INTERPRETATION OF

MONA LISA
Ramos, Josh Bryan
Ranara, Raymond James
Sapsal, Joie Kate
Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) (1503-6)

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Medium: Oil on wood
Genre: Renaissance
Portrait Art
Museum: Louvre - Paris
Value: an excess of $1
Billion

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■ Perhaps one of the greatest treasures of
Renaissance Art.
■ It is neither signed nor dated.
■ Its title comes from the biography of
Leonardo written by the 6th century
Mannerist painter and biographer Giorgio
Vasari published in 1550 which reported
his agreement to paint the portrait of Lisa
Gherardini, wife of Francisco del
Giocondo.
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 ■ Leonardo employed
musicians and troubadours
to keep her amused, which
might explain her enigmatic
smile.
■ Leonardo procastinated
endlessly over the painting -
notably the position of the
subject's hands and
continued working on it for
another 20 years.

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 ■ The posture of
Mona Lisa is
derived from the
pyramid image
used to depict a
sitting madonna

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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
■ Mona Lisa exemplifies Leonardo's
contribution to the art of oil painting
namely Leonardo da Vinci's mastery of
"sfumato".

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 ■ The general impression created
by the Mona Lisa portrait is one
of great serenity, enriched by a
definite air of mystery.
■ The mystery stems from a
number of factors: first, her
enigmatic half-smile; second,
her gaze, which is directed to
the right of the viewer; her
hands which have a slightly
unreal, lifeless quality - almost
as if they belonged to a
different body.

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 ■ is famous for an
optical illusion aka
'the mysterious
smile'.

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 ■ People have also
claimed that the eyes of
Mona Lisa seems to
follow you around the
room

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■ Mona Lisa is a visual representation of the idea of happiness
suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made
this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is
this notion which makes the work such an ideal.

■ The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter
before an imaginary landscape and Leonardo was one of the
first painters to use aerial perspective.

■ Mona Lisa should be considered as a traditional portrait, for it

represents an ideal rather than a real woman.

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SPECULATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS
OF MONA LISA
1.) THE MONA LISA FOLLOWS
SACRED GEOMETRY
■ .The face of Monalisa follows
"the golden rectangle"
(achieved through the fibonacci
sequence) whose plotting
starts from the right eye. There
are also circles that alin
perfectly with the features of
the subject.
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 ■ This makes the Mona
Lisa an example of
idealized proportion
■ Leonardo studied
Sacred Geometry with a
famous franciscan
mathemetician and friar
named Luca Paciol.

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 2.) A HIDDEN MENAGERIE

■ Ron Piccirillo decided to place

the piece on its side to get a
new perspective on it.
■ What he found were images of
animals! Particularly that of a
monkey, lion and a buffalo.
■ No one has really given a
definitive reason as to why
Leonardo would put these
animals in the painting.
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 3.) THE LANDSCAPE WAS
PAINTED FIRST

■ Pascal Cotte through modern

advancements in technology was
able to discover that da Vinci
actually painted the landscape first.

■ Many have wondered as to where

the painting is set and the claim is
that it was in Arezzo a city in eastern
Tuscany, Italy.

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 4.) DA VINCI MADE A
MISTAKE

■ Pascal Cotte with the

use of modern
technology discovered
how sketches
underneath would
reveal that Da Vinci
changed the position of
the finger on the left
hand perhaps due to a
change of heart

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 5.) A PREGNANCY
A 3D scan of the
National Research
Council of Canada using
infrared technology
caused a speculation:
Mona Lisa is wearing
what appears to be a
guarnello.

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 6.) MONA LISA WAS SICK

■ Dr. Vito Franco from

Palermo University, upon
careful inspection of the
work of art, made an
article on how her
depiction shows a
biological condition called
Xanthelasma, which is
linked to high cholesterol.

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 ■ There are also signs of
Lipoma or beneign
tumors under the skin
of fatty tissue
■ However Pascal Cotte
was able to prove that
this wasn't the case as
scans reveal that the
markings are just
varnish markings (an
effect of restoration in
the earlier days)

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 7.) HER SMILE (OR LACK
THEREOF)

■ Many have wondered

what the subject was
thinking to express a
subtle yet clear sense
of contentment

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 8.) THE CODE

■ The Italian National

committee for Cultural
Heritage found letters and
numbers within the work
■ This is perhaps the
inspiration for the highly
successful "The Da Vinci
Code"

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 9.) THE MONA LISA IS A
SELF PORTRAIT OF
LEONARDO

■ some are speculating that the

woman with the inscrutable
smile may not be a woman after
all. They are suggesting that the
Mona Lisa may be a self-
portrait, da Vinci in drag.

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 ■ Italy's National Committee
for Cultural Heritage, a
leading association of
scientists and art historians,
is undertaking the
investigation. They think the
artist who died in 1519 is
buried at a French castle
and plan to dig up his skull.
Using CSI-style technology,
they want to rebuild Da
Vinci's face.
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