Mona Lisa, painted by the great Leonardo da Vince who’s one
of the famous artists during the renaissance period. The first time I saw that
painting was when I’m still a kid and looking through our books during our discussion
about different painters. I was fascinated by the way it is painted and became
one of my favorite paintings. Later on, we started learning things about the
painting and I was shocked about the painting’s controversies. I didn’t know
that even paintings have issues to others. I did a research about it and found
out many things. I became more interested about the painting’s controversies
and gathered different information. Some of it shriveled through my bones
while reading facts and watching documentaries while others captured my
attention for a while and started thinking things out. I also researched about
how he came up to painting it in that way. I learned that he used to paint with
a technique called Sfumato. It is one of the four canonical painting modes of
the Renaissance. There are also other modes like the cangiante, chiaroscuro,
and the unione. Sfumato is derived from the word ‘fumo’ in Italian which means
smoke or fume and in English it is similar to blurred. According to Leonardo da
Vince, the sfumato means without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or
beyond the focus plane.
Going back to “Mona Lisa”, History accorded that she was the
wife of a Florentine gentleman whose real name is Lisa del Giocondo. Although it’s
painted, the appearance of the Lisa has no proof that she really survive. The
real thing is her smile, Why, you might ask? She seems to be smiling but her
eyes are in sorrow and sadness. They said that she is pregnant because her
hands are folded to hide the bump. The original Lisa del Giocondo was actually
pregnant during that time according to history. They say that Mona Lisa is also
Leonardo da Vinci when he was still young and beardless which has similarities
to his self-portrait. Some historians acclaimed that she is a combination of
man and a woman which is Amon and Elisa in Latin which makes her a hermaphrodite.
Many are curious why she has no eyebrows at all. During the 16th
century, plucking out eyebrows is customary to those noble women. They even
said that Mona Lisa is perfect in terms of symmetry. An ancient symbol of
chalice is formed when you look at it which is an indirect hint to the mystical
Holy Grail. It was also included in the bestseller book of Dan Brown, ‘Da Vinci
Code’.
