Mona Lisa, who was she? Why is the painting of her so famous? Has the original production enhanced because of her recognition, and how do advertisers use her fame for themselves? All of these questions deserve an answer. The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece painted by Da Vinci in the 19th century. It is a not so unique portrait, of a not so unique woman, set before a blurry landscape. I would like to try and explain my beliefs behind Mona Lisa’s reputation, the enhancement/diminishment of the original, and how contemporary advertisers use her image.
What is the primary reason for the rise in fame of the Mona Lisa, is it her smile or was it the fact that the masterpiece was stolen? I believe that her mysterious smile and Mona Lisa’s following eyes painted
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Going back to her smile, a contest submission for Colgate was a picture of Mona Lisa with glistening teeth, that said “SMILE BIG” and “Exhibit those pearly whites” at the bottom of the ad. I find this particular use of advertising to be especially comical since it goes back to the prominence of her smile. This specific submission grasped the mystery of Mona Lisa’s smile and ran with it. Another example was when authors used the image of Mona Lisa for “Reclaiming Beauty: A Webinar”. In this webinar, Ms. Sofia and Ms. Botkin try to show young girls that the beauty you perceive in advertising is not what beauty actually is. They show young girls that it’s time to take beauty back for what it is and that Photoshop doesn’t change the person you are. In the end the point I secured from this advertisement was that the beauty of the painting, Mona Lisa, was not photo shopped and it was a natural image of who she genuinely was. I found both of these advertisements to be on opposite spectrums of the use of Mona Lisa’s image, but they both did a perfect job using her celebrity like qualities for their
Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most famous artists during the time of the Renaissance, The Mona Lisa for example, was a painting created between 1503 and 1506, it is the most famous painting ever painted. It is a portrait of the young wife of a Florentine silk merchant. It shows a young woman with her famous smile sitting on a balcony high above a landscape.
Cover Girl cosmetics have been the top-seller since 1961 and are still going strong. It is hard, with all the advanced lines of make-up for one product to go as far as Cover girl has, so how does Cover Girl cosmetics do it? A lot of Cover Girl’s strong, on going successes are due to changing the look of the product, exceptional promotions which the public can’t look over, giving a cosmetic appeal to both older and younger aged women and most importantly by using near perfect women and teens to model their products. Although it’s wonderful that Cover Girl has been and still is so successful, it has put a dentation in today’s society in what women’s appearance should and shouldn’t be. Women and young adolescence are confused of what their appearance should be. Cover Girl has many famous models; one inparticular is the famous country singer Faith Hill. Faith is tall, skinny, and flawless. When women see models like her doing the advertising for Cover Girl, they automatically feel that they should look the same. Later in this paper I will go into semiotics which derives from the Greek word semeion meaning sign, it basically describes how people interpret different signs, such as models, and how these signs might effect one’s life and self-esteem. Proctor & Gamble are the owners and starters of Cover Girl cosmetics. To keep up the success of Cover Girl they must keep on top of the advertising game to stay above the competitors. To do this they do many promotions, some include using famous singers, changing displays, giving away samples and one of the most important advertisement of all is the models Cover Girls incorporates in their ads. Cover Girls did one promotion with Target stores to promote their product. They used the famous group 98 Degrees to make a sweepstakes called, “Fall in Love with 98 Degrees Sweepstakes.” The grand prizewinner of this sweepstakes is an appearance in the new 98 Degrees music video. This advertising doesn’t just take place in the Target stores; it also takes place in Teen magazine, stickers on the new 98 Degrees CDs, a national radio campaign, and the national Teen People magazine. Because it’s teens that mainly listen to the music that 98 Degrees produces, it’s the teens that this particular promotion is focused on. I s...
Next they go into further detail about the history of the painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer. They say that it was described as the “Mona Lisa” of the Austrian people to whom it belonged to.
Perhaps one of the most famous paintings Leonardo da Vinci painted is the Mona Lisa in which he painted in 1503. Many experts believe the portrait is of a very wealthy women who lived in Florence whose
Nearly everything captured the attention of handsome, intelligent, and charming da Vinci. His dream of flying and pursuit of inventing often compelled him to abandon a project for the sake of exploration. Contrary to the beliefs of most notorious figures of the time, da Vinci comprehended the flaws of humanism and relativism. Rather, he recognized a higher authority, which he strove to obey. Today, da Vinci is most frequently recognized as the creative genius behind the fascinating “Mona Lisa.” “Mona Lisa” herself, was likely quite ordinary. In fact, “Mona” is simply an abbreviation of the title, “Mrs.” or “Madonna.” While the subject’s true identity is debatable, da Vinci’s skillful execution is undeniable. The blurred contours and dark undertones of his own technique, sfumato, pair with intentional fuzziness and purposeful shadows to create a portrait with exceptional depth and rich meaning. Opposed to the preferences of many artists of the day, da Vinci favored pleasant subjects. No doubt his employment of musicians and jesters to entertain his subjects is partially responsible for Mona Lisa’s distinguished smile. Indubitably, Leonardo da Vinci’s achievements set the standard for High Renaissance
“The Met’s very own Mona Lisa” (Tomkins 9). That is what Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Madonna and Child painting is known as today. “The Metropolitan Museum of Art bought the Madonna and Child for forty-five to fifty million dollars” (Tomkins 1). However, the painting was not always in public hands; in fact, the Met purchased the last known work of Duccio in private hands. Originally, the painting was held in the private hands of Adolphe Stoclet and his wife. When the couple died, their house and their collection went to their son, Jacques who held onto the painting, and passed it down to his daughters who lent it to an exhibition in Siena of Duccio and his school. The painting was eventually withdrawn from the exhibition and sold (Tomkins 2). Madonna and Child painting dated 1300 and was painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna a Sienese painter, who is considered the founder of modern Italian painting. I chose to research this painting because the subject matter of religious imagery and symbols interests me. Also because when I looked at the painting the emotion on the Madonna’s face almost jumped out at me. It is as if, she is looking at her newborn child with this deep sadness, which almost makes you think that the painting is foreshadowing the death of Jesus Christ. In addition, the burns of the side of the frame peaked my interest, as to why they were there. Art critics were also interested in this work they even consider Madonna and Child one of Duccio’s perfect works, and it said to be worth all the other paintings exhibited under the name of Duccio (Christiansen 14). The Madonna and Child painting’s iconography, imagery, emotional appeal to the viewers, and meaning all make this painting still a great work of art today.
