château d'Amboise (where Leonardo died and was buried), then to the Abbey of Loc Dieu, then to the Ingres Museum in Montauban. After the end of the war, the Gioconda returned to its place.
In the twentieth century the painting remained in the Louvre. Only in 1963 she visited the USA, and in 1974 - in Japan. On the way from Japan to France, the Mona Lisa was exhibited at the Museum. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow. These trips increased her success and fame.
Since 2005, it has been in a separate room in the Louvre.

Mona Lisa behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre
On August 21, 1911, the painting was stolen by an Italian employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Perugia. Perhaps Perugia wanted to return the Gioconda to its historical homeland. The painting was found only two years later in Italy. She was exhibited in several Italian cities, and then returned to Paris.
She experienced the Gioconda and acts of vandalism: they poured acid on her (1956), threw a stone at her, after which they hid it behind bulletproof glass (1956), as well as a clay cup (2009), tried to spray red paint from a spray can onto the picture ( 1974).
Pupils and followers of Leonardo created numerous replicas of the Mona Lisa, and avant-garde artists of the 20th century. began to mercilessly exploit the image of the Mona Lisa. But that's a completely different story.
"Gioconda" is one of the best examples of the portrait genre of the Italian High Renaissance.