International Journal of English and Studies

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-3, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE

MONA LISA: MORE THAN A MYSTERIOUS SMILE ______Shubhashish Prakash Student of Law Address- 509/131, old Hyderabad, Lucknow ______

Behind bulletproof glass in a gallery of the claimed to have the painting. Geri Louvre Museum in Paris, hangs one of the immediately contacted the police, who soon greatest masterpieces in the field of art, THE arrested Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian MONA LISA painted by Leonardo da Vinci carpenter who had been working at the somewhere between 1503 and 1509. It has Louvre at the time of the theft. Peruggia been a part of the museum's collection since admitted that he had simply lifted the 1804 masterpiece from the four hooks upon which How did it become so famous? it hung, stuck it under his workman's tunic, Today whenever in a room, there is a and just walked out the door of the Louvre. talk about art, artists, paintings or anything related then, name Mona Lisa always pops Once the Mona Lisa was returned to out from somewhere. It is the most famous the Louvre, the French turned out in droves piece of artifacts of the modern era. to see her, and soon, so did people from all over the globe. The small, simple painting of But for centuries, the Mona Lisa a maybe-smiling woman had become an hung quietly in the Louvre, generally overnight sensation, and was the most unnoticed, but on August 21, 1911, it was famous work of art in the world. stolen right off the museum's wall in a heist Who is the woman in the painting? that shocked the art world. There have been various Author Seymour Reit says, "Someone speculations from being referred as some walked into the Salon Carré, lifted it off the prostitute to personification of the wall and went out with it! The painting was Bramante's Tempietto in Rome regarding stolen Monday morning, but the interesting the identity of the women in this painting. thing about it was that it wasn't 'til Tuesday at noon that they first realized it was gone." Mona Lisa the Prostitute It was argued by many that the After more than two years, in late subject in Mona Lisa was a prostitute 1913, a Florentine art dealer named Alfredo because she doesn't have eyelashes or Geri received a letter from a man who eyebrows, according to some history books,

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-3, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE in Italy around the 16th century, the only was fondly called Salai or Little Devil and is women who were hairless on face with no rumored to be the gay lover of the legendary eyebrow, no eyelashes and no moustache, artist. Vinceti says , "You see it particularly were prostitutes and the way the hair on her in Mona Lisa's nose, her forehead and her head is worn in the painting, was the style of smile," he added, noting that these features prostitute or an unmarried woman. are similar to other Da Vinci paintings which used Salai as a model, namely St John But a French engineer Pascal Cotte the Baptist, St Anne, and The Incarnate used Infrared Reflectography technique and Angel.This theory is vastly opposed by found definitive proof that when Leonardo several art professors such as Martin Kemp, da Vinci painted the original portrait he professor emeritus of the history of art at included Mona Lisa's lashes and brows Trinity College, Oxford, questioned the which was probably accidently removed credibility of Vinceti's findings and said, during cleaning or restoration work. "This is a mish-mash of known things, semi- Moreover, the 3D scans reveal that the known things and complete fantasy." woman was originally painted with her hair tied back in a bun, even though today it Mona Lisa or Lisa Gheradini appears loose on her shoulders. Amongst all the theories in regard with the true identity of the woman who was This process also assisted in commissioned to sit for the portrait, the one revealing under drawings which shows that which has most facts asserted to its side and the fingers of the Mona Lisa's left hand were accepted by majority of historians, artists, originally painted in a slightly different professors, etc. Is that she was Lisa position than in the final portrait. And also Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo provided information about the materials also known as Lisa del Giocondo. used and techniques employed. The model, Lisa del Giocondo, was a member of the Gherardini family of Mona Lisa the Gay Lover Florence and Tuscany, and the wife of Silvano Vinceti, head of a research group wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco called the National Committee for Cultural del Giocondo. The painting is thought to Heritage said: "The Mona Lisa is have been commissioned for their new androgynous – half man and half woman. home, and to celebrate the birth of their The painting was based on two models. The second son, Andrea. first was Lisa Gherardini and the second was Salai, Leonardo's apprentice."Gian Giacomo "Mona" was a common Italian contraction Caprotti, the male apprentice of Da Vinci of " Madonna," meaning "my lady," the