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
show so little respect for the Mona Lisa today, although one can see that even though the
Paris provided great opportunities for the young artist and she met many famous figures of the movement. She became recognizable after modeling for Man Ray who produced a series of notable and controversial photographs that featured her in the nude. Additionally, Hans Arp and Alberto Giacometti invited her to display work at the Surrealist exhibition at...
The movie Mona Lisa Smile is set in 1953; post-war and pre-feminism. Katherine Ann Watson, a progressive Art History teacher, is hired to teach at Wellesley. This selective all-women’s college is described in the opening scenes of the film as “the most conservative university in the country” (Newell, “Mona Lisa Smile”, 2003). Watson wants to teach at Wellesley in order to influence the next generation of women. Some of the brightest female students in the country attended Wellesley. Among these students are: Joan Brandwyn, a driven student with a 4.0 GPA, Betty Warren, the daughter of the Alumni Association president, Giselle Levy, a flirtatious and outgoing young woman who has had an affair with a Wellesley teacher (Bill Dunbar), and Connie Baker. These women are bright, and largely members of the upper class. Their social class not only affords them the Wellesley education but vacations abroad and elaborate parties and weddings.
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
The two art pieces are different because the Lady in the portrait is looking down, trying to avoid eye contact in order to look meek and demure. The Mona Lisa’s eyes, on the other hand, appear to follow the viewer as if it is not really looking at you, but into you, like she’s
The Mona Lisa is wearing a long sleeve dress that is not revealing at all, she doesn’t show any skin in an inappropriate way while the Mona Loca is wearing a very short dress that shows a lot of cleavage and her nipples as well. She is also wearing net tights with money tucked in them that show her thick legs and tattoos on them; meanwhile the Mona Lisa does not show anything from the waist down. Da Vinci also gave the Mona Lisa, a thin vail over her hair, but Abstrk did not put anything over the Mona Loca’s head. The Mona Loca has a cigarette in her hand, while the Mona Lisa does not have anything in her hands. It seems like the Mona Loca has more freedom because she has tattoos all over her body which tells she makes her own the decisions to do what she wants to do with her body. Also, she wears what she wants and she doesn’t seem to care what others would think about it. However, the Mona Lisa’s wardrobe says that she is conservative and reserved, it looks as if this type of clothing is what she had to wear in order to be accepted by her culture in that time. In contrary, the Mona Loca doesn’t feel as if she needs to be accepted by anyone. But, the Mona Lisa proves how reserved she had to be by wearing a vail over her head. She is not be able to free her hair (which could be a sign of sexuality to her culture) or look provocative in any way. Whereas, by holding a cigarette in her hands, the Mona Loca demonstrates
Andy Warhol, another appropriating artist used the image of the Mona Lisa in his work. Andy Warhol, a pop artist of the sixties brought American life and culture back to art. This was after the abstract expressionists destroyed the notion and produced very personal and internal works....
Leonardo is one of the few people who has the ability to make these qualities seem so perfect under his hands. His artworks are by far the most popular pieces of art that are in museums to this day. Recently a popular painting “Salvator Mundi”, painted between 1490-1500, has been placed up for auction and is estimated that the painting will sale for at least $100 million. This is just one of 16 surviving paintings that have made it through the years and it’s not even the most popular one. The Mona Lisa is the most popular painting by anyone to this very day. It was painted in the year 1503 and is famous for multiple reasons. One being that da Vinci didn’t just paint this ordinarily, but in a technique called sfumato and it was painted in atmospheric perspective as seen in the background. The technique sfumato is the blending of oil paints to blur the lines between colors. Atmospheric perspective was a new painting style where things far away in paintings looked blurry and this style was used in the background of the Mona Lisa. The word mysterious is associated with this painting and others that have come from his works. The smile that is presented in the Mona Lisa is somewhat puzzling in its own way and the person depicted in the painting is still not 100% known to experts to this day. The eyes that are on the Mona Lisa seem to watch and follow you when you look at the painting. One of the weird myths that