Why doesn't Mona Lisa have eyebrows?

Category: Culture/Art >> Calligraphy and Painting Art

Problem description:

Why doesn't Mona Lisa have eyebrows in the famous painting Mona Lisa?

Analysis:

Who is the woman in the Mona Lisa?

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Italians call Mona Lisa Madame Gioconda. She may be the most unfathomable painting in art history. vasari said that "Da Vinci began to paint the Mona Lisa (sic), the wife of Francesco del Gioconda", but I don't know where vasari came from. It is almost certain that he has never seen this painting, because it was already in France when he created it. But that didn't stop him from praising it in poetic language:

Anyone who wants to know how art realistically imitates nature can clearly understand this from this portrait. Because it depicts all the tiny details with all the nuances in painting, you can only see the faint and moist brilliance in your eyes in your life; Those rose and pearl lines around you can't be shown without the most accurate technique. His eyebrows really seem to grow out of the skin, and the closer they get, the thinner they become. They bend according to the pores in the skin, and no one can make them more natural. A rose-like gentle nose with beautiful nose hair seems to be the same as the real one.

Nevertheless, his evaluation must be based on other people's opinions, or copied by some small artists.

Many historians doubt the truth of this statement, because the only source that connects the subscriber of this painting with the wealthy Tuscan businessman Francisco del Gioconda is vasari. Anonimo Gardiano speculated that Leonardo da Vinci finished another portrait for Del Gioconda, so some historians think that vasari confused the two paintings.

The Mona Lisa was first written by Antonio de Betis (Antomiode? Beatis), as the only guest who visited Leonardo's last residence in Clo in 15 17, he left us a record of his residence here. He wrote about the painting he saw in Leonardo da Vinci's studio and described it as a portrait of a Florence lady, but he didn't mention who she was and didn't seem to ask Leonardo further.

So who is the woman in the Mona Lisa? As for the identity of the woman sitting in the dark and meditating in front of an almost irrelevant background in this unusual painting, not only art historians, but also countless people including cultural relics experts, researchers, writers and even conspiracy theorists have put forward dozens of possibilities. But its mysterious creation, like Mona Lisa's own smile, is still nowhere to be found.

If we believe vasari, then this woman is the third wife of Francisco del Gioconda, whose name is Lisa di Gradini. She should be about 25 years old at that time. Besides, she is probably one of Leonardo da Vinci's most ardent supporters and admirers, and is worshipped by giuliano, the son of Lorenzo de Medici, who Leonardo da Vinci probably knew when he started painting.

Enel Pi Nuo, a poet in Ischia, put forward another theory in a poem. He mentioned a great work created by Leonardo da Vinci, and his own patron, Duchess Francesca Vera de avalos, was a model of this work. But this story is also questionable, because she was about 45 years old. It is conceivable that Leonardo will be persuaded to create a pleasing portrait for the old lady, but we know that he was forced by any form, and this is the last time he will give in.

There is also a theory (although there is no evidence to support it) that the woman in the Mona Lisa is actually Isabella de Este, and at her insistence, Leonardo da Vinci finally agreed to paint for her. But the same problem is that she should be much older than the characters in the painting at that time, although from our understanding of her personality, this contradiction is easy to solve, although Leonardo may not accept it.

Other views are pure speculation. Does Leonardo want to express a "perfect woman" and an imaginary idealized figure through the Mona Lisa? This reasoning led Freud and others to imagine that Leonardo created a portrait behind his mother Katrina, or an image of his mother in the subconscious. Interestingly, Marquis de Sade described the Mona Lisa as "the most important woman" and suggested that it was an imaginary or fantasy figure in the painting.

There is a bolder explanation, trying to emphasize the similarity between the face in the Mona Lisa and the face in the self-portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci at that time. This leads to a strange idea: Leonardo da Vinci and the characters in the painting are actually the same person.

It is easy to regard Mona Lisa as a self-portrait: Leonardo played a visual joke on future generations. He has always been keen on riddles and practical jokes, and likes harmless deception. He is also keen on mysteries and puzzles. He plays up his mystery and consciously hides some of his ideas and inventions, making them more unpredictable. Mona Lisa's smile is exactly what Leonardo should have: a joking person is smiling quietly. On the surface, this is just a simple irony, but if we take this view seriously and think further, we may see how Leonardo subconsciously helped drive out the devil in his heart in this way. The deep resentment, constant repression and concealment caused by his unfortunate birth broke out in a harmless joke way in his later years. It doesn't matter to him what people think at this time.

