The enigmatic genius of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci - what do we know about him? Great painter, who wrote so many world masterpieces, why didn't he finish so many works? The drawings by Leonardo da Vinci known to us convey both the beauty of the world and man, as well as creepy, ugly scenes from life.
He owns not only paintings, but also a variety of inventions, several centuries ahead of their time. The life of this man has always been shrouded in mystery, his achievements are simply amazing. Leonardo da Vinci is not just a man, but a superman living in another dimension.
Drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.
We will focus on his most amazing riddle - the portrait of Mona Lisa or the "La Gioconda" (Louvre).
This picture, which has been debated for more than one century, and every researcher is trying to find a new riddle in this picture in order to solve it. The portrait carries in itself not just a specific reality, but is a generalization of the universal, spirituality. This is not a mysterious woman, this is a mysterious being ”(Leonardo. M. Batkin).
The painting belongs to the beginning of the 16th century. This is a portrait of the wife of a merchant from Florence, Francesco del Giocondo.
The most famous is the riddle of the Gioconda's smile. The skill of the genius here has reached such heights that the expression on Mona Lisa's face remains elusive, from different points - it is always different. Someone considered this effect sinister, someone spiritualized, hypnotic. This effect is called sfumato (very subtle transitions from light to shadow) - realism and volume are as if the picture is painted with many strokes.
And yet, it is not! The paint layer is very thin, and the strokes are not visible at all. Researchers have long been trying to understand this style of writing using the fluorescent method. A barely perceptible haze blends the lines, making Gioconda almost alive. It begins to seem that now the lips will open and she will utter a word.
The first description of the painting given by Vasari is contradictory, who wrote that Leonardo da Vinci worked on it for four years and did not finish it, but immediately reports that the portrait reproduces all the smallest details that the subtlety of painting can convey. With a great deal of confidence, we can say that in the image of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci portrayed not simple woman, and the Mother of God.
Researchers are inclined to conclude that one half of the Gioconda's face is John the Baptist, the profile of the second half belongs to Jesus Christ.
The left hand lies motionless, in the language of Leonardo “If the figures do not make gestures that the members of the body express representation human soul, then these figures are twice dead.” Right hand looks more "believable". All this confirms that in the image of Mona Lisa the artist combined a living and a dead image.
We know that he encrypted many of his works, for example, using the “mirror” writing technique. Thus, the letters LV or L2 were found in the right pupil of the Mona Lisa. Perhaps these are initials, or perhaps a code - after all, in the Middle Ages, letters could replace numbers.
According to the researcher Carla Glory, behind the silhouette of the Mona Lisa on the canvas of the brilliant master of the brush by Leonardo da Vinci, the picturesque surroundings of the town of Bobbio, which is located in northern Italy, are depicted. This conclusion was made following a report by the head of the Italian National Committee for the Protection of cultural monuments Silvano Vincheti - journalist, writer and discoverer of the tomb of Michelangelo da Caravaggio.
The publicist said that he had seen the inscriptions of letters and numbers on Leonardo's priceless canvas. It was about the number "72", which is under the arch of the bridge, viewed from left hand from the Mona Lisa. Vincheti himself believes that this is a reference to the mystical theories of Leonardo da Vinci.
Glori Karla believes that the mark "72" indicates the year 1472, when the Trebbia River, which emerged during the flood, demolished and destroyed the dilapidated bridge. Later, the Visconti family, who dominated those parts at that time, built a new bridge. Everything, except for the image of the bridge, is that magnificent landscape that could be seen from the terraces and windows of the local medieval castle.
Bobbio was famous for the fact that nearby is the grandiose monastic ensemble of San Colombano (San Colombano), which became the prototype of the scene for romantic story Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose.
Carla Glory also suggested that his model was not the wife of a wealthy citizen, Lisa del Giocondo, but the daughter of the Duke of Milan, Bianca Giovanna Sforza. The place depicted on the canvas is not the central part of Italy, as previously assumed. The father of the proposed model, Lodovico Sforza, was one of Leonardo's main customers and a renowned patron of the arts.
The historian Glory suggests that the painter and naturalist stayed with him both in Milan and in remote Bobbio. There was a famous library in those days, which fell under the domineering beginning of the Milanese rulers. Skeptical researchers argue that the inscriptions of numbers, letters, discovered by Vincheti in the pupils of Mona Lisa's eyes, are nothing more than cracks that appeared there from time to time.
However, this is not necessarily the case. An example of this amazing story research miraculous icon Virgin Mary of Guadalupe in Mexico.
