text:
Mona Lisa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the painting. For other uses, see Mona Lisa (disambiguation).
Mona Lisa
Italian: La Gioconda, French: La Joconde
Artist
Leonardo da Vinci
Year
c. 1503–06, perhaps continuing until c. 1517
Medium
Oil on poplar panel
Subject
Possibly Lisa Gherardini
Dimensions
77 cm × 53 cm (30 in × 21 in)
Location
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Mona Lisa (/ˌmoʊnə ˈliːsə/; Italian: Monna Lisa [ˈmɔnna ˈliːza] or La Gioconda [la dʒoˈkonda], French: La Joconde [la ʒɔkɔ̃d]) is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".[1] The Mona Lisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962,[2] which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017.[3]
The painting is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. Recent academic work suggests that it would not have been started before 1513.[4][5][6][7] It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.[8]
The subject's expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic,[9] the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.[10]
Contents
[hide]
1 Title and subject
2 History
2.1 Theft and vandalism
3 Aesthetics
4 Conservation
4.1 Poplar panel
4.2 Frame
4.3 Cleaning and touch-up
4.4 Display
5 Fame
5.1 Financial worth
6 Legacy
7 Early versions and copies
7.1 Prado Museum La Gioconda
7.2 Isleworth Mona Lisa
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Title and subject
Main article: Lisa del Giocondo
The title of the painting, which is known in English as Mona Lisa, comes from a description by Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari, who wrote "Leonardo undertook to paint, for Francesco del Giocondo, the portrait of Mona Lisa, his wife."[11][12] Mona in Italian is a polite form of address originating as "ma donna" – similar to "Ma’am", "Madam", or "my lady" in English. This became "madonna", and its contraction "mona". The title of the painting, though traditionally spelled "Mona" (as used by Vasari[11]), is also commonly spelled in modern Italian as Monna Lisa ("mona" being a vulgarity in some Italian dialects) but this is rare in English.[citation needed]
Vasari's account of the Mona Lisa comes from his biography of Leonardo published in 1550, 31 years after the artist's death. It has long been the best-known source of information on the provenance of the work and identity of the sitter. Leonardo's assistant Salaì, at his death in 1524, owned a portrait which in his personal papers was named la Gioconda, a painting bequeathed to him by Leonardo.
That Leonardo painted such a work, and its date, were confirmed in 2005 when a scholar at Heidelberg University discovered a marginal note in a 1477 printing of a volume written by the ancient Roman philosopher Cicero. Dated October 1503, the note was written by Leonardo's contemporary Agostino Vespucci. This note likens Leonardo to renowned Greek painter Apelles, who is mentioned in the text, and states that Leonardo was at that time working on a painting of Lisa del Giocondo.[13]
In response to the announcement of the discovery of this document, Vincent Delieuvin, the Louvre representative, stated "Leonardo da Vinci was painting, in 1503, the portrait of a Florentine lady by the name of Lisa del Giocondo. About this we are now certain. Unfortunately, we cannot be absolutely certain that this portrait of Lisa del Giocondo is the painting of the Louvre."[14]
A margin note by Agostino Vespucci (visible at right) discovered in a book at Heidelberg University. Dated 1503, it states that Leonardo was working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo.
The model, Lisa del Giocondo,[15][16] was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany, and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo.[17] The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.[18] The Italian name for the painting, La Gioconda, means "jocund" ("happy" or "jovial") or, literally, "the jocund one", a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name, "Giocondo".[17][19] In French, the title La Joconde has the same meaning.
