Who is Mona Lisa?
Mona Lisa, a mysterious lady behind the artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci, with my bare knowledge about it, i can't see its real meaning, because all i can see with my naked eye is an ordinary face of a woman wearing a soft smile on her face and showing a mysterious look on it's viewer. I have heard about that particular painting years ago, maybe since I was in my elementary days, I already heard that a certain painting was called "Mona Lisa" but despite of being familiar with it, I never imagined that it has a very mysterious meaning, that at this very moment I am looking and searching for its real essence. But "Who is Mona Lisa?", was she a lover of Leonardo or she was only part of his imagination? or was there any particular reason why Da Vinci painted her? As time goes by, my idea about that particular painting gets wider and my question about the true identity of Mona Lisa gets its answer. According to the article that I have read, Mona Lisa is a portrait of a woman named Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. it was said that it was painted between 1503 and 1506. Years ago, I was only playing a certain video game about "Da Vinci Code" and Mona Lisa was featured on it to solve a mystery. Now i have to discover it myself in reality by searching, scrolling down and up and clicking.
Now that we already know who is the woman behind Mona Lisa, maybe it is about time to know more about it. I keep on searching, and i found out that its title stems from a description by Georgio Vasari. It became Ma donna which means "my lady" for its contraction for Mona Lisa where Mona was a polite form of address similar to madam. Mona is also a short form for madonna. What else can I say? *scroll down. Knowing a brief history of its name, let us now focus on the whole portrait, from the way how the viewers see it and from how its painter finalized Mona Lisa. I, as an ordinary observer, lack of knowledge about paintings and how to appreciate them, noticed from simply staring on it, that Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. Practically speaking, it is very unusual that a human specially a lady will strike a pose to be painted on a portrait without her eyebrows whether it is real or drawn ones. Was there a reason why Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa without it? or did he simply forgot to put it to her portrait? As I keep on reading different articles about it, I encountered reading a certain page where it was written that, a certain engineer and scientist zoomed in an image of Mona Lisa's left eye revealed a single brush stroke in the eyebrow region, which means that, Leonardo haven't painted Mona Lisa without eyebrows, it was only painted finely that caused our naked eyes to see the portrait without it. Even her fingers, have you noticed that those were not painted accordingly? There were lots of mysteries that lies behind it and some of it were not yet revealed either, but maybe my knowledge about it now is enough. Enough the way that maybe I'll be dreaming of Mona Lisa after posting this blog.
Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, popularly known as the Mona Lisa, conveys so much mystery and gives lots of meaning. For my own opinion, his painting proves that not all what we see is the way it is used to be. Why? because even one of the greatest artist was once confused in making a certain artwork, separating truth from lies, from his drafts of Mona Lisa, shows that his idea of painting her, was never his plan to appear like that, but it took him very long time to finish it without knowing that his idea changes from time to time, that even the shape of Mona Lisa's eyes and lips differ from the draft itself. What makes Mona Lisa famous is not because of the way it was well painted nor the way it was colored accordingly, but because of the mysteries that made its viewers boost curiosity behind her smile, her eyes and her pose. Just imagine how long it took Da Vinci just to finish such artwork. It needs so much patience, wide span of time and enough skills to fulfill its need to be finished. But who have thought that even an artwork with impurities will be so famous after so many years and even a new generation like me got curious just to know its real mystery that lies behind the smile of a woman painted on it? Before I end this blog entry, I looked at one of the samples of Mona Lisa's portrait from the internet, and I noticed that my point of view the way I see it now differs from the way I have seen it before. How? See for yourself.
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