Leonardo da Vinci's scariest puzzle
Combining the qualities of a scientist and a clairvoyant, in his old age Leonardo made a strange drawing - “The End of the World”, which was then not understood. Today it terrifies us: it is the outline of a huge mushroom growing out of the blown up city...
Some scientists and researchers are sure that some of Leonardo's puzzles have already been solved, for example:
- “An ominous feathered race will rush through the air; they will attack men and beasts and feed on them with a great cry.” It is believed that here we are talking about airplanes, helicopters, rockets.
- “People will talk to each other from the most distant countries and answer each other.” Well, of course, it's a phone, a mobile connection.
- "Sea water will rise to high peaks mountains, to the heavens and again fall on the dwellings of people. It will be seen how the largest trees of the forests will be carried by the fury of the wind from east to west.
There is an opinion that this prophecy is connected with global warming.
It is impossible to list all the works of Leonardo. But even this small part is enough to get an idea of this universal genius, which cannot be compared with anyone who lived in his time.
The masterpiece is admired by more than eight million visitors annually. However, what we see today only remotely resembles the original creation. We are more than 500 years away from the time of the creation of the picture ...
THE PICTURE CHANGES OVER THE YEARS
Mona Lisa is changing like real woman… Indeed, today we have before us an image of a faded, faded woman’s face, yellowed and darkened in those places where the viewer could see brown and green tones before (not for nothing that Leonardo’s contemporaries more than once admired fresh and bright colors canvases by an Italian artist).
The portrait has not escaped the ravages of time and damage caused by numerous restorations. And the wooden supports were wrinkled and covered with cracks. Have undergone changes under the influence of chemical reactions and the properties of pigments, binder and varnish over the years.
The honorable right to create a series of images of the "Mona Lisa" in the highest resolution was given to the French engineer Pascal Cotte, the inventor of the multispectral camera. The result of his work was detailed pictures of the painting in the range from ultraviolet to infrared spectrum.
It is worth noting that Pascal spent about three hours creating pictures of the "naked" picture, that is, without a frame and protective glass. In doing so, he used a unique scanner of his own invention. The result of the work was 13 pictures of a masterpiece with a 240-megapixel resolution. The quality of these images is absolutely unique. It took two years to analyze and validate the data.
RECONSTRUCTED BEAUTY
In 2007, 25 secrets of the painting were revealed for the first time at the Da Vinci Genius exhibition. Here, for the first time, visitors were able to enjoy the original color of the Mona Lisa paints (that is, the color of the original pigments used by da Vinci).
The photographs presented the readers with a picture in its original form, similar to what Leonardo's contemporaries saw: the sky is the color of lapis lazuli, the warm pink complexion of the skin, clearly traced mountains, green trees ...
Photographs by Pascal Cotte showed that Leonardo did not finish the painting. We observe changes in the position of the model's hand. It can be seen that at first Mona Lisa supported the veil with her hand. It also became noticeable that the facial expression and smile were somewhat different at first. And the stain at the corner of the eye is water damage to the lacquer, most likely as a result of the painting hanging in Napoleon's bathroom for some time. We can also determine that some parts of the picture have become transparent over time. And to see that contrary to the modern point of view, the Mona Lisa had eyebrows and eyelashes!
WHO IS IN THE PICTURE
“Leonardo undertook to complete a portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife, for Francesco Giocondo, and, having labored for four years, left it unfinished. While writing the portrait, he kept people who played the lyre or sang, and there were always jesters who removed from her melancholy and supported her gaiety. That is why her smile is so pleasant.
This is the only evidence of how the picture was created, belongs to a contemporary of da Vinci, the artist and writer Giorgio Vasari (although he was only eight years old when Leonardo died). Based on his words for several centuries female portrait, on which the master worked in 1503-1506, is considered the image of 25-year-old Lisa, the wife of the Florentine magnate Francesco del Giocondo. So Vasari wrote - and everyone believed. But it is likely that this is a mistake, and the portrait is of another woman.
There is a lot of evidence: firstly, the headdress is a widow's mourning veil (meanwhile, Francesco del Giocondo lived long life), secondly, if there was a customer, why didn’t Leonardo give him the job? It is known that the artist kept the painting at home, and in 1516, leaving Italy, he took it to France, King Francis I in 1517 paid 4,000 golden florins for it - fantastic money for those times. However, he did not get the Gioconda either.
