SH News writer is an idiot. We need another reply.
I doubt we'll ever know for sure. Speculation abounds.
Does Mona Lisa’s Smile Belong to … a Man?
SodaHead News
2011/02/04 16:00:00
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It’s the most famous smile in art history. A sly, coquettish and mysterious grin that has fascinated art lovers for more than four centuries. Some have called Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa the most beautiful woman in art and among the most enigmatic images ever committed to canvas.
Hold on to your sugar loaf hat because everything you know about Mona is about to change. In a story that sounds ripped from today’s tabloid headlines, Britain’s Telegraph reports that a team of researchers has come to the conclusion that the most iconic portrait in the world may not be of a woman at all.
Scholars have long assumed Da Vinci’s master work was an image of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. But new evidence suggests it was actually inspired by Gian Giacomo Caprotti, Da Vinci’s longtime male lover and muse.
Caprotti began working with the Renaissance master when he was a child and became a trusted companion and researcher. Silvano Vincenti of the National Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage believes that Caprotti may have been the face behind not just the Mona Lisa, but several paintings of St. John the Baptist and a lesser-known drawing called “Angel Incarnate.”
All portray a slim, effeminate youth with curly hair and Vincenti found striking similarities between the mouths and noses of each work. Despite some cryptic clues – including tiny numbers painted into Mona Lisa’s eyes that are not visible to the human eye – the mystery may never be solved, since the painting is unsigned and undated and has no clues as to the sitter’s name.
Another clue might be Caprotti's nickname, Salai. Vincenti said microscopic analysis found a tiny S (for Salai) and an L (for Leonardo) in Mona Lisa’s eyes. Slate reported that experts at Paris’ Louvre museum were quick to dismiss Vincenti’s claims, though, saying earlier tests showed no inscriptions or numbers and that tiny cracks in the painting have often been “the subject of overinterpretation.”
Theories have varied wildly for centuries, from various Florentine ladies of the night to Da Vinci’s mother, random courtesans and even the artist himself. But a boyfriend? Now that’s a new one.
Do you believe the Mona Lisa depicts Leonardo’s gay lover?
Hold on to your sugar loaf hat because everything you know about Mona is about to change. In a story that sounds ripped from today’s tabloid headlines, Britain’s Telegraph reports that a team of researchers has come to the conclusion that the most iconic portrait in the world may not be of a woman at all.
Scholars have long assumed Da Vinci’s master work was an image of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. But new evidence suggests it was actually inspired by Gian Giacomo Caprotti, Da Vinci’s longtime male lover and muse.
Caprotti began working with the Renaissance master when he was a child and became a trusted companion and researcher. Silvano Vincenti of the National Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage believes that Caprotti may have been the face behind not just the Mona Lisa, but several paintings of St. John the Baptist and a lesser-known drawing called “Angel Incarnate.”
All portray a slim, effeminate youth with curly hair and Vincenti found striking similarities between the mouths and noses of each work. Despite some cryptic clues – including tiny numbers painted into Mona Lisa’s eyes that are not visible to the human eye – the mystery may never be solved, since the painting is unsigned and undated and has no clues as to the sitter’s name.
Another clue might be Caprotti's nickname, Salai. Vincenti said microscopic analysis found a tiny S (for Salai) and an L (for Leonardo) in Mona Lisa’s eyes. Slate reported that experts at Paris’ Louvre museum were quick to dismiss Vincenti’s claims, though, saying earlier tests showed no inscriptions or numbers and that tiny cracks in the painting have often been “the subject of overinterpretation.”
Theories have varied wildly for centuries, from various Florentine ladies of the night to Da Vinci’s mother, random courtesans and even the artist himself. But a boyfriend? Now that’s a new one.
Do you believe the Mona Lisa depicts Leonardo’s gay lover?
Top Opinion
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Anna E 2011/02/04 22:08:19
as a young woman, so then he created the mona lisa lol
that's perfectly all right. sometimes, i wonder what i'd look like if i were a lad
like my little bro. he is pretty beautiful for a boy.. long lashes.. soft hair. a few of my friends check him out. i guess you could
consider him a pretty boi. ;)
To what is being said here in this post, i.e. that the model for the face was Salai, I agree that is speculation. As for the painting being of Lisa Del Giocondo, there are two validations that state this. In my book, that is as factual as we can get barring speaking to the artist himself. It is only because of the speculations raised in the book The Da Vinci Code that the general public would even be interested in this. Otherwise only those in the art community would be discussing it. Frankly the painting speaks for itself within the time it was created and Da Vinci's genius is well established. It's just the more sensational aspects of this post's story (the potential relationship with Salai) that has grabbed the headlines. What additional substance could be added to the painting's genius even if it was painted with a man as a model (which I still maintain my right to disbelieve based on validations to the contrary)? It is only our 21st century love of sensationalism that is driving this particular story and that I say is irrelevant to the painting's appreciation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Main Article: Leonardo da Vinci
"Leonardo Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. According to Da Vinci's contemporary, Biorgio Vasari, ".... after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished .... it is known that such behavior is common in most paintings of Leonardo who, later in his life regreted "never having completed a single work".
He thought to have continued to work on Mona Lisa for three years after he moved to France and to have finished it shortly before he died in 1519. Leonardo tok the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King Francois I invited the painter to work at the Clos Luce near the King's castle in Amboise. Most likely through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai, the king bought the painting for 4,000 ecus and kept it at Chateau Fontainbleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution it was moved to the Louvre. During the Franco - Prussian War (1870-1871) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.
There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landsca...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Main Article: Leonardo da Vinci
"Leonardo Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. According to Da Vinci's contemporary, Biorgio Vasari, ".... after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished .... it is known that such behavior is common in most paintings of Leonardo who, later in his life regreted "never having completed a single work".
He thought to have continued to work on Mona Lisa for three years after he moved to France and to have finished it shortly before he died in 1519. Leonardo tok the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King Francois I invited the painter to work at the Clos Luce near the King's castle in Amboise. Most likely through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai, the king bought the painting for 4,000 ecus and kept it at Chateau Fontainbleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution it was moved to the Louvre. During the Franco - Prussian War (1870-1871) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.
There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landscape. For example, that Leonardo probably painted his model faithfully since her beauty is not seen as being among the best, "even when measured by late quattrocento (15th Century) or even twenty - first century standards."
"Legacy"
"The avant- garde art world hs made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa's popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadacists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, Le nire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugene Bataille), was shown in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription, when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" (literally translated "she has a hot ass". This is a manner of implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability). This was intended as a Freudain joke, referring to Leonardo's alleged homosexuality."
"According to Rhonda R Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face.
French artist Jean Melzinger, who was influenced by Fauvism and impressionism, painted Le Gouter ("The Taste", 1911), showing a female nude drinking tea, which is often called the "Mona Lisa of Cubism".
Salvador Dali, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self Portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. In 1963 following the painting's visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas called Thirty are Better than One."
(What is very possible in my opinion, in later years all these modern artists started these rumors.)
maybe he just painted a woman he dreamt of, or saw one day in a boxing match. who cares who she was. she's dead now, and there's a picture of her.
whoop dee doo.
We'll never know. Artists have used everything from doorknobs to memories as models.
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