Its just a portrait
At the time it was painted, the Mona Lisa was ground breaking. Portraits were common, however, the subject was always painted in profile and never shown with any hint of a smile. As we all know, the Mona Lisa is smiling and facing forward. Her body is arranged in a soft pyramid and the contrast of her light face to her dark hair draws the viewer’s eyes in. She is subtly mysterious and enchanting.
It may not be the greatest painting aesthetically to the modern eye, but the Mona Lisa has sparked more intrigue that any other painting in history.
February 19th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Because when the French artists and critics of the 19th-century "re-discovered" it, they raved over it. They declared it to be the best painting in all the world — although they couldn’t possibly have seen ALL the paintings in the world to choose the best from.
Very broadly speaking, they’ve never really backed down from that stated opinion. (Certainly, populist journals all over the world love to keep quoting this opinion.) And since the rest of the western world has always bowed to French opinions in matters of the arts, the French opinion of the Mona Lisa stuck.
For more analysis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Just remember that anyone can edit anything into wikipedia, so what is written there is never "the final word" on the subject.
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
bah, I don’t know many who consider it the greatest painting. that’s just plain ridiculous. it’s certainly the most famous, however.
I’d say something by picasso or van gogh would be voted the greatest–though naming a single painting as the best is an absurd concept.
References :
February 19th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
At the time it was painted, the Mona Lisa was ground breaking. Portraits were common, however, the subject was always painted in profile and never shown with any hint of a smile. As we all know, the Mona Lisa is smiling and facing forward. Her body is arranged in a soft pyramid and the contrast of her light face to her dark hair draws the viewer’s eyes in. She is subtly mysterious and enchanting.
It may not be the greatest painting aesthetically to the modern eye, but the Mona Lisa has sparked more intrigue that any other painting in history.
References :
art history major
lover of Leonardo