The artist did not part with the portrait until his death. In 1925, art critics suggested that the half depicts the Duchess Constance d "Avalos - the widow of Federico del Balzo, the mistress of Giuliano Medici (brother of Pope Leo X). The basis for the hypothesis was the sonnet of the poet Eneo Irpino, which mentions her portrait by Leonardo. In 1957, the Italian Carlo Pedretti put forward a different version: in fact, this is Pacifika Brandano, another mistress of Giuliano Medici. Pachifika, the widow of a Spanish nobleman, had a soft and cheerful disposition, was well educated and could decorate any company. No wonder that such a cheerful person , like Giuliano, became close to her, thanks to which their son Ippolito was born.
In the papal palace, Leonardo was provided with a workshop with movable tables and diffused light so beloved by him. The artist worked slowly, carefully filling out the details, especially the face and eyes. Pacifica (if this is it) in the picture came out as if alive. The audience was amazed, often frightened: it seemed to them that instead of a woman in the picture, a monster was about to appear, some kind of sea siren. Even the landscape behind her contained something mysterious. The famous smile was in no way associated with the idea of righteousness. Rather, there was something from the realm of witchcraft. It is this mysterious smile that stops, disturbs, fascinates and calls the viewer, as if forcing them to enter into a telepathic connection.
Renaissance artists pushed the philosophical and artistic horizons of creativity to the maximum. Man has entered into rivalry with God, he imitates him, he is possessed by a great desire to create. He is captured by real world, from which the Middle Ages turned away for the sake of the spiritual world.
Leonardo da Vinci dissected corpses. He dreamed of taking over nature by learning to change the direction of rivers and drain swamps, he wanted to steal the art of flight from birds. Painting was for him an experimental laboratory, where he constantly searched for more and more means of expression. The genius of the artist allowed him to see the true essence of nature behind the living corporeality of forms. And here it is impossible not to mention the finest chiaroscuro (sfumato) beloved by the master, which was a kind of halo for him, replacing the medieval halo: it is equally divine-human and natural sacrament.
The sfumato technique made it possible to enliven landscapes and convey the play of feelings on faces in all its variability and complexity with amazing subtlety. What only Leonardo did not invent, hoping to realize his plans! The master indefatigably mixes various substances, striving to obtain eternal colors. His brush is so light, so transparent, that in the twentieth century even X-ray analysis will not reveal traces of her blow. After making a few strokes, he puts the picture aside to let it dry. His eye distinguishes the slightest nuances: sun glare and the shadows of some objects on others, the shadow on the pavement and the shadow of sadness or a smile on the face. The general laws of drawing, building perspective only suggest the way. Their own searches reveal that light has the ability to bend and straighten lines: "To immerse objects in a light-air medium means, in fact, to immerse them in infinity."
WORSHIP
According to experts, her name was Mona Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, ... Although, maybe Isabella Gualando, Isabella d "Este, Filiberta of Savoy, Constance d" Avalos, Pacifica Brandano ... Who knows?
The obscurity of the origin only contributed to its fame. She passed through the ages in the radiance of her mystery. Long years the portrait of the "court lady in a transparent veil" was an adornment of the royal collections. She was seen either in the bedroom of Madame de Maintenon, or in the chambers of Napoleon in the Tuileries. Louis XIII, who frolicked as a child in the Grand Gallery where it hung, refused to give it to the Duke of Buckingham, saying: "It is impossible to part with a picture that is considered the best in the world." Everywhere - both in castles and in city houses - they tried to "teach" their daughters the famous smile.
So beautiful image turned into a fashion stamp. At professional artists the popularity of the picture has always been high (more than 200 copies of the Mona Lisa are known). She gave birth to a whole school, inspired such masters as Raphael, Ingres, David, Corot. From the end of the 19th century, "Mona Lisa" began to send letters with a declaration of love. And yet, in the bizarrely developing fate of the picture, there was a lack of some stroke, some stunning event. And it happened!
On August 21, 1911, the newspapers came out under the sensational headline: "La Gioconda" is stolen! "The picture was vigorously searched for. They mourned about it. They feared that she died, burned by an awkward photographer who shot her with a magnesium flash under open sky. In France, "La Gioconda" was mourned even by street musicians. "Baldassare Castiglione" by Raphael, installed in the Louvre in place of the missing one, did not suit anyone - after all, it was just an "ordinary" masterpiece.
"La Gioconda" was found in January 1913 hidden in a cache under the bed. The thief, a poor Italian immigrant, wanted to return the painting to his homeland, Italy.