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-3, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE equivalent of the English "Madam," so the age of the Mona Lisa should probably be 23 title means "Madam Lisa" this means the or 24 years when the artwork was lady in the painting was from a high society produced—assuming the woman portrayed and was a noblewoman. really is Lisa del Giocondo because it was also at this age that she was pregnant. Lisa and Francesco had five children: Piero, Camilla, Andrea, Giocondo, In 1913 an English connoisseur and Marietta, four of them between 1496 Hugh Blaker acquired a painting from a and 1507. National Research Council of manor house in Somerset, where it was Canada did 3D scan of painting using thought to have been hanging for over a infrared technology. From the scans, it was century. This painting came to be known as revealed that the lady in the painting is Isleworth Mona Lisa. wearing a Guarnello, which is a kind of veil that a pregnant woman used to wear at that The Isle worth Mona Lisa is an early time moreover it seems that she has a slight sixteenth-century oil on canvas painting tummy with arms crossed around it, which depicting the same subject Lisa del suggests that she might have been pregnant. Giocondo but at a younger age.

A recently discovered marginal note Physicist John F. Asmus, who had by Agostino Vespucci, one-time assistant to previously examined the Mona Lisa in the the diplomat and writer Niccolò Louvre and investigated other works by Machiavelli, records that Leonardo was Leonardo, published a computer image working on a painting of “Lisa del processing study in 1988 concluding that the Giocondo” in 1503. brush strokes of the face in the painting were performed by the same artist There are many other theories and responsible for the brush strokes of the face speculations regarding the inspiration of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. behind painting like it was Da Vinci’s self- portrait as a woman or his mother’s portrait, A review of the painting in the etc. But they do not have a single relevant Deseret News describes its tonality as being proof and seem a bit farfetched. darker, and describes the colouring as being in "accordance with almost all the works Is this the original Mona Lisa? attributed to Leonardo–that of a golden A recent study based on painting glow–while the finish is of a most minute indicated that the estimated age of the Mona character". Lisa’s face was 32.3 ± 5.6 years but the real

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-3, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Italian curator Lorenzo Cecconi, who Rocks along with two versions of St. John also examined the painting in the 1920s, the Baptist and of Leda and the Swan, and said that "the fusion of the tints of the flesh, two versions each of drawings of Isabella d especially in the eyes; the line which designs 'Este, the Adoration of the Magi, and St. the nose, the mouth, and the oval of the face Anne. There are believes that he even were remarkable, and indicated that "this painted the second version of THE LAST may be a second work of the Great SUPPER, the one found in an abbey in Leonardo". Tongerlo, Belgium.

In the same period, Renaissance But there are historians who believe scholar Arduino Colasanti thought "the that Da Vinci painted only one Mona Lisa upper part with the eyes and nose of the and also that the lady in the painting is Lisa face" were definitely by Leonardo, and del Giocondo and the reason that she seems noted collector Ludovico Spiridon stated more aged than she actually was at the time that "the face has been painted by Leonardo; of painting is that she during 1503, no doubt of this at all". In the 1960s, Leonardo had no income source, which may Pulitzer claimed that "densitometry tests on in part explain his interest in a private the planes of face and hands show a gradual portrait. But later that year, he most likely change of tone values from dark to light had to delay his work on Mona Lisa when which only [Leonardo] da Vinci, with his he received payment for starting The Battle amazing eyesight, was capable of". of Anghiari, which was a more valuable commission and was contracted to be Raphael who was inspired by Da complete by February 1505. Vinci also made a pen-and-ink sketch probably around 1505 after seeing the In 1506, Leonardo left the portrait painting in progress, showed the sitter [Mona Lisa] unfinished and did not deliver flanked by two columns. Similar columns it to his client because he was not paid for are visible in the Isle worth picture and the work. He travelled with the painting women in this painting also seem to be throughout his life, and may have completed young. and modified it according to the age of the subject in his mind many years later in Moreover, Leonardo is also known France, around 1516. for often painting two versions of his works, Other Mysteries and also leaving them unfinished, for his There are many other mysteries students to complete the missing portions. related with Mona Lisa like The right eye For example, two versions of Virgin of the have the letters “LV” written while the left

SP Publications International Journal Of English and Studies (IJOES) An International Peer-Reviewed Journal ; Volume-3, Issue-3, 2021 www.ijoes.in ISSN: 2581-8333; Impact Factor: 5.421(SJIF)

RESEARCH ARTICLE eye’s letters are not clearly recognizable but Researchers of Dutch developed could be Letter “B” or “CE”. A number 72 software for “emotion recognition” and ran can be seen in the background in the arch. it for Mona Lisa Painting in 2005. Finally, it Or the hidden animals in the background of was found that Mona Lisa painting is less the painting and of course the mysterious than 1% neutral, 2% angry, 6% fearful, 9% smile. disgusted and 83% happy. Thus creating a perfect ambiguity between happy and sad.