Mona Lisa: Leonardo da Vinci's Masterpiece Analyzed

Introduction

Leonardo da Vinci began painting his famous masterpiece, the Mona Lisa — or Gioconda — in 1502 and completed it four years later. Although an extremely versatile artist and one of the major representatives of the Italian Renaissance, it was the Mona Lisa that elevated Leonardo to his current status and established him as one of the greatest artists of all time. This relatively small painting created new forms and offered new perspectives, succeeding in crafting an incredibly intense masterpiece into a compact 30" by 20½" frame. As for its technique, the Mona Lisa is an oil painting that has been restored many times. It is currently located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where curators have begun to worry that the painting appears to be deteriorating more rapidly than in past decades, and that multiple restorations may have negatively affected its original colors.

Leonardo da Vinci: Life and Background

One cannot discuss the Mona Lisa without first discussing its creator, Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, just outside Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl named Caterina. His father took custody of Leonardo shortly after his birth, while his mother remarried and moved to a neighboring town. Both parents had more children with their new spouses, and in the end Leonardo had a total of 17 half-siblings.

Growing up, Leonardo's interests were varied, largely thanks to his father granting his adolescent son access to scholarly texts (Taylor 22). He was also exposed to the family's painting tradition, which allowed him to experiment with art from a very young age. When he was about 15 years old, his father apprenticed him to the renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, where Leonardo began to demonstrate his talent and skills (Hegarty 24). However, he was not focused solely on painting. He was also deeply interested in architecture, mechanics, and human anatomy. His meticulous studies and sketches were collected into various manuscripts and codices.

History and Origins of the Mona Lisa

Leonardo's greatest painting is the Mona Lisa. Any analysis of the work must begin with a brief overview of the context of its creation at the start of the sixteenth century. On the painting's creation, Italian painter Vasari wrote, "Leonardo undertook to paint Francesco del Giocondo the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, and after he had lingered over it for four years, left it unfinished" (Vasari in McCurdy 88). This was in fact accurate, as Leonardo did not finish the painting until his return to Florence from the Romagna in March 1503, completing it within four years. History indicates that the model was a member of the Neapolitan family of Gherardini — the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo — who was presumably between her twenty-sixth and thirtieth year when Leonardo began her portrait (McCurdy 90).

Leonardo brought the painting from Italy to France in 1516, when King François I invited him to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. The king subsequently purchased the painting from Leonardo and placed it in his residence at Fontainebleau, where it remained until Louis XIV moved it to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, the painting was transferred to the Louvre Museum in Paris. Napoleon I had it moved to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, but it was later returned to the museum. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the Gioconda was moved from the Louvre to a secure hiding place in France.

References

Annand Taylor, Rachel. Leonardo the Florentine: A Study in Personality. Richards Press, 1927.

Boas, George. "The Mona Lisa in the History of Taste." Journal of the History of Ideas 1.2 (1940): 207–224.

McCurdy, Edward. The Mind of Leonardo Da Vinci. Dodd, Mead, 1928.

Hegarty, Melinda. "Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and the Renaissance in Florence." Renaissance Quarterly 59 (2006): 23–37.