When the idol of centuries was again in the Louvre, the writer Theophile Gauthier quipped that the smile had become "mocking" and even "triumphant"? especially when addressed to people who are not inclined to trust angelic smiles. The audience was divided into two warring camps. If for some it was just a picture, albeit an excellent one, then for others it was almost a deity. In 1920, in the magazine Dada, the avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp added a magnificent mustache to the photograph of the "most mysterious of smiles" and accompanied the cartoon initial letters words "she is unbearable." In this form, the opponents of idolatry poured out their irritation.
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MAIN MYSTERY…
…Hidden, of course, in her smile. As you know, smiles are different: happy, sad, embarrassed, seductive, sour, sarcastic. But none of these definitions this case no good. The archives of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in France contain a wide variety of interpretations of the riddle of the famous portrait.
A certain "generalist" assures that the person depicted in the picture is pregnant; her smile is an attempt to catch the movement of the fetus. The next one insists that she smiles at her lover ... Leonardo. Someone even thinks: the picture shows a man, because "his smile is very attractive to homosexuals."
According to British psychologist Digby Questeg, latest version, in this work Leonardo showed his latent (hidden) homosexuality. Gioconda's smile expresses a wide range of feelings: from embarrassment and indecision (what will contemporaries and descendants say?) to hope for understanding and favor.
From the point of view of today's ethics, such an assumption looks quite convincing. Let us remember, however, that the manners of the Renaissance were much more liberated than they are today, and Leonardo made no secret of his sexual orientation. His pupils were always more beautiful than talented; his servant Giacomo Salai enjoyed special favor. Another similar version? "Mona Lisa" - a self-portrait of the artist. Recent comparison on computer anatomical features the faces of Gioconda and Leonardo da Vinci (based on the artist's self-portrait made in red pencil) showed that geometrically they match perfectly. Thus, Gioconda can be called the female hypostasis of a genius!.. But then Gioconda's smile is his smile.
Such an enigmatic smile was indeed characteristic of Leonardo; which, for example, is evidenced by Verrocchio's painting "Tobias with a Fish", in which the Archangel Michael is painted with Leonardo da Vinci.
Sigmund Freud also expressed his opinion about the portrait (naturally, in the spirit of Freudianism): "The smile of the Mona Lisa is the smile of the artist's mother." The idea of the founder of psychoanalysis was later supported by Salvador Dali: “In the modern world there is a real cult of the Gioconda worship. Gioconda was attacked many times, a few years ago there were even attempts to throw stones at her - a clear resemblance to aggressive behavior about his own mother. If we recall what Freud wrote about Leonardo da Vinci, as well as everything that is said about the subconscious of the artist of his painting, then we can easily conclude that when Leonardo worked on Gioconda, he was in love with his mother. Quite unconsciously, he wrote a new creature, endowed with all the possible signs of motherhood. At the same time, she smiles somehow ambiguously. The whole world saw and still sees today in this ambiguous smile quite a certain shade of eroticism. And what happens to the unfortunate poor spectator, who is at the mercy of the Oedipus complex? He comes to the museum. The museum is a public institution. In his subconscious - just brothel or simply a brothel. And in that very brothel he sees an image that is a prototype of the collective image of all mothers. The tormenting presence of his own mother, casting a gentle glance and bestowing an ambiguous smile, pushes him to crime. He grabs the first thing that comes his way, say, a stone, and tears the painting apart, thus committing an act of matricide.
DOCTORS PUT BY SMILE… DIAGNOSIS
For some reason, Gioconda's smile especially haunts doctors. For them, the portrait of the Mona Lisa is an ideal opportunity to practice making a diagnosis without fear of the consequences of a medical error.
Thus, the famous American otolaryngologist Christopher Adur from Auckland (USA) announced that Gioconda had facial paralysis. In his practice, he even called this paralysis "Mona Lisa's disease", apparently achieving a psychotherapeutic effect by instilling in patients a sense of belonging to high art. One Japanese doctor is absolutely sure that the Mona Lisa had high level cholesterol. Evidence of this is a nodule on the skin between the left eyelid and the base of the nose, typical for such an ailment. And that means: Mona Lisa ate wrong.
