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前言

這是GiGi在學校寫的簡短Academic Essay,

英語不好哇！多多指教了！

正文：

The Mona Lisa

The Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous painting in the world today, and perhaps the world’s the best-known work of art. The Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile which seems both alluring and aloof, has made the portrait famous.

“The Mona Lisa is an oil painting on a poplar wood panel and measures 77cm by 53cm (30 inches by 21 inches). The Mona Lisa (Italian: La Gioconda; French: La Joconde), less commonly rendered as the Mona Lisa, was painted by the famous Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci in 1503 and completed it three or four years later.”[1] It located in France and now hangs in the Paris's Louvre Museum and is the museum's star attraction.

The Mona Lisa set the standard for all future portraits. It shows a figure of a woman smiling slightly with an introspective expression, dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and seated in a visionary, distant icy mountainous landscape visible as a backdrop. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. The expression of portrait is created mainly in two features: the mouth and the eyes. Detail of the face, the corners of Mona Lisa’s eyes and mouth is indistinct with soft shadow as is a remarkable instance of Leonardo's soft technique, heavily shaded modeling. She has no eyebrows in her painting. “During her time, shaven eyebrows were considered very attractive, and thus she is lacking them here.”[2] She folded hands in front of her breast and you can see the sleeves with their detailed folds as it shows imperceptible transitions between light and dark, and colours. Her breast, neck, and face glow in the same light that softly models her hands. The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles. Her hair is brown colour and length to shoulder, wrapped in a translucent veil. The dress she wears is sober and dark and reveals her breast. Her left shoulder is adorned by a thickly pleated mantle and she does not wear any jewels.

“Many art historians believe that the lady portrayed is thought to be the wife of a wealthy Florentine businessman, Francesco Del Giocondo, who commissioned the painting.”[3] Some even claim that the painting is a portrait of Leonardo himself as a woman.

“In 1911, an Italian stole the painting from the Louvre to get it back to Italy and it was taken back to the Louvre after two years.”[4] However, this helps to raise the artwork’s fame even further. “In 1956, the lower part of the painting was severely damaged after an acid attack. Several months later someone threw a stone at it. It is now being kept under security glass.”[5]

The painting is seen by nearly every one of the millions of visitors who set foot in the Louvre. People have been gazing at the Mona Lisa with a sense of bafflement for over 500 years. The reason why the Mona Lisa attracts people is the painting makes confusion as the Mona Lisa’s smile is a big secret. Many researchers have tried to explain why the smile is seen so differently by people. What is she smiling about? Does she happy or not? Many suggestions have been made, but these questions have no real answer. People are intriguing to think about when looking at the painting. These are the reasons that the Mona Lisa is so famous and popular today.

The Mona Lisa is such a successful painting that has been a favourite for millions around the world, and it has been admired, copied, stolen, exploited, and parodied. The Mona Lisa has been roled in popular culture and avant-garde art. The blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark which includes the arc of her famous smile, has given the portrait universal fame in art history.

Bibliography

Books:

Mona Lisa : the history of the world's most famous painting 

By: Donald Sassoon;  Leonardo, da Vinci

Bramly, Serge. Mona Lisa. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996.

Galli, Letizia. Mona Lisa: The Secret of the Smile. New York:Delacorte Press, 1996.

Keele, Kenneth D. The Genesis of Mona Lisa. New York: H.Schuman, 1959.

Website:

http://www.monalisamania.com/

http://www.famous-art-prints.net/davinci-mona-lisa-self-portrait.htm

http://www.montana.edu/4teachers/instcomp/hunts/art/owens/monalisa.html

http://www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/mona/mona.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues99/may99/mona.html

http://www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/mona/mona2.html

http://www.values.ch/Art-Gallery/Leonardo/Mona-Lisa/monalisa.htm

http://davinci.4mg.com/mona.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3660143.stm

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~noelh/MonaLisa.htm

http://www.atkielski.com/inlink.php?/PhotoGallery/Paris/Louvre/MonaLisaSmall.html