MONA LISA ANALYSIS 1
Critical Analysis of Mona Lisa
Subject: English Literature
Columbia University
Mona Lisa painted in 16th century is among the greatest treasure of renaissance
time period. The original painting by Leonardo da Vinci is valued for more than 1 billion
dollars. Currently it is placed at Louvre along with many paintings of Renaissance time
period. This piece of art has been able to capture human imagination for many centuries
now. It is considered as one of the finest examples of portrait art ever made. The painting
is referred as La Gioconda by Italians while French refer to it as La Joconde. These terms
can also help to differentiate the original copy versus many variants brought by artists,
some of which are even brought today (Carrier, 2006)..
Leonardo da Vinci never used to sign or give date over his paintings. All of his
work has neither date nor signature. The details of Mona Lisa are known more from
biography of Leonardo, which was written by Giorgio Vasari, who was a painter himself.
The biography mentioned that Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo di Vinci. This was
done by Leonardo as part of his agreement to paint Lisa Gherardini. She was the wife of
Francesco del Giocondo who was a wealthy silk merchant from Florentine. Giorgio also
mentioned that Leonardo used musicians while painting Lisa which possibly explained
the beautiful smile of Lisa. The biography further pointed that Leonardo took 20 years to
complete the picture attributing it to laziness of the painter.
Analysis of Leonardo Art Style