Joseph Borkowski, an American dentist and painting expert, believes that the woman in the painting, judging by the expression on her face, has lost many teeth. While examining enlarged photographs of the masterpiece, Borkowski discovered scars around the Mona Lisa's mouth. "The expression on her face is typical of people who have lost their front teeth," says the expert. Neurophysiologists also contributed to unraveling the mystery. In their opinion, the point is not in the model and not in the artist, but in the audience. Why does it seem to us that Mona Lisa's smile fades away, then reappears? Harvard University neurophysiologist Margaret Livingston believes that the reason for this is not the magic of Leonardo da Vinci's art, but the features human vision: the appearance and disappearance of a smile depends on which part of the Gioconda's face the person's gaze is directed to. There are two types of vision: central, focusing on details, and peripheral, less distinct. If you are not focused on the eyes of "nature" or try to cover her entire face with your eyes - Gioconda smiles at you. However, it is worth focusing on the lips, as the smile immediately disappears. Moreover, Mona Lisa's smile is quite possible to reproduce, says Margaret Livinston. Why, in the process of working on a copy, you need to try to "draw a mouth without looking at it." But how to do this, it seems, only the great Leonardo knew.
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Some practicing psychologists say that Mona Lisa's secret is simple: it's a smile to herself. Actually, the advice modern women: think how wonderful, sweet, kind, unique you are - you are worth it to rejoice and smile at yourself. Carry your smile naturally, let it be honest and open, coming from the depths of your soul. A smile will soften your face, will erase from him the traces of fatigue, impregnability, rigidity that so scare away men. It will give your face a mysterious expression. And then you will have as many fans as the Mona Lisa.
THE SECRET OF SHADOWS AND SHADES
The mysteries of immortal creation have haunted scientists from all over the world for many years now. For example, scientists have previously used X-rays to understand how Leonardo da Vinci created shadows on a great masterpiece. The Mona Lisa was one of seven works by Da Vinci studied by scientist Philip Walter and his colleagues. The study showed how ultra-thin layers of glaze and paint were used to achieve a smooth transition from light to dark. X-ray beam allows you to examine the layers without damaging the canvas
The technique used by Da Vinci and other Renaissance artists is known as "sfumato". With its help, it was possible to create smooth transitions of tones or colors on the canvas.
One of the most shocking discoveries of our study is that you will not see a single smear or fingerprint on the canvas, said a member of Walter's group.
Everything is so perfect! That is why Da Vinci's paintings were impossible to analyze - they did not give easy clues, - she continued.
Previous research has already established the main aspects of the sfumato technology, but Walter's group has uncovered new details of how the great master managed to achieve such an effect. The group used x-ray to determine the thickness of each layer applied to the canvas. As a result, it was possible to find out that Leonardo da Vinci was able to apply layers with a thickness of only a couple of micrometers (a thousandth of a millimeter), the total thickness of the layer did not exceed 30 - 40 micrometers.
SHUTTERED LANDSCAPE
Behind the Mona Lisa, the legendary painting by Leonardo da Vinci depicts not an abstract, but a very specific landscape - the neighborhood of the northern Italian town of Bobbio, says researcher Carla Glori, whose arguments are cited on Monday, January 10, by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Glory came to these conclusions after a journalist, writer, discoverer of the tomb of Caravaggio and head of the Italian National Committee for the Protection of cultural heritage Silvano Vinceti reported that he saw mysterious letters and numbers on Leonardo's canvas. In particular, under the arch of the bridge, located to the left of the Gioconda (that is, from the point of view of the viewer, on the right side of the picture), the numbers "72" were found. Vincheti himself considers them a reference to certain mystical theories Leonardo. According to Glory, this is an indication of the year 1472, when the Trebbia river flowing past Bobbio overflowed its banks, demolished the old bridge and forced the Visconti family, who ruled in those parts, to build a new one. She considers the rest of the view to be a landscape from the windows of the local castle.
Previously, Bobbio was known primarily as the place where the huge monastery of San Colombano (San Colombano), which served as one of the prototypes for the "Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco, is located.
In his conclusions, Carla Glory goes even further: if the scene is not the center of Italy, as scientists believed before, based on the fact that Leonardo began work on the canvas in 1503-1504 in Florence, but the north, then his model is not his wife merchant Lisa del Giocondo (Lisa del Giocondo), and the daughter of the Duke of Milan Bianca Giovanna Sforza (Bianca Giovanna Sforza).
Her father, Lodovico Sforza, was one of Leonardo's main customers and a well-known philanthropist.
Glory believes that the artist and inventor stayed with him not only in Milan, but also in Bobbio, a town with a famous library at that time, also subject to Milanese rulers. True, skeptical experts claim that both the numbers and letters discovered by Vincheti in pupils of Mona Lisa, nothing more than cracks formed on the canvas over the centuries ... However, no one can exclude them from the fact that they were applied to the canvas on purpose ...
SECRET REVEALED?
