Description of the picture:
Mona Lisa (Gioconda) – Leonardo da Vinci. 1503-1505. Wood, oil. 77×53
In the records of the great Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the genius of the Renaissance, there is not a single mention of the work on the portrait. There are many versions of the one depicted in this work. Among other opinions, such Mona Lisa – and a self-portrait of Leonardo himself, and a portrait of his student, and a portrait of his mother, or simply an ideal collective female image. According to the “official” opinion, the painting depicts the wife of a Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo Lisa Gerardini.
On the lips Mona Lisa the famous, barely perceptible smile froze, giving her face a riddle and charm. Not the viewer is looking at her, but she herself is watching him with a deep, all-understanding look.
The painting is made almost transparent, unusually thin layers. It seems that Mona Lisa is not written in colors, but completely “alive”. Smears are so small that neither a microscope nor X-rays can detect traces of the master’s work and do not determine the number of painted layers. The Mona Lisa unusually airy. The air turned out to be real, just like the Mona Lisa – also “real”. The space of the picture is filled with a light haze that lets in diffused light – “sphumato”, as defined by the artist himself."