Mona Lisa’s Secret Exposed, Research Paper Example

When talking about historical art, there is one painting that often defines peoples’ perceptions of the word. The Mona Lisa was created by the infamous Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci defines the Renaissance Period for many art lovers. However, before the early 1900s, The Mona Lisa was not considered to be as important as Leonardo da Vinci’s other works of art, such as The Last Supper. In fact, until the early 1900s, The Mona Lisa sat in a drawer in the office of the curator of The Louvre.[1] After the Louvre was built in 1793, there was one concentrated place for people to go and appreciate art, but despite the fact that The Louvre had taken possession of The Mona Lisa in 1797, The Mona Lisa didn’t really become the famous painting that it is now until the 1911 theft of it.[2]

The Mona Lisa was declared missing from The Louvre on August 24, 1911. After its theft, people would line up and wait in line for hours to see the empty spot on the wall where it had previously hung. Most people accredit Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian who was living in Paris at the time. Perugia managed to keep The Mona Lisa hidden for more than two years, until he tried to sell it to an art dealer in 1913. In December of 1913, The Mona Lisa was returned to its home at The Louvre and rocketed to a level of popularity that is as yet unmatched.

One thing that many people do not know when talking of The Mona Lisa is that it was never formally completed. Leonardo worked on The Mona Lisa for more than four years and returned to it many times throughout his life.[3]Recently, x-ray techniques have allowed experts insight on The Mona Lisa that were previously impossible. One of the main questions that the x-ray techniques answered was how Leonardo da Vinci was capable of such a smooth texture on Mona Lisa’s face. The answer is that Leonardo da Vinci was an absolute master and used an exact form of glazing thickness that allowed him to make Mona Lisa’s face appear as smooth as it does.[4]

Before the x-ray technique was available, the only way to have found this information out would have been to take a scraping or a sample from Mona Lisa’s face. For obvious reasons, that was absolutely not an option in many peoples’ minds. The x-ray technique that was used to find out the information about Leonardo da Vinci’s expert use of glaze thickness is called x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Basically, the painting is bombarded with x-rays that react with the atoms of the material used in the painting, revealing what the items used to make the painting are.[5]

This x-ray technique answered the question of how Leonardo da Vinci was able to perfect his “sfumato” (meaning smoky) technique. This trademark technique is a shading technique used by Leonardo da Vinci that is completely without any presence of brush marks. Before the x-rays of The Mona Lisa, people knew that this technique was based off of a similar technique used by fifteenth century painters, but nobody understood how Leonardo da Vinci had managed to build upon the experience of previous painters and use the technique to such mastery.[6] The glazing technique referred to is when a translucent paint is painted over the top of a colored paint. Many people have speculated that Leonardo da Vinci used his fingertips rather than a brush to perform this technique and that is how he was able to perform this technique without leaving any brush marks.

The Mona Lisa is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, who was a wealthy silk merchant and a Florentine dignitary. Just like all of Leonardo da Vinci’s other paintings, The Mona Lisa is not signed or dated. The only way that scholars were able to attribute The Mona Lisa to Leonardo da Vinci is by reading his journals where he writes of being requested to paint a portrait of the woman.[7]

The Mona Lisa depicts Lisa Gherardini sitting in a chair with her face and chest slightly turned towards the viewer. This posture comes from the pyramid image used to portray a sitting Madonna. Lisa Gherardini’s arms are crossed, which puts a certain amount of distance between the painting and the viewer.[8]

Another extremely striking feature of The Mona Lisa is Lisa Gherardini’s complete lack of eyelashes and eyebrows. X-ray scans of The Mona Lisa prove that this was not a purposeful omission on Leonardo da Vinci’s part. Originally, The Mona Lisa had both eyelashes and eyebrows, and experts are not sure if they were removed on accident when the painting was cleaned, or if they have faded over time to the point of invisibility.