Last year, Professor Margaret Livingston of Harvard University said that Mona Lisa's smile is visible only if you look not at the lips of the woman depicted in the portrait, but at other details of her face.
Margaret Livingston presented her theory at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver, Colorado.
The disappearance of a smile when changing the angle of view is due to how the human eye processes visual information, an American scientist believes.
There are two types of vision: direct and peripheral. Direct well perceives details, worse - shadows.
The elusive nature of Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that it is almost all located in the low-frequency range of light and is well perceived only by peripheral vision, said Margaret Livingston.
The more you look directly at the face, the less peripheral vision is used.
The same thing happens when looking at a single letter of printed text. At the same time, other letters are perceived worse, even at close range.
Da Vinci used this principle and therefore Mona Lisa's smile is visible only if you look at the eyes or other parts of the face of the woman depicted in the portrait ...
Photo: AP/Scanpix
The personality, facial features, smile and even the landscape behind the back of a woman painted more than 500 years ago continue to excite the minds of researchers. While some are studying her lips with a magnifying glass, others find the encoded messages of Leonardo da Vinci in the picture, and still others believe that the real Mona Lisa is a completely different picture.
"It will soon be four centuries since the Mona Lisa deprives everyone who, having seen enough of it, begins to talk about it"
(Gruye, late XIX century).
The DELFI portal introduces the most popular mysteries and theories that surround famous work Leonardo da Vinci.
It is traditionally believed that the painting by da Vinci depicts Lisa Gioconda, née Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by her husband Francesco Gioconda in 1503. Da Vinci, who was then out of work, agreed to perform a private commission, but did not finish it. Later, the artist went to France and settled at the court of King Francois I. According to legend, he presented the Mona Lisa to the king, presenting the painting as one of his favorites. According to other sources, the king simply bought it.
In any case, after the death of da Vinci in 1519, the painting remained in the property of the king, and after the French Revolution became state property and was exhibited in the Louvre. For centuries, it was considered a valuable, but rather ordinary masterpiece of the Renaissance. Worldwide famous icon it only changed at the beginning of the 20th century, after it was stolen in August 1911 by a former employee of the Louvre, painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland (the painting was found and returned two years after the theft).
Since that time, the Mona Lisa has survived several attempts at vandalism and theft and has become a major magnet for the millions of tourists who visit the Louvre every year. Since 2005, the painting has been in a special impenetrable glass "sarcophagus" with a controlled microclimate (the painting has darkened greatly under the influence of time due to da Vinci's experiments with the composition of paints). Every year it is examined by about six million people, each of whom spends an average of 15 seconds on inspection.
Foto: Archive foto
It is traditionally believed that the painting depicts Lisa Gioconda, the third wife of the wealthy fabric and silk merchant Francesco Giocondo. Until the 20th century, this version was not particularly disputed, since a family friend and historian (as well as an artist) Giorgio Vasari mentions in his works as a fact that Francesco's wife was painted by a certain famous artist. This fact was also reflected on the pages of the book by Agostino Vespucci, a clerk and assistant to the historian Niccolò Machiavelli.
However, this was not enough for many researchers, since at the time the picture was painted, Gioconda should have been about 24 years old, but the woman depicted in the picture looks much older. Also, doubts were raised by the fact that the painted picture never belonged to the merchant's family, but remained with the artist. Even if the assumption that da Vinci simply did not have time to finish the painting before he moved to France is correct, it is doubtful that the family of an average merchant by all standards was rich enough to commission a painting of this size. Only really noble and extremely wealthy families could then afford such canvases.
Therefore, there are alternative theories that allow that the Mona Lisa is a self-portrait of da Vinci himself, or that his mother Katrina is depicted in the picture. The latter explains the artist's attachment to this work.
A group of scientists are now hoping to unravel this mystery by excavating under the walls of the monastery of St. Ursula in Florence. It is believed that Lisa Gioconda, who retired to the monastery after the death of her husband, could be buried there. However, experts doubt that among the hundreds of people buried there, one can find the remains of the Mona Lisa. Even more utopian is the hope, using computer reconstruction based on the found skulls, to restore the facial features of all the people buried there in order to find the very woman who posed for the Mona Lisa.
Foto: Archive foto
At the end of the fifteenth and early XVI For centuries, completely plucked eyebrows have been in fashion. It can be assumed that the woman depicted in the picture definitely followed fashion and corresponded to this standard of beauty, but the French engineer Pascal Côté discovered that she actually had eyebrows.