Before that discovery, scholars had developed several alternative views as to the subject of the painting. Some argued that Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of a different portrait, identifying at least four other paintings as the Mona Lisa referred to by Vasari.[20][21] Several other women have been proposed as the subject of the painting. [22]Leonardo's mother Caterina in a distant memory, glorified as the Virgin Mary[23] Isabella of Aragon,[24] Cecilia Gallerani,[25] Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla,[22] Isabella d'Este, Pacifica Brandano or Brandino, Isabela Gualanda, Caterina Sforza—even Salaì and Leonardo himself—are all among the list of posited models portrayed in the painting.[26][27] The consensus of art historians in the 21st century maintains the long-held traditional opinion, that the painting depicts Lisa del Giocondo.[13]
History
Main article: Leonardo da Vinci
Presumed self-portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, executed in red chalk sometime between 1512 and 1515
Leonardo da Vinci is thought by some to have begun painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy.[28] Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506",[10] the art historian Martin Kemp says there are some difficulties in confirming the actual dates with certainty.[17] In addition, many Leonardo experts, such as Carlo Pedretti [4] and Alessandro Vezzosi[5] are of the opinion that the painting is characteristic of Leonardo’s style in the final years of his life, post-1513. Other academics argue that, given the historical documentation, Leonardo would have painted the work from 1513.[7] According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, "after he had lingered over it four years, [he] left it unfinished".[12] Leonardo, later in his life, is said to have regretted "never having completed a single work".[29]
Raphael's drawing, based on the portrait of Mona Lisa
Circa 1504, Raphael executed a pen and ink sketch, today in the Louvre museum, in which the subject is flanked by large columns,. Experts universally agree it is based on Leonardo’s portrait of Mona Lisa.[30][31][6][32] Other later copies of the Mona Lisa, such as that in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo, and The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore also display large flanking columns. As a result, it was originally thought that the Mona Lisa in the Louvre had side columns and had been cut.[33][34][4][35][36] However, as early as 1993, Zöllner observed that the painting surface had never been trimmed.[37] This was confirmed through a series of tests conducted in 2004.[38] In view of this, Vincent Delieuvin, curator of 16th century Italian painting at the Louvre museum states that the sketch and these other copies must have been inspired by another version,[39] while Frank Zöllner states that the sketch brings up the possibility that Leonardo executed another work on the subject of Mona Lisa.[37]
It is unclear as to who commissioned the painting. Giorgio Vasari states that the work was painted for Francesco del Giocondo, the husband of Lisa del Giocondo.[40] However, Antonio de Beatis, following a visit with Leonardo in 1517, records that the painting was executed at the instance of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici.[41]
In 1516, Leonardo was invited by King François I to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. It is believed that he took the Mona Lisa with him and continued to work after he moved to France.[26] Art historian Carmen C. Bambach has concluded that Leonardo probably continued refining the work until 1516 or 1517.[42]
The fate of the painting around Leonardo’s death and just after it has divided academic opinion. Some, such as Kemp, believe that upon Leonardo’s death, the painting was inherited with other works by his pupil and assistant Salaì and was still in the latter’s possession in 1525.[17][43] Others believe that the painting was sold to Francis I by Salaì, together with The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the St. John the Baptist in 1518.[44] The Louvre Museum lists the painting as having entered the Royal collection in 1518.[45]
Given the issue surrounding the dating of the painting, the presence of the flanking columns in the Raphael sketch, the uncertainty concerning the person who commissioned it and its fate around the time of Leonardo’s death, a number of experts have argued that Leonardo painted two versions of the Mona Lisa.[32][6][46] The first would have been commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo circa 1503, had flanking columns, have been left unfinished and have been in Salai’s possession in 1525. The second, commissioned by Giuliano de Medici circa 1513, without the flanking columns, would have been sold by Salai to Francis I in 1518 and be the one in the Louvre today. [32][6][46]
The painting was kept at the Palace of Fontainebleau, where it remained until Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre, but spent a brief period in the bedroom of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.[47] During World War II, Mona Lisa was again removed from the Louvre and taken safely, first to Château d'Amboise, then to the Loc-Dieu Abbey and Château de Chambord, then finally to the Ingres Museum in Montauban.
In December 2015, it was reported that French scientist Pascal Cotte had found a hidden portrait underneath the surface of the painting using reflective light technology.[48] The portrait is an underlying image of a model looking off to the side.[49] Having been given access to the painting by Louvre in 2004, Cotte spent ten years using layer amplification methods to study the painting.[48] According to Cotte, the underlying image is Leonardo's original Mona Lisa.[48][50]
However, this portrait does not fit with the description of the painting in the historical records: Both Giorgio Vasari [11] and Gian Paolo Lomazzo[51] describe the subject as smiling; the subject in Cotte’s portrait displays no smile. In addition, the portrait lacks the flanking columns drawn by Raphael in his c.1504 sketch of Mona Lisa. Moreover, Cotte admits that his reconstitution had been carried out only in support of his hypotheses and should not be considered a real painting; he stresses that the images never existed.[52] Kemp is also adamant that Cotte’s images in no way establish the existence of a separate underlying portrait.[43]
Theft and vandalism
"La Joconde est Retrouvée" ("Mona Lisa is Found"), Le Petit Parisien, 13 December 1913
Vacant wall in the Salon Carré, Louvre after the painting was stolen in 1911
On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre.[53] The theft was not discovered until the next day, when painter Louis Béroud walked into the museum and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years, only to find four iron pegs on the wall. Béroud contacted the head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed for promotional purposes. A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the Section Chief of the Louvre who confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The Louvre was closed for an entire week during the investigation.