When viewers look at The Mona Lisa, the overall tone of the painting is one of serenity and peace. Nobody looks at the painting and thinks of war, comedy, or excitement. Perhaps the most overwhelming feeling that art enthusiasts have when they look at The Mona Lisa is awe. The Mona Lisa has inspired many parodies and even inspired Marcel Duchamp’s parody entitled L.H.O.O.Q.[9] (Fig. 2) Of course, L.H.O.O.Q. is not simply one painting, but rather the idea of a parody by Marcel Duchamp of the Mona Lisa. Marcel Duchamp is considered the father of modern art; a parody by any other artist might be considered just that—a parody—but because Marcel Duchamp was the artist, L.H.O.O.Q. became an entity of its own. L.H.O.O.Q. was reproduced many times over Marcel Duchamp’s career, so it is not possible to say the exact date of the art or the size, as Marcel Duchamp recreated it many times throughout his life.[10]

Because The Mona Lisa is oil painting on wood, one of the most concerning issues that belies the painting is how it will stand the test of time. Many people are concerned about the integrity of the wood and the integrity of the crack in the wood that was repaired sometime between the 18^th and 19^th century. Because of the valid concerns, a 3-D laser scan of The Mona Lisa was performed in 2006. The scan took around 16 hours, and it was done in the basement of The Louvre.[11]

As expected, the scientists that performed the scan found that the wood that The Mona Lisa is painted on is sensitive to temperature changes and climate changes. The scientists concluded that as long as The Mona Lisa remains in the same type of storage conditions that it is currently in, there is no risk of the wood deteriorating. Also, the scientists found that the crack in the wood and the subsequent repair, which many attribute to removing the original frame, is also not in any immediate danger of deterioration.

Many people have been puzzled over time about Mona Lisa’s smile. Sometimes when they look at The Mona Lisa, Lisa Gherardini’s smile is obvious, and other times it is not. Many experts have tried to solve this puzzle, but it was not until Margaret Livingstone, a neuroscience professor at Harvard University tackled this question that it was answered. According to Margaret Livingstone, the disappearing smile act has nothing to do with Leonardo da Vinci’s mastery of the oil medium. Whether or not Mona Lisa has a smile actually comes from which part of the eye is used to view the painting. Livingstone found that when you look directly at an object, the object, the image falls on the fovea receptors in the eye. When you use the peripheral vision to look at an object, the image falls on a part of the eye that does not have as many photoreceptors as the fovea. Stated simply, when you look directly at the image of Mona Lisa, she does not have a smile. When you look at the Mona Lisa out of the corner of your eye, she does. In essence, Mona Lisa only loses her smile when you look directly at her.[12]

Works Cited

Anonymous. (2003). Mona Lisa’s Secret Exposed. Current Science, 14.

Anonymous. (2006). Mona Lisa 3-D Scan. The Science Teacher, 73.

Art Encyclopedia. (2015, April 28). Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci: Analysis, Interpretation. Retrieved from Art Encyclopedia: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm

Ball, P. (2010). Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile. Nature, 694.

Freundschuh, A. (2006). Crime stories in the historical urban landscape: narrating the theft of the Mona Lisa. Urban History.

The Guardian. (2001, May 26). L.H.O.O.Q., Marcel Duchamp (1919). Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/26/art

[1] Freundschuh, A. (2006). Crime stories in the historical urban landscape: narrating the theft of the Mona Lisa. Urban History.

[2] Freundschuh, A. (2006). Crime stories in the historical urban landscape: narrating the theft of the Mona Lisa. Urban History.

[3] Ball, P. (2010). Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile. Nature, 694.

[4] Ball, P. (2010). Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile. Nature, 694.

[5] Ball, P. (2010). Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile. Nature, 694.

[6] Ball, P. (2010). Behind the Mona Lisa’s Smile. Nature, 694.

[7] Art Encyclopedia. (2015, April 28). Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci: Analysis, Interpretation. Retrieved from Art Encyclopedia: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm

[8] Art Encyclopedia. (2015, April 28). Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci: Analysis, Interpretation. Retrieved from Art Encyclopedia: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm

[9] Art Encyclopedia. (2015, April 28). Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci: Analysis, Interpretation. Retrieved from Art Encyclopedia: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/mona-lisa.htm

[10] The Guardian. (2001, May 26). L.H.O.O.Q., Marcel Duchamp (1919). Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/may/26/art

[11] Anonymous. (2006). Mona Lisa 3-D Scan. The Science Teacher, 73.

[12] Anonymous. (2003). Mona Lisa’s Secret Exposed. Current Science, 14.