Why Is the Mona Lisa Famous?
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| Monalisa paint |
Five centuries after Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpiece, the painting is hung in the Louvre Museum in Paris behind bulletproof glass, attracting thousands of onlookers daily. It is the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa. But despite all this, when onlookers manage to get close to the painting, they are likely to be puzzled by a small, modest painting of an ordinary woman in modest, dark clothing, a transparent veil, and no jewels. Much has been said about her smile and look, but people still marvel at all the hype and celebration of that painting.
Besides all those secrets about the identity of this woman and her mysterious appearance, the reason for the fame of this particular work is one of the many mysteries of that painting. An explanation of its fame. The popularity of this painting is the result of many circumstances and coincidences as well as its attractiveness.
There is no doubt that (Mona Lisa) is a very impressive painting, it was admired a lot even during (Da Vinci) work on it, and that his contemporaries began to emulate the innovative Mona Lisa seating angle at that time. The writer and painter Giorgio Vasari later praised Leonardo's ability to embody nature so accurately. In fact, the Mona Lisa is a very realistic painting; The delicately sculpted face shows Da Vinci's skill in dealing with the painting technique called color mixing or (sfumato), an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to create a model image, and shows his understanding of the anatomical shape of the skull beneath the skin.
The veil, the pleated cloth and the meticulously painted locks of hair illustrate Da Vinci's meticulous contemplations and infinite patience. And although the sitter's reserved smile and calm gaze were not considered a mystery until the nineteenth century, the ambiguous expression itself is appreciated and applauded by the public today. He (Leonardo) embodies a complex simulation that is surprisingly similar to the makeup of a human being.
However, many scholars point out that the excellent quality of the Mona Lisa was not enough to make it so famous; There are many, many good paintings that do not enjoy the same amount of fame. Also, external events have contributed greatly to the fame of that painting. The home of that painting is the famous Louvre Museum, one of the most visited museums in the world, which is a coincidence. This work makes me more valuable.
This painting arrived at this museum after taking a long road starting from Francis I, King of France, at whose court Leonardo spent the last years of his life. The French until the outbreak of the revolution and the people's demand for it, claiming that the property group is public property, not the king. After that, it remained for a period in Napoleon's bedroom, and then became part of the Louvre Museum at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and there its popularity increased with the escalation of its patronage by the museum.
The identity of the woman in the picture quickly became the most interesting thing, and although many scholars believe that the portrait is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine merchant (Francesco del Giocondo), there is no evidence Supported by (Francesco) for such a belief, and therefore the identity of that woman has not been identified to this day. Thus, the anonymous woman's identity has left people free to imagine the character they want for the woman seated in the picture. During the Romantic era of the nineteenth century, this simple Florentine woman in portrait, who may have been depicted, was transformed into a mysterious, charming woman. The French poet Théophile Gautier described this woman:
,She is a strange being, her gaze promising incomprehensible pleasures,
Still, the mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa in the nineteenth century continues with the painting in an attempt to explain it and surround it with many speculations.
At the same time, the nineteenth century was immortalized (Da Vinci) in history as one of the geniuses, and after his death and over the centuries he was held in great respect and appreciation, but no more than his immortal contemporaries (Michelangelo) and (Raphael - Raphael).
Nevertheless, some scholars have noted that when interest in the Renaissance increased in the nineteenth century, Leonardo became more famous, not only as an accomplished painter, but also as a great scholar and innovator whose designs preceded and pioneered contemporary designs. Recently, the truth about many of his alleged inventions has been revealed, and his contributions to science and architecture have diminished, but the legend of Leonardo's genius has continued greatly into the twenty-first century, which contributed to the increase in popularity of (Mona Lisa).
The nineteenth century writers aroused interest in this painting, but the theft of the painting in 1911 and the subsequent media frenzy made it gain international attention. To the Louvre Museum to surprise them that the place of the painting (Mona Lisa) is nothing but an empty place, the director of paintings in the museum resigned, and newspapers were filled with condemnations and accusations of a hoax, even Picasso-Pablo Picasso was arrested as a suspect, but only two years later he was arrested The painting was found in Italy after an antiques dealer in Florence reported it to local authorities after a man called him to sell it to him.
The man was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian immigrant to France who had worked for a brief period at the Louvre, repairing glass for a group of paintings, including the Mona Lisa.
He, accompanied by two other workers, stole the painting and kept it hidden all night in a closet, and they ran away with it in the morning, but he was unable to sell it because of the media interest in it, so he hid it in the cart box until he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for theft while the painting was touring (Italy Before she triumphantly returned to her stable at the Louvre, many French people came to regard the painting as a national treasure they had recovered after losing it.
The Mona Lisa certainly became more famous after the theft, but the First World War soon attracted a lot of world attention after its outbreak. Some scholars say that Marcel Duchamp's reproduction of the painting and his comic distortion of it attracted attention again, as a general trend began that made that painting one of the most famous paintings in the world. Face the lady of the Mona Lisa, then write the acronym (LHOOQ) at the bottom of the painting, the sentence meaning blunt in French, causing not much eloquence, but a number of other cunning artists realized that a joke like that would get them attention, too.
For decades, many artists, especially the American artist Andy Warhol, followed Duchamp's example, and the more artists distorted, manipulated, and painted other versions of that painting, the more advertising professionals and cartoonists took an interest in it.
With the passage of decades and after the technical development the painting was reproduced and reproduced countless times, some were manipulated and others were not, which made the face of that seated woman in the picture one of the most famous faces in the world, even for those who had no interest in art from Before.
A tour in the United States in 1963 and another in Japan in 1974 were enough to increase the painting's fame beyond its fame. The Mona Lisa traveled to America on an ocean liner in the first class cabin, and during her six-week stay there, she made about 40,000 people visit her daily at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the National Gallery of Art in the capital. Washington), about ten years later, received the painting in Japan by huge crowds.
In addition, the increasing affordability of public travel fares since the late last century has made the number of people who go to Paris to personally show their reverence and appreciation for the painting, which has contributed to the presence of the crowds that we see today. Although the Mona Lisa is undoubtedly a wonderful piece of art, there is no single reason for its popularity, or rather there are hundreds of reasons and circumstances, starting with its arrival at the Louvre Museum, through the creation of its legend in the nineteenth century, and ending with the endless copies of it in the two centuries. past and present, which worked together with the painting's allure to make (Mona Lisa) the most famous painting of all time.
Reference
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-the-mona-lisa-so-famous
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