Using a scanner with high resolution he created a copy of the picture very High Quality on which traces of eyebrows were found. According to Cote, the "Mona Lisa" originally had eyebrows, but then over time they disappeared.
One of the reasons for their disappearance may have been overzealous attempts to preserve the painting. In the Louvre Museum and at the court of the king, the masterpiece was regularly cleaned for 500 years, as a result, some especially delicate elements of the picture could disappear.
Another reason for the disappearance of the eyebrows could be unsuccessful attempts to restore the painting. However, it is still not clear how the eyebrows could disappear completely. In any case, traces of a brush stroke can now be seen above the left eye, which indicate that the Mona Lisa did have eyebrows.
Foto: AFP/Scanpix
In the book The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, Leonardo da Vinci's art of coding information is seriously exaggerated, however famous master during his lifetime, he still liked to hide various information in the form of codes and ciphers. Italian History Committee national culture discovered that Mona Lisa's eyes contained tiny letters and numbers.
They are not visible to the naked eye, however, with a strong magnification, it is noticeable that characters are actually written in the eyes. The letters LV are hidden in the right eye, which may be the initials of Leonardo da Vinci himself, and in the left eye the letters are blurred and can be either S, or B, or even CE. Symbols can also be seen on the arch of the bridge, which is located behind the back of the model - a combination of L2 or 72.
On the back of the painting, the numbers 149 were also found. It can be assumed that the last number is missing and this is actually the year - 149x. If this is so, then the picture was painted not at the beginning of the 16th century, as it was believed until now, but earlier - at the end of the 15th.
Foto: Archive foto
If you look at the lips, you can see that they are tightly compressed, without any hint of a smile. But at the same time, if you look at the picture in general, there is a feeling that the woman is smiling. This optical illusion has given rise to more than one theory about the vanishing smile of the Mona Lisa.
Experts believe that the explanation for this phenomenon is quite simple - the woman depicted in the picture does not smile, but if the viewer's eye is "blurred" or he looks at her with the help of peripheral vision, then the shadow from the face creates the effect of an imaginary lifting of the corners of the lips up.
That the woman was absolutely serious is proved by x-rays, which allowed us to look at the sketch of the painting, now hidden under a layer of paint. On it, the wife of a Florentine merchant does not look joyful from any angle.
Foto: Archive foto
Early copies of da Vinci's work show a much wider panorama than the painting exhibited in the Louvre. All of them have columns visible on the sides, while the "real" picture on the right shows only part of the column.
For a long time, experts argued about how this happened, and whether the picture was reduced after the death of da Vinci in order to fit some special frame or not stand out in size from other paintings at the court of the king. However, these theories were not confirmed - the edges of the painting under the frame are white, indicating that the image did not go beyond the framework that we see today.
Anyway, the theory that the picture was reduced looks doubtful, since it is not painted on fabric, but on a pine board. If pieces were sawed off from it, the paint layer could be damaged or completely separated, and this would be clearly visible.
Foto: Publicitates foto
From the columns and the landscape behind the woman in the picture, it can be concluded that she was sitting on a balcony or terrace. Today, scientists adhere to the point of view that the depicted mountains, bridge, river and road are fictitious, but characteristic of the Montefeltro region in Italy.
This fact not only sheds light on what exactly is depicted in the background, but once again raises the question of the identity of the woman depicted in the picture. According to one of the archivists of the Vatican, the painting depicts Pacifica Brandani, a married lady and mistress of Julian de' Medici. At the time when the picture was supposedly painted, the Medici were in exile and lived in this region.
But regardless of which region the landscape in the picture reflects and what was the personality of the woman depicted in it, it is known that Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in his workshop in Milan.
Foto: Archive foto
American artist Ron Piccirillo believes that he has discovered a rebus hidden for 500 years in a da Vinci painting. In his opinion, the artist hid the image of the heads of three animals - a lion, a monkey and a buffalo. They are clearly visible if you turn the picture on its side.
He also claims that under the woman's left hand is visible something that resembles the tail of a crocodile or a snake. He came to these discoveries, carefully, for two whole months, studying da Vinci's diaries.
Foto: Archive foto
The Isleworth Mona Lisa, found in pre-World War I England, is thought to be another early version of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Its name comes from the name of the London suburb in which it was found.
This version of the painting is considered more consistent with the theory that Leonardo da Vinci painted his masterpiece at the time when Francesco Gioconda was 24 years old. This work is also more in keeping with the legend that da Vinci moved to France without finishing the painting and taking it with him as it was.