Leonardo will certainly be pleased with more and more modern theories about his identity as the most famous painting object. He will also be fascinated by the computer magnification technology used by researchers, which adds lines from the artist's face to the Mona Lisa's face to compare the overlapping situation. But although this view is very attractive, the evidence supporting this view is not conclusive enough to imagine that Leonardo da Vinci is wearing that suit and maybe playing with some special mirrors, so that he can paint himself at the right angle and with that slightly ironic smile.

But there are other difficulties surrounding the creation of this painting. If this painting is custom-made, why hasn't it arrived yet? If this was painted for Qiao Kangda, the explanation might be simple and clear. Leonardo da Vinci may have been dissatisfied with this painting for many years, and it was not completed until the death of Gioconda 15 16.

Another possibility is that the person who should pay for this painting has alienated the woman in the painting. Maybe she was not the one chosen by historians, but the wife or lover of another wealthy businessman or nobleman. When Leonardo da Vinci was finally satisfied with the painting, the Mona Lisa had fallen out of favor.

This leaves us with the most fascinating part of the painting: the mystery of Mona Lisa's smile. It is not my purpose to discuss the technical details of the painter or analyze the painting itself, which belongs to the work of art historians, but it is obvious that it is this kind of smile that will give Mona Lisa (and Leonardo) great prestige and charm in the next century. It has gone beyond the meaning of portrait and almost reached the status of primitive paradigm, which is neither because of its creation nor because of Leonardo da Vinci himself. It has become an over-familiar image, an abused cultural symbol, just like a song by The Beatles or a line or two in Romeo and Juliet. It is constantly copied and corroded, so that we can no longer see its true face. Its success as a portrait is surprising. It is a work of art that has influenced portraits for centuries.

The Mona Lisa was plagiarized almost as soon as it was published, and so was Leonardo da Vinci's concept. Raphael and Leonardo have always maintained a friendly relationship, and he may even have copied this painting before Leonardo finished it. Marcel duchamp, a French Dadaist artist, painted the Mona Lisa with a moustache and a goatee, and then wrote at the bottom of the painting: "She has a fever.". This comment is not directed at Da Vinci himself or his works, but at the reaction of the people who watched the painting. Andy warhol regards her as a character in his screen prints, so Mona Lisa enjoys the same status as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

Oscar Wilde wrote this picture:

Some people imagine that this painter is just a slave with an old-fashioned smile, but whenever I walk through the cool hall of the Louvre and stand in front of the statue of that strange figure, I always say to myself: "She is sitting in a marble chair, surrounded by strange rocks, like bathing in the twilight from the bottom of the sea, and she is older than the rocks around her seat; Like a vampire, she has died many times and knows the secret of the grave. She is a diver in the deep sea, guarding the day when she falls; She travels along strange trade routes and associates with businessmen in the East. She is like Rita, the mother of Helen of Troy; She is like Saint Anne, Maria's mother; She is all this, the music of harp and flute. Her sensitive and fragile life has created her ever-changing face and given her eyelids and hands vitality. " I said to my friend, "The existence of such a strange rose by the water shows the desire of mankind for thousands of years." He replied to me: "this mind is the ultimate gathering of all the worlds, and her eyelids are a little tired." So this painting becomes more beautiful to us than it actually is. It reveals a secret that we don't even know. The rhythm of the mysterious language we hear in our ears is as beautiful as the music played by the bagpiper with the subtle and charming lines of Mrs. Yokangda's lips.

We may never know who the woman in Mona Lisa is, but it doesn't matter. Leonardo didn't mention this painting in his notes, and it seems that he didn't write any papers, at least he didn't save them, so he probably didn't want us to know the truth behind his most famous works.

(Excerpted from Leonardo da Vinci: The First Scientist, by michael white (English), translated by Kan Xiaoning, one of the "Science and Humanities Series", Life, Reading and New Knowledge Joint Publishing Company, 200 1,1.

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