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Essay / The virtual characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa
Attribute the painting of the Mona Lisa to the artist who painted it. Justify your attribution by discussing specific visual characteristics of the paintings that are commonly associated with the artist's work. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayIntroductionThe Mona Lisa painting is one of the most expensive, beloved, famous and popular works of art of the Renaissance period. Generally and universally, this work of art has been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest Old Masters in the history of art. Leonardo da Vinci has been called the true "Renaissance Man" because of his masterpieces of art, including the Mona Lisa because of its exceptional visual characteristics which will be further explored in his mastery of portraiture, perspective and realism. There are also a number of test paintings. Some of these features include the masterful use of oil paint known as sfumato, Leonardo da Vinci which has similar characteristics to the Mona Lisa painting including Portrait of the Musician, The Last Supper, The Virgin with rocks, the Lady with an Ermine. , Ginevra de'Benci and Madonna du Bobineur. These similar visional characteristics will be explored in the essay with the aim of justifying the attribution of the Mona Lisa to Leonardo da Vinci. First of all, the Mona Lisa is neither signed nor dated like all other works of art by Leonardo da Vinci. Giorgio Vasari argued that this painting was painted by Leonardo da Vinci and that it depicted Lisa Gherardine, wife of a Florentine dignitary and wealthy silk merchant. Vasari also mentions that Leonardo employed musicians and troubadours to entertain her, which could explain her enigmatic smile. As usual, as with many of his paintings, Leonardo procrastinated endlessly on the painting. This procrastination is noted on the position of the subject's hands which is somehow different from the rest of the table. Various scholars believe that Leonardo worked on the Mona Lisa for more than two decades. Another similar visionary feature of another painting that Leonardo procrastinated on completing is the Portrait. of the Musician that the artist never managed to complete. Both the Mona Lisa and the Portrait of the Musician are portraits that showcase Leonardo's mastery of oil painting, his mastery of perspective and realism. These similarities therefore illustrate that these two paintings belong to the same artist; henceforth Leonardo can be attributed to the paintings of the Mona Lisa in the light of these similarities. Furthermore, the Mona Lisa can also be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci thanks to its similar visual characteristics with the Virgin of the Rocks which was painted by the artist between 1438 and 1485. The painting, like the Mona Lisa, also exhibits the greatest mastery of Leonardo in terms of sfumato. This oil painting technique involves the smooth and almost imperceptible transition from one color to another using ultra-subtle tonal gradients. In My Lisa, this is particularly visible in the soft contours of Lisa's face around the eyes and mouth. The use of sfumato in both paintings reinforces a great serenity enriched by a certain air of mystery and harmony. In The Mona Lisa, Leonardo illustrates an exquisite synthesis of sitter and landscape, the Mona Lisa sets the standard for all future portraits. The painting presents a woman in a half-length portrait, against the backdrop of a distant landscape. However, this simple description of an apparently standard composition gives little information aboutLeonardo's success. The sensual curves of the model's hair and clothing, created using sfumato, are echoed in the shapes of the valleys and rivers behind her. The feeling of overall harmony achieved in the painting, particularly apparent in the slight smile of the sitter which reflects Leonardo's idea of the cosmic bond connecting humanity and nature, making this painting a lasting testament to Leonardo's vision. In his other paintings such as The Virgin of the Rocks, The Madonna of the Winder and The Lady with the Ermine, Leonardo also manages to illustrate the same idea that he conveys through the Mona Lisa, namely the cosmic attraction between humanity and nature. Therefore, due to these similar visual characteristics through which ideas are conveyed, one is forced to attribute the Mona Lisa painting to Leonardo. Additionally, in his other paintings like Ginevra de'Benci, The Lady with an Ermine and The Musician, Leonardo was somehow able to bring life from his portraits. Before him, portraits lacked mystery, artists only represented appearances without soul or, if they showed the soul, they sought to express it through gestures, symbolic objects or inscriptions. The Mona Lisa alone is a living enigma whose soul is there, but inaccessible. From the Mona Lisa and her other portraits, one can somehow feel a kind of awe, a miraculous creation of nature and humanity depicted at the same time. Leonardo da Vinci's portraits go beyond their social limits and acquire universal significance. Although Leonardo worked on the painting of the Mona Lisa as a scholar and thinker, and not just as a painter and poet, the scientific and philosophical aspects of his research inspired no response. But the formal aspect, the new presentation, the nobler attitude and the increased dignity of the model had a decisive influence on the Florentine portraits of the following twenty years, on the classical portrait. With his Mona Lisa, Leonardo created a new formula, both more monumental and more alive, more concrete and yet more poetic than that of his predecessors. Leonardo's mastery of portraiture forever changed the art world, due to the impressive visual characteristics of his paintings. Leonardo deserves his attribution to the Mona Lisa. Moreover, among all his other contemporaries, Leonardo had special skills which he illustrated in paintings like The Last Supper, the Mona. Lisa herself and her other paintings. The most burning question among art critics is what made Leonardo da Vinci's paintings stand out from the works of his peers and contemporaries? Many scholars have suggested that this was due to the unique effect his paintings had on viewers, ultimately due to his impressive scientific approach to his work. For example, he was one of the few artists to master the concept of the "vanishing point", which involves creating a remarkable sense of depth and three-dimensionality within a two-dimensional framework by drawing strong diagonal lines that intersect at the background of the painting. . A beautiful illustration of this technique can be found in one of his most famous paintings, “The Last Supper”. The room in which Jesus and his disciples sit appears symmetrical and realistic, a perfect representation of three-dimensional space, in which the walls appear to converge inward. Likewise, this illustration of the techniques is also evident in the Mona Lisa itself, the background of the painting's landscape behind the model was created using an aerial perspective, with its smoky blues and no vanishing points clearly defined, it gives the composition significant depth. Its details, however, reveal