But at the same time, the history of this painting, unlike the Louvre original, is unknown. It is also unclear how the work came to England and to whom it belonged. Experts cannot believe the version that a famous artist gave or sold an unfinished work to someone.
Foto: Archive foto
"Donna Nuda" - a portrait of a partially naked woman with a smile characteristic of a da Vinci masterpiece, clearly resembles the original, but the author of this painting is unknown. Interestingly, this work is not only similar, but definitely created at the beginning of the 16th century - at the same time as the Mona Lisa.
Unlike the work exhibited in the Louvre, which rarely leaves its place behind bulletproof glass, "Donna Nuda" changed hands many times and was regularly exhibited at exhibitions, dedicated to creativity da Vinci.
Historians believe that although this work most likely does not belong to the brush of da Vinci himself, it is most definitely a copy of his painting, made by one of the master's students. The original, for some reason, was lost.
Foto: Archive foto
On the morning of August 21, 1911, museum workers at the Louvre found four empty nails at the site of the painting. And although up to this point the picture did not cause much excitement in society, her abduction became a real sensation, which was written about by the press in many countries of the world.
This created problems for the administration of the museum, as it turned out that the museum was not properly organized security - only a few people guarded huge rooms with world masterpieces. And almost all the paintings were fixed on the walls so that they could be safely removed and carried away.
What did the former employee of the Louvre, the painter and decorator Vincenzo Perugia, who dreamed of returning the painting to its historical homeland. The paintings were found and returned a year after the theft - Perugia himself foolishly responded to an advertisement for the purchase of a masterpiece. Although in Italy his act was accepted with understanding, nevertheless the court sentenced him to imprisonment for a period of two years.
This story was the catalyst for a sharp increase in public interest in the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. The press that covered the kidnapping story immediately unearthed a one-year-old case in which a man committed suicide in a museum, right in front of a painting. There was also talk about enigmatic smile, secret messages and da Vinci ciphers, the special mystical meaning of the Mona Lisa, etc.
The popularity of the museum in the Louvre after the return of the "Mona Lisa" has grown so much that according to one of the conspiracy theories, the theft was organized by the museum's management themselves - in order to attract international interest to it. This beautiful conspiracy idea is overshadowed only by the fact that the museum management itself did not gain anything from this theft - as a result of the scandal that broke out, it was fired in its entirety.
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IN royal castle Amboise (France) Leonardo da Vinci completed the famous "La Gioconda" - "Mona Lisa". It is generally accepted that Leonardo is buried in the chapel of St. Hubert of the Amboise castle.
Hidden in Mona Lisa's eyes are tiny numbers and letters that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Perhaps these are the initials of Leonardo da Vinci and the year the painting was created.
Mona Lisa is considered the most mysterious picture ever created. Art experts are still unraveling its mysteries. At the same time, the Mona Lisa is one of the most disappointing sights in Paris. The fact is that huge queues line up every day. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass.
August 21, 1911 there was a high-profile theft of "Mona Lisa". She was kidnapped by Louvre worker Vincenzo Perugia. There is an assumption that Perugia wanted to return the painting to its historical homeland. The first attempts to find the picture did not lead to anything. The administration of the museum was fired. As part of this case, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested, later released. Pablo Picasso was also under suspicion. The painting was found two years later in Italy. January 4, 1914 painting (after exhibitions on Italian cities) returned to Paris. After these events, the picture gained unprecedented popularity.
There is a large plasticine Mona Lisa in the DIDU cafe. It was sculpted within a month by ordinary cafe visitors. The process was led by the artist Nikas Safronov. Gioconda, which was molded by 1700 Muscovites and guests of the city, got into the Guinness Book of Records. It became the largest plasticine reproduction of the Mona Lisa, molded by people.
During World War II, many works from the Louvre collection were hidden in the Chateau de Chambord. Among them was the Mona Lisa. In the pictures - emergency preparations for sending the painting before the arrival of the Nazis in Paris. The place where the Mona Lisa is hidden was kept in the strictest confidence. The paintings were not hidden in vain: it would later turn out that Hitler planned to create "the world's largest museum" in Linz. And for this he organized a whole campaign under the leadership of the German art connoisseur Hans Posse.
After 100 years without people, the Mona Lisa is eaten by bugs in the History Channel film Life After People.
Most researchers believe that the landscape painted behind the Mona Lisa is fictional. There are versions that this is the Valdarno Valley or the Montefeltro region, but there is no convincing evidence for these versions. It is known that Leonardo painted the painting in his Milan workshop.