The Mona Lisa on display in the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, 1913. Museum director Giovanni Poggi (right) inspects the painting.
French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down", came under suspicion and was arrested and imprisoned. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated.[54][55] Two years later the thief revealed himself. Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen the Mona Lisa by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.[19] Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed Leonardo's painting should have been returned for display in an Italian museum.
Peruggia may have been motivated by an associate whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting's theft. A later account suggested Eduardo de Valfierno had been the mastermind of the theft and had commissioned forger Yves Chaudron to create six copies of the painting to sell in the U.S. while the location of the original was unclear.[56] However, the original painting remained in Europe. After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery for over two weeks and returned to the Louvre on 4 January 1914.[57] Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime and was hailed for his patriotism in Italy.[55] Before its theft, the Mona Lisa was not widely known outside the art world. It was not until the 1860s that some critics, a thin slice of the French intelligentsia, began to hail it as a masterwork of Renaissance painting.[58]
In 1956, part of the painting was damaged when a vandal threw acid at it.[59] On 30 December of that year, a rock was thrown at the painting, dislodging a speck of pigment near the left elbow, later restored.[60]
The use of bulletproof glass has shielded the Mona Lisa from subsequent attacks. In April 1974, a woman, upset by the museum's policy for disabled people, sprayed red paint at it while it was being displayed at the Tokyo National Museum.[61] On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure.[62][63] In both cases, the painting was undamaged.
Aesthetics
Detail of the background (right side)
The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood.[64]
The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to late 15th-century works by Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere.[64] Zöllner notes that the sitter's general position can be traced back to Flemish models and that "in particular the vertical slices of columns at both sides of the panel had precedents in Flemish portraiture."[65] Woods-Marsden cites Hans Memling's portrait of Benededetto Portinari (1487) or Italian imitations such as Sebastiano Mainardi's pendant portraits for the use of a loggia, which has the effect of mediating between the sitter and the distant landscape, a feature missing from Leonardo's earlier portrait of Ginevra de' Benci.[66]
The woman sits markedly upright in a "pozzetto" armchair with her arms folded, a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer. The woman appears alive to an unusual extent, which Leonardo achieved by his method of not drawing outlines (sfumato). The soft blending creates an ambiguous mood "mainly in two features: the corners of the mouth, and the corners of the eyes".[67]
Detail of Lisa's hands, her right hand resting on her left. Leonardo chose this gesture rather than a wedding ring to depict Lisa as a virtuous woman and faithful wife.[68]
The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter in front of an imaginary landscape, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective.[69] The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her, a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo has chosen to place the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with Ginevra de' Benci, but on a level with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and emphasizing the mysterious nature of the painting.[66]
Mona Lisa has no clearly visible eyebrows or eyelashes. Some researchers claim that it was common at this time for genteel women to pluck these hairs, as they were considered unsightly.[70][71] In 2007, French engineer Pascal Cotte announced that his ultra-high resolution scans of the painting provide evidence that Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyelashes and with visible eyebrows, but that these had gradually disappeared over time, perhaps as a result of overcleaning.[72] Cotte discovered the painting had been reworked several times, with changes made to the size of the Mona Lisa's face and the direction of her gaze. He also found that in one layer the subject was depicted wearing numerous hairpins and a headdress adorned with pearls which was later scrubbed out and overpainted.[73]
There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landscape. For example, 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."[74] Some art historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings,[75] but this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence.[75]
Research in 2003 by Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University said that Mona Lisa's smile disappears when looked with direct vision, known as foveal. Because of the way the human eye processes visual information, it is less suited to pick up shadows directly; however, peripheral vision can pick up shadows well.[76]
Research in 2008 by a geomorphology professor at Urbino University and an artist-photographer revealed likenesses of Mona Lisa's landscapes to some views in the Montefeltro region in the Italian provinces of Pesaro, Urbino and Rimini.[77][78]
