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"I have studied you, I have studied Leonardo your creator and God, and still you only smile, never so much as a whisper stirring your lips," the Emperor muttered quietly, his face cast in the flickering shadows that more brightly illuminated the painting across from him. "Like me, da Vinci was a man who knew his worth at a young age, showed his brilliance time and again in many arenas, like me as well -- surely he did not intend for you to keep his secrets!"
But no matter how earnestly the Emperor pleaded, how harshly he chastised or how desperately he begged, the Mona Lisa only smiled in return. Her eys, it seemed, would follow him no matter where in the room he went, but her mouth never so much as twitched in reply to his questions.
"Who are you? What do you mean? What is the point of your existence! !" he roared in desperation months after having the painting brought to him, and yet he was met again only with those calmly shifting eyes and that placid smile. "No one has truly appreciated you until now -- not those who belittled your magnificence in the years following your creation, who saw you only as...
I see you as you see me, completely, and through. Now tell me what you're hiding! What's behind those eyes and that damned, perfect smile?"
Napoleon and the woman in the painting stared at each other for many long moments, perhaps even hours, before the Emperor finally tore his gaze away one last time. "So be it," he muttered. "I brought you out of the stuffy darkness of the world of wealth to enjoy the life, in the hopes that you would help me to enjoy my own. But if this is how it must be, the so be it."
Another coachman on another evening tore at a breakneck speed away from the gates outside the Tuleries Palace and towards the Louvre museum, an attendant and a carefully wrapped bundle jostling safely, though uncomfortably, in the compartment within. The coachman had no idea what his charge carried, but knew only that the Emperor was in a rage and bid him fly as quickly as he could.
Mona Lisa and the Nude Woman by Da Vinci Few paintings in history have received as much discussion, debate and parody than has Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Believed to have been painted between 1503-1506, its mystery remains locked into the wry grin that crosses the Mona Lisa's lips. This is the distinguishing feature of what may well be the most famous portrait in the world. But upon closer consideration of
The controversies around her smile and eyes have generated almost as much research and debate as the painting itself. Anyone who has seen Leonardo's Mona Lisa had the illusion that the Gioconda was staring at them irrespective of their angle. There have been numerous scientists who have attempted to deconstruct this particular aspect, and explain how human sight responds to Mona Lisa's eyes. For instance, Margaret Livingstone, a professor
The theory speculates that the name Mona Lisa is actually a play on the words Amon-L Isa who is an Egyptian God and an Egyptian Goddess blended together (Why The Mona Lisa Smirks A Book Review of The Da Vinci Code by Rev. Marty Fields (http://www.thirdmill.org/newfiles/mar_fields/CH.Fields.WhyTheMonaLisaSmirks.7.9.04.html). While both of these theories are religiously based there is also a theory that is not based in any religion and that is the
Recently at least one mystery has been solved. A current article in Reuters Berlin states that Dr. Armin Schlechter has discovered dated notes in the margin of a book in the Heidelberg University Library that confirm that the identity of the Mona Lisa is Lisa del Giocondo wife of the wealthy Florentine merchant of those times, Francesco del Giocondo. (Elgood) Although she has always been the primary candidate, again
Mona Lisa Smile The movie "Mona Lisa Smile" has within its plot and theme a number of examples of gender construction, and the characters play out their roles based largely on the concept of the social construction of gender. This paper will delve into how gender roles are portrayed in the film, and the paper will use available literature and critiques of the social construction of gender. Social Construction of Gender An article
Da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, and studied the laws of science. He is famous for his sketches and drawing depicting the human form and fantastical devices such as flying machines that were revolutionary at the time. He was also a master painter, and his work spanned from portraits to religious works. As an apprentice for another artist, he learned a wide range of skills that would later