Leonadro da Vinci’s Painting, The Mona Lisa
The scientists of history still can not settle down about Mona Lisa’s mysterious face. A lot of them spent years to find out, who that woman on the painting was. Another version has come up recently.
Magdalena Soest from Germany’s Leverkusen spent ten years of her life, studying Leonadro da Vinci’s painting. He came to conclusion that Mona Lisa was a courtesan, who had the nickname “The Ttigress.” Many experts are sure that Soest’s research will put an end to the never-ending dispute about the woman on the painting. There were alternative versions set forth for that. The most known one of them says that the painting depicts a Florentine woman, named Lisa di Antonio Maria di Noldo Gherardini, - the wife of one of the noblest citizen of Florence, Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo. Extraordinary versions say that Mona Lisa was a woman of easy virtue, another one says that the painting depicts a transvestite, or even Da Vinci himself, wearing women’s clothes.
Magdalena Soest believes that Mona Lisa was the Duchess of Forli. Soest thinks that her theory can be proved with another paining of the Italian artist Lorenzo di Credi, who painted a woman in 1487 that looked very much like Mona Lisa. There is a big similarity between those two paintings, in spite of the fact that the woman on the earlier painting is about 25 years old, and on the older one – 40 years of age. Both of the painted women have the proud bearing, their hands are resting in the same position and they both have mysterious smiles.
The German newspapers hurried to publish the photographs of those two paintings so that the readers could compare. Soest examined very carefully every little detail before coming out with her conclusion. According to Soest’s theory, Mona Lisa’s name is Caterina Sforza, who was born in 1462, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan. She was considered to be one of the most beautiful women, and was noticeable for her incredible courage.
Together with her first husband Girolamo Riaria she led their troops in storming one of Rome's greatest citadels, the Castel Sant'Angelo, in a bid to install their candidate as the Pope when Sixtus IV died in 1484.
Women were not allowed to draw naked people, so instead she painted women in informal environments as seen in “The Chess Game”. Her paintings helped break gender and class barriers and led the way for women to be accepted in society as artists. Historian Whitney Chadwick wrote that she was “placed her within a critical category of her own”. (New World Encyclopaedia, 2012) During the middle ages, the only artists were nuns, and Sofonisba’s newfound success influenced the art of today. Many famous male renaissance artists copied her artwork style, which can be seen in the works of Peter Paul Rubens. Giorgio Vasari, the first art historian credited her work: “…she has not only succeeded in drawing, colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very choice and beautiful works of painting.” (Oxford,
John Deere was born in Vermont in 1804. His father went to England to find a job in 1808 and never came back, so he was primarily raised by his mother with his three brothers and his one sister. He was an educated man, and had always been fascinated with blacksmithing. At the age of 17, Deere got his first apprenticeship as a blacksmith in Middlebury. He was so talented, that with just a three year apprenticeship he was able to gain so much knowledge and start his own blacksmith company in 1825. Blacksmithing in Vermont wasn’t as substantial as in the West because the soil wasn’t as hard, so when Deere’s business wasn’t flourishing he packed up and moved to the West.
America was built on rebellion. This was no different for the Beat Generation whom took Americans in the 20th century, into a new way of life. Middle class free spirited people who questioned the practices of everyday lifestyle and mainstream culture, the beats lived in disillusionment with society. The fifties being a time of conservative family morals encouraged the bohemian nature of the beats for their want to experience more. The nature of this rejection is expected but, why? And how does such rebellion begin to take place, what forms does it take, and does such rebellion provide a lasting change?
“Over and over, in the Virgin of the Rocks, the Mona Lisa, the surviving designs for the Leda, the Burlington House cartoon, and the Saint Anne, Leonardo explicitly associated powerful female images with highly developed, visually extraordinary surrounding landscapes, as if to as if to assert the unity between the physical universe and the female cosmic generative principle as a philosophical claim” (Broude, 1992, p. 74).
...lved Mysteries of the Arnolfini Double Portrait." FluxBoston.org. N.p., 21 Jul 2007. Web. 8 Dec 2013.
Opponents of capital punishment are outspoken and vehement in their arguments. They believe the death penalty does not does not deter crime. They also hold the opinion that endin...
“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.
Leonardo Da Vinci could be argued as one of the most famous persons in the Renaissance Era and one of the greatest painters to ever live. Leonardo is talented and has made many contribution throught his life. He did so many things such as painting, anatomy , mechanics, and architecture. And he is one of the reasons why the Renaissance era could be regarded at one of the greatest time periods in history.
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.
A popular belief among those who advocate Capital Punishment is that the Death Penalty deters future murderers. However, there is no statistical evidence that proves this is in fact effective. Furthermore, there is no evidence which states the death penalty is any more effective in deterring murder than life imprisonment. Deterrence is also at its most persuasive when it takes place soon after a crime. For example, a child learns not to put his or her hand on a hot stove top because it results in immediate pain and a burnt finger. Because the death penalty takes years to be put into effect deterrence is less effective.
Both the Lady and the Mona Lisa are white European women who came from, what looks like, higher class families who were born, bred, and educated according to the customs and standards of the era and come from privileged backgrounds. Both are wearing veils over their hair and both wearing dark colored dresses with long sleeves. Their hands are seen in both portraits, just above the waist. Both women were part of the Renaissance that affected their home regions in similar ways, the ideas going back and forth between the north and south, both influencing each other in significant
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,” This opening line of Allen Ginsberg’s 1955 poem Howl truly depicts what the Beat generation was really like. He writes that his ‘generation was destroyed by madness’ meaning that the people of his generation became the victims of drug abuse, alcohol addiction, and violence. The Beat generation, or beatniks for short, consisted of some of Americas most celebrated writers including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy, and of course its leader, Jack Kerouac. The beats were a unique group of writers who strongly opposed social norm. They were very independent people who were known for breaking the law whenever they needed to. They were also drifters who spent most of their lives on the road, a motif which especially fascinated Jack Kerouac.
During the Renaissance, the Virgin Mary was prevalent theme throughout this period where artists such as: Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bothicellical and Perugino were inspired to paint the Virgin Mary. The paintings show a motherly pleasant looking women holding or caring for her child. The paints are capturing the Mary as a human but giving her a divine appearance. The child being Christ shows her power by giving birth to him and by caring for the Son of God. In essence providing love, caring, and protection for the young child of God. For example, plate 15 and frame 23, these plates show a compassionate caring mother that is humanistic in depiction but larger or more encompassing of the painting than the Christ child. This is implying her importance in the early life of Christ. This also shows the power or her earthly influence over the child even though she is a human and not a deity. This gives her a special place in the church as the earthly Mother that is the most perfect of humans, other than Christ.
Leonardo da Vinci and Andy Warhol are legendary in the art world and their masterpieces are one of a kind however when comparing the two the renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci is vastly superior when mastering an art collection.
Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most well-known geniuses in human history. This man masters knowledge of all kind: painting, architecture, music, geology, philosophy, biology, math, physics, chemistry, etc. His probably most famous painting, Mona Lisa, fascinated millions of people around the world and the amazing and mysterious details in the painting attracted a number of scientists and scholars to devote their whole career in studying them. Born and lived in Italian Renaissance age, which is a period of time when arts flourished and knowledge was valued, Leonardo was surrounded by many great contemporary artists and a perfect creative environment. These favorable factors supported him to fully exercise his talents.