Conservation
The Mona Lisa has survived for more than 500 years, and an international commission convened in 1952 noted that "the picture is in a remarkable state of preservation."[38] This is partly due to a variety of conservation treatments the painting has undergone. A detailed analysis in 1933 by Madame de Gironde revealed that earlier restorers had "acted with a great deal of restraint."[38] Nevertheless, applications of varnish made to the painting had darkened even by the end of the 16th century, and an aggressive 1809 cleaning and revarnishing removed some of the uppermost portion of the paint layer, resulting in a washed-out appearance to the face of the figure. Despite the treatments, the Mona Lisa has been well cared for throughout its history, and although the panel's warping caused the curators "some worry",[79] the 2004–05 conservation team was optimistic about the future of the work.[38]
Poplar panel
At some point, the Mona Lisa was removed from its original frame. The unconstrained poplar panel warped freely with changes in humidity, and as a result, a crack developed near the top of the panel, extending down to the hairline of the figure. In the mid-18th century to early 19th century, two butterfly-shaped walnut braces were inserted into the back of the panel to a depth of about one third the thickness of the panel. This intervention was skilfully executed, and successfully stabilized the crack. Sometime between 1888 and 1905, or perhaps during the picture's theft, the upper brace fell out. A later restorer glued and lined the resulting socket and crack with cloth.[citation needed]
The picture is kept under strict, climate-controlled conditions in its bulletproof glass case. The humidity is maintained at 50% ±10%, and the temperature is maintained between 18 and 21 °C. To compensate for fluctuations in relative humidity, the case is supplemented with a bed of silica gel treated to provide 55% relative humidity.[38]
Frame
Because the Mona Lisa's poplar support expands and contracts with changes in humidity, the picture has experienced some warping. In response to warping and swelling experienced during its storage during World War II, and to prepare the picture for an exhibit to honour the anniversary of Leonardo's 500th birthday, the Mona Lisa was fitted in 1951 with a flexible oak frame with beech crosspieces. This flexible frame, which is used in addition to the decorative frame described below, exerts pressure on the panel to keep it from warping further. In 1970, the beech crosspieces were switched to maple after it was found that the beechwood had been infested with insects. In 2004–05, a conservation and study team replaced the maple crosspieces with sycamore ones, and an additional metal crosspiece was added for scientific measurement of the panel's warp.[citation needed]
The Mona Lisa has had many different decorative frames in its history, owing to changes in taste over the centuries. In 1909, the Comtesse de Béhague gave the portrait its current frame,[80] a Renaissance-era work consistent with the historical period of the Mona Lisa. The edges of the painting have been trimmed at least once in its history to fit the picture into various frames, but no part of the original paint layer has been trimmed.[38]
Cleaning and touch-up
The first and most extensive recorded cleaning, revarnishing, and touch-up of the Mona Lisa was an 1809 wash and revarnishing undertaken by Jean-Marie Hooghstoel, who was responsible for restoration of paintings for the galleries of the Musée Napoléon. The work involved cleaning with spirits, touch-up of colour, and revarnishing the painting. In 1906, Louvre restorer Eugène Denizard performed watercolour retouches on areas of the paint layer disturbed by the crack in the panel. Denizard also retouched the edges of the picture with varnish, to mask areas that had been covered initially by an older frame. In 1913, when the painting was recovered after its theft, Denizard was again called upon to work on the Mona Lisa. Denizard was directed to clean the picture without solvent, and to lightly touch up several scratches to the painting with watercolour. In 1952, the varnish layer over the background in the painting was evened out. After the second 1956 attack, restorer Jean-Gabriel Goulinat was directed to touch up the damage to Mona Lisa's left elbow with watercolour.[38]
In 1977, a new insect infestation was discovered in the back of the panel as a result of crosspieces installed to keep the painting from warping. This was treated on the spot with carbon tetrachloride, and later with an ethylene oxide treatment. In 1985, the spot was again treated with carbon tetrachloride as a preventive measure.[38]
Display
Mona Lisa behind bulletproof glass at the Louvre Museum
On 6 April 2005—following a period of curatorial maintenance, recording, and analysis—the painting was moved to a new location within the museum's Salle des États. It is displayed in a purpose-built, climate-controlled enclosure behind bulletproof glass.[81] Since 2005 the painting has been illuminated by an LED lamp, and in 2013 a new 20 watt LED lamp was installed, specially designed for this painting. The lamp has a colour rendering index up to 98, and minimizes infrared and ultraviolet radiation which could otherwise degrade the painting.[82] The renovation of the gallery where the painting now resides was financed by the Japanese broadcaster Nippon Television.[83] About 6 million people view the painting at the Louvre each year.[26]
Fame
2014: Mona Lisa is among the greatest attractions in the Louvre.
