In the first place have a liberal / feminist woman from UCLA teaching art history at Wellesley, one of the most conservative colleges in America, is setting the stage for conflict. According to critic Roger Ebert, the film would have been "more absorbing" if Watson and her students were "fighting their way together out of the chains of gender slavery" (Ebert, 2003)
Social construction of gender also means that within each of the two genders there are differences in status, in entitlement, in language, in knowledge, in attitude and in goals, among other differences. Social statuses are "carefully constructed through prescribed processes of teaching, learning, emulation, and enforcement" (Rothenberg, 2007)
According to Lorenzi, "called "Monna Vanna," the topless versions of the Mona Lisa are indeed often considered the portraits of a court mistress or prostitute." (Lorenzi, p
According to Watt (2010), "Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous portrait in the world, but now 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" (Watt, p
The landscape is a mysterious and evocative place in which the only evidence of human existence is vestigial, taking the form of the bridge on the extreme right of the panel." (Witcombe, p
There is something more profound that clearly has some personal and deeper meaning for the artist. (Adams 37-38) And what is this meaning? Mona Lisa is herself and certainly has become an archetype of mysterious beauty
However one may also view that the smile, or that beauty is a connective force that binds us to nature and to chaos, not separates us. Undeniably the portrait represents the passage of time, but is it so that we can contemplate our own mortality, or revel in the beauty of the moment? (Arasse 185) in this sense much depends on the one who is viewing the painting at that moment for Da Vinci would certainly have felt comfortable with either representation
Armin Schlechter has discovered dated notes in the margin of a book in the Heidelberg University Library that confirm that the identity of the Mona Lisa is Lisa del Giocondo wife of the wealthy Florentine merchant of those times, Francesco del Giocondo. (Elgood) Although she has always been the primary candidate, again the mystery that surrounded her origin became part of the aura of excitement that is the Mona Lisa
Gentleman even makes note that in 1911 when the painting had been stolen still many thousands came to look at the empty space where it had hung. (Gentleman 102) Upon asking associates to describe the painting from memory, other than the smile, most seem to know that her hands were folded in her lap, some thought she wore a hood, others though her hair was curled
If the primordial images remain conscious in one form or another, the energy that belongs to them can flow freely into man. (Jung, 1959, p
Undeniably the portrait represents the passage of time, but is it so that we can contemplate our own mortality, or revel in the beauty of the moment? (Arasse 185) in this sense much depends on the one who is viewing the painting at that moment for Da Vinci would certainly have felt comfortable with either representation. While Da Vinci utilized the style of chiaroscuro (Hubbard 37), which in Italian literally means "light-dark" and is representational of illuminated faces from either candlelight or other low lighting, here in this portrait the lighting is seemingly of sunshine and almost equally illuminates both the subject and the background
" (Gentleman 102) That being said, this paper will attempt to see where the artist can be found in this painting, starting with the background. To that end the use of Depth Psychology (Reynolds and Piirto) will be employed in order to use not only simply the intellect, but also to sue one's emotions and spirit or heart in order to truly see the depth, or the unconscious mind, of the artist and his world
For instance, Paolo Giovio, writing shortly after Leonardo's death in 1519, simply states that he painted the portrait of Mona Lisa, "wife of Francesco del Giocondo, which was bought by King Francis I, it is said, for 4000 scudi." (Boas 212) In fact, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the only aspect which was truly interesting to critics and art commentators was the price of the painting which was considered immense for that period of time
History shows that the model for the painting was a member of the Neapolitan family of Gherardini, the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo. She was presumably between her twenty-sixth and thirtieth year when Leonardo started to paint her portrait (McCurdy 90)
He was also exposed to the family's painting tradition which allowed him to experience with art from a very young age. When he was about 15 years old, his father apprenticed him to the renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrochio in Florence, where Leonardo started to demonstrated his talent and skills (Hegarty 24)
The painting was done in oil, which was relatively new to Italy at the time, showing that da Vinci was an innovator. Of interest is the recent revelation that the original painting was done without the ermine, and that the current version with the animal is basically an edit or a second version of the painting, painted over the original (Bloom, 2014)
Also of note is the way that the background space blends into wilderness in the background. All of these elements were considered to be different at the time, and revolutionary (Scaillierez, 2015)
His best acclaimed novels were "Love in the Time of Cholera written in 1985, One Hundred Years of Solitude written in 1967 and The Autumn of the Patriarch written in 1975." (Bell-Villada, 2002 p 6)
However, Pascal Cotte, French engineer carried out an ultra-high resolution scans in 2007 and affirmed that there was an evidence of eyelashes and visible eyebrows in the original portrait, however, the eyelashes disappeared because of over-cleaning. (Holt, 2007)