Today the Mona Lisa is considered the most famous painting in the world, but until the 20th century it was simply one among many highly regarded artworks.[84] Once part of King Francis I of France's collection, the Mona Lisa was among the very first artworks to be exhibited in Louvre, which became a national museum after the French Revolution. From the 19th century Leonardo began to be revered as a genius and the painting's popularity grew from the mid-19th century when French intelligentsia developed a theme that it was somehow mysterious and a representation of the femme fatal.[85] The Baedeker guide in 1878 called it "the most celebrated work of Leonardo in the Louvre",[86] but the painting was known more by the intelligentsia than the general public.[citation needed]
US President John F. Kennedy, Madeleine Malraux, André Malraux, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the unveiling of the Mona Lisa at the National Gallery of Art during its visit to Washington D.C., 8 January 1963
The 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa and its subsequent return, however, was reported worldwide, leading to a massive increase in public recognition of the painting. During the 20th century it was an object for mass reproduction, merchandising, lampooning and speculation, and was claimed to have been reproduced in "300 paintings and 2,000 advertisements".[86] It has been said that the Mona Lisa was regarded as "just another Leonardo until early last century, when the scandal of the painting's theft from the Louvre and subsequent return kept a spotlight on it over several years."[87]
From December 1962 to March 1963, the French government lent it to the United States to be displayed in New York City and Washington, D.C.[88] It was shipped on the new liner SS France. In New York an estimated 1.7 million people queued "in order to cast a glance at the Mona Lisa for 20 seconds or so."[86] In 1974, the painting was exhibited in Tokyo and Moscow.[89]
In 2014, 9.3 million people visited the Louvre,[90] Former director Henri Loyrette reckoned that "80 percent of the people only want to see the Mona Lisa."[91]
Financial worth
Before the 1962–63 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance at $100 million. The insurance was not bought. Instead, more was spent on security.[92] Adjusted for inflation using the US Consumer Price Index, $100 million in 1962 is around $782 million in 2015[93] making it, in practice, by far the most valued painting in the world.
In 2014 a France 24 article suggested that the painting could be sold to help ease the national debt, although it was noted that the Mona Lisa and other such art works were prohibited from being sold due to French heritage law, which states that "Collections held in museums that belong to public bodies are considered public property and cannot be otherwise."[94]
Raphael's Young Woman with Unicorn, (c. 1506)
Raphael's Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15)
Le rire (The Laugh) by Eugène Bataille, or Sapeck (1883)
L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp (1919)
Legacy
See also: Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Before its completion the Mona Lisa had already begun to influence contemporary Florentine painting. Raphael, who had been to Leonardo's workshop several times, promptly used elements of the portrait's composition and format in several of his works, such as Young Woman with Unicorn (c. 1506[95]), and Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c. 1506). Celebrated later paintings by Raphael, La velata (1515–16) and Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–15), continued to borrow from Leonardo's painting. Zollner states that "None of Leonardo's works would exert more influence upon the evolution of the genre than the Mona Lisa. It became the definitive example of the Renaissance portrait and perhaps for this reason is seen not just as the likeness of a real person, but also as the embodiment of an ideal."[96]
Early commentators such as Vasari and André Félibien praised the picture for its realism, but by the Victorian era writers began to regard the Mona Lisa as imbued with a sense of mystery and romance. In 1859 Théophile Gautier wrote that the Mona Lisa was a "sphinx of beauty who smiles so mysteriously" and that "Beneath the form expressed one feels a thought that is vague, infinite, inexpressible. One is moved, troubled ... repressed desires, hopes that drive one to despair, stir painfully." Walter Pater's famous essay of 1869 described the sitter as "older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in the deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her."[97] By the early 20th century some critics started to feel the painting had become a repository for subjective exegeses and theories,[98] and upon the painting's theft in 1911, Renaissance historian Bernard Berenson admitted that it had "simply become an incubus, and I was glad to be rid of her."[98][99]
The avant-garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa's popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), was shown at the "Incoherents" show 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 goatee. Duchamp added an inscription, which when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" meaning: "she has a hot ass", implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and intended as a Freudian joke.[100] According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face.[101]
Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954.[102] 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, like his works of Marilyn Monroe (Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns, 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell's soup (1961–62).[103] The Mona Lisa continues to inspire artists around the world. A French urban artist known pseudonymously as Invader has created versions on city walls in Paris and Tokyo using his trademark mosaic style.[104] A collection of Mona Lisa parodies may be found on YouTube.[105] A 2014 New Yorker magazine cartoon parodies the supposed enigma of the Mona Lisa smile in an animation showing progressively maniacal smiles.
Early versions and copies
Perspective Mona Lisa to the Prado museum
Perspective Mona Lisa to the Louvre museum
Prado Museum La Gioconda
Main article: Mona Lisa (Prado's version)
A version of Mona Lisa known as Mujer de mano de Leonardo Abince ("Leonardo da Vinci's handy-woman") held in Madrid's Museo del Prado was for centuries considered to be a work by Leonardo. However, since its restoration in 2012 it is considered to have been executed by one of Leonardo's pupils in his studio at the same time as Mona Lisa was being painted.[106] Their conclusion, based on analysis obtained after the picture underwent extensive restoration, that the painting is probably by Salaì (1480–1524) or by Melzi (1493–1572). This has been called into question by others.[107]
The restored painting is from a slightly different perspective than the original Mona Lisa, leading to the speculation that it is part of the world's first stereoscopic pair.[108][109][110] However, a more recent report has demonstrated that this stereoscopic pair in fact gives no reliable stereoscopic depth.[111]
Isleworth Mona Lisa
Main article: Isleworth Mona Lisa
A version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa and also known as the Earlier Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation.[112] It is a painting of the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. The painting is claimed by a majority of experts to be mostly an original work of Leonardo dating from the early 16th century: a survey of all published opinions shows that 22 experts are certain that the major parts of the Isleworth Mona Lisa are the work of Leonardo da Vinci,[113][30][114][115][116][117][118][32][119][6][7][46] while only four, including Zöllner and Kemp, deny the attribution,[120] but they have never seen the painting [117]
Copy of Mona Lisa commonly attributed to Salaì
The Prado Museum La Gioconda
The Isleworth Mona Lisa
16th century copy at the Hermitage by unknown artist
See also
Visual arts portal
List of most expensive paintings
List of stolen paintings
References
Notes
Jump up ^ Lichfield, John (1 April 2005). "The Moving of the Mona Lisa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016.
Jump up ^ "Highest insurance valuation for a painting". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
Jump up ^ "Inflation Calculator". www.dollartimes.com. Retrieved 2017-10-22.
^ Jump up to: a b c Pedretti, Carlo (1982). Leonardo, a study in chronology and style. Johnson Reprint Corporation. ISBN 0384452809.
^ Jump up to: a b Vezzosi, Alessandro (2007). "The Gioconda mystery – Leonardo and the "common vice of painters"". In Vezzosi; Schwarz; Manetti. Mona Lisa: Leonardo’s hidden face. Polistampa. ISBN 9788859602583.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Lorusso, Salvatore; Natali, Andrea (2015). "Mona Lisa: A comparative evaluation of the different versions and copies". Conservation Science. 15: 57–84. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b c Asmus, John F.; Parfenov, Vadim; Elford, Jessie (28 November 2016). "Seeing double: Leonardo's Mona Lisa twin". Optical and Quantum Electronics. 48: 555. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
Jump up ^ Carrier, David (2006). Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries. Duke University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0822387573.
Jump up ^ Cohen, Philip (23 June 2004). "Noisy secret of Mona Lisa's". New Scientist. Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
^ Jump up to: a b "Mona Lisa – Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo". Musée du Louvre. Archived from the original on 30 July 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b c Italian: Prese Lionardo a fare per Francesco del Giocondo il ritratto di mona Lisa sua moglieVasari 1879, p. 39
^ Jump up to: a b Clark, Kenneth (March 1973). "Mona Lisa". The Burlington Magazine (vol 115 ed.). 115 (840): 144–151. ISSN 0007-6287. JSTOR 877242.
^ Jump up to: a b "Mona Lisa – Heidelberg discovery confirms identity". University of Heidelberg. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
Jump up ^ Delieuvin, Vincent (15 January 2008). "Télématin". Journal Télévisé. France 2 Télévision.
Jump up ^ "German experts crack the ID of 'Mona Lisa'". MSN. 14 January 2008. Archived from the original on 16 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
Jump up ^ "Researchers Identify Model for Mona Lisa". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 January 2008. [dead link]
^ Jump up to: a b c d Kemp 2006, pp. 261–262
Jump up ^ Farago 1999, p. 123
^ Jump up to: a b Bartz 2001, p. 626
Jump up ^ Stites, Raymond S. (January 1936). "Mona Lisa—Monna Bella". Parnassus (vol 8 ed.). College Art Association. 8 (1): 7–10, 22–23. doi:10.2307/771197. JSTOR 771197.
Jump up ^ Littlefield 1914, p. 525
^ Jump up to: a b Wilson 2000, pp. 364–366
Jump up ^ Roni Kempler: Who the Mona Lisa Is 2015, TXu 1-954-682, Google Site. View history, Roni Kempler's contributions, Encyclopædia Britannica
Jump up ^ Debelle, Penelope (25 June 2004). "Behind that secret smile". The Age. Melbourne. Archived from the original on 25 November 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
Jump up ^ Johnston, Bruce (8 January 2004). "Riddle of Mona Lisa is finally solved: she was the mother of five". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c Chaundy, Bob (29 September 2006). "Faces of the Week". BBC. Archived from the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
Jump up ^ Nicholl, Charles (28 March 2002). "The myth of the Mona Lisa". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
Jump up ^ Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (2005). An Age of Voyages, 1350–1600. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-19-517672-3.
Jump up ^ Thomas, Henry; Lee Thomas, Dana (1940). Living biographies of great painters. Garden City Publishing Co., Inc. p. 49.
^ Jump up to: a b Konody, Paul G. (February 15, 1914). "Jump up". The New York Times.
Jump up ^ Clark, Kenneth (March 1973). "Mona Lisa". Burlington Magazine. Vol. 115. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
^ Jump up to: a b c d Isbouts, Jean-Pierre; Heath-Brown, Christopher (2013). The Mona Lisa Myth. Santa Monica, California: Pantheon Press. ISBN 978-1492289494.
Jump up ^ Friedenthal, Richard (1959). Leonardo da Vinci: a pictorial biography. New York: Viking Press.
Jump up ^ Kemp, Martin (1981). Leonardo: The marvelous works of nature and man. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674524608.
Jump up ^ Bramly, Serge (1995). Leonardo: The artist and the man. London: Penguin books. ISBN 0140231757.
Jump up ^ Marani, Pietro (2003). Leonardo: The complete paintings. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810991594.
^ Jump up to: a b Zollner, Frank (1993). "Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Mona Lisa de Giocondo" (PDF). Gazette des Beaux Arts. 121: 115–138. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Mohen, Jean-Pierre (2006). Mona Lisa: inside the Painting. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 128. ISBN 0-8109-4315-8.
Jump up ^ Delieuvin, Vincent; Tallec, Olivier (2017). What's so special about Mona Lisa. Paris: Editions du musée du Louvre. ISBN 978-2-35031-564-5.
Jump up ^ Vasari, Giorgio (1550). Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori. Florence, Italy: Lorenzo Torrentino.
Jump up ^ De Beatis, Antonio (1979) [1st pub.:1517]. Hale, J.R.; Lindon, J.M.A., eds. The travel journal of Antonio de Beatis: Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, France and Italy 1517–1518. London, England: Haklyut Society.
Jump up ^ Leonardo, Carmen Bambach, Rachel Stern, and Alison Manges (2003). Leonardo da Vinci, master draftsman. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 234. ISBN 1588390330
^ Jump up to: a b Kemp, Martin; Pallanti, Giuseppe (2017). Mona Lisa: The people and the painting. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198749905.
Jump up ^ Jestaz, Bertrand (1999). "Francois 1er, Salai, et les tableaux de Léonard". Revue de l’Art. 76: 68–72. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
Jump up ^ Louvre Museum. "Mona Lisa". www.louvre.fr. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b c Boudin de l'Arche, Gerard (2017). A la recherche de Monna Lisa. Cannes, France: Edition de l'Omnibus. ISBN 9791095833017.
Jump up ^ Bohm-Duchen, Monica (2001). The private life of a masterpiece. University of California Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-520-23378-2. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b c "Hidden portrait 'found under Mona Lisa', says French scientist". BBC. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
Jump up ^ "Secret Portrait Hidden Under Mona Lisa, Claims French Scientist". Newsweek. 8 December 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
Jump up ^ McAloon, Jonathan. "The Missing Mona Lisa". Apollo. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015.
Jump up ^ Lomazzo, Gian Paolo (1584). Treatise on the art of painting. Milan.
Jump up ^ Cotte, Pascal (2015). Lumiere on the Mona Lisa: Hidden portraits. Paris: Vinci Editions. ISBN 9782954825847.
Jump up ^ "Theft of the Mona Lisa". Stoner Productions via Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Archived from the original on 29 October 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
Jump up ^ R. A. Scotti (April 2010). Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of the Mona Lisa. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-307-27838-8. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b "Top 25 Crimes of the Century: Stealing the Mona Lisa, 1911". TIME. 2 December 2007. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
Jump up ^ The Lost Mona Lisa Archived 2 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine. by R. A. Scotti (Random House, 2010)
Jump up ^ "Noah Charney, Chronology of the Mona Lisa: History and Thefts, The Secret History of Art, Blouin Artinfo Blogs". Archived from the original on 27 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
Jump up ^ "The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece". NPR. 30 July 2011. Archived from the original on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
Jump up ^ "Faces of the week". BBC. 29 September 2006. Archived from the original on 3 August 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
Jump up ^ "Mona FAQ". Mona Lisa Mania. Archived from the original on 1 June 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
Jump up ^ "'Mona Lisa' Still Smiling, Undamaged After Woman's Spray Attack in Tokyo". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 21 April 1974. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
Jump up ^ "Mona Lisa attacked by Russian woman". Xinhua News Agency. 12 August 2009. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
Jump up ^ "Russian tourist hurls mug at Mona Lisa in Louvre". Associated Press. 11 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009. [dead link]
^ Jump up to: a b Zöllner, Frank (2000). Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452–1519. ISBN 9783822859797.
Jump up ^ Zöllner, Frank. "Leonardo's Portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo" (PDF). p. 16. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 October 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b Woods-Marsden p. 77 n. 100
Jump up ^ "E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art". Artchive.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
Jump up ^ Farago 1999, p. 372
Jump up ^ "The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)". BBC. 25 October 2009. Archived from the original on 26 June 2010. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
Jump up ^ Turudich 2003, p. 198
Jump up ^ McMullen, Roy (1976). Mona Lisa: The Picture and the Myth. Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 0-333-19169-2.
Jump up ^ Holt, Richard (22 October 2007). "Solved: Why Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Archived from the original on 4 April 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2010.
Jump up ^ Ghose, Tia (9 December 2015). "Lurking Beneath the 'Mona Lisa' May Be the Real One". Livescience.com. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015.
Jump up ^ Irene Earls, Artists of the Renaissance, Greenwood Press, 2004, p.113. ISBN 0-313-31937-5
^ Jump up to: a b Salgueiro, Heliana Angotti (2000). Paisaje y art. University of São Paulo. p. 74. ISBN 85-901430-1-5.
Jump up ^ "BBC NEWS – Entertainment – Mona Lisa smile secrets revealed". Archived from the original on 31 August 2007.
Jump up ^ Rosetta Borchia and Olivia Nesci, Codice P. Atlante illustrato del reale paesaggio della Gioconda, Mondadori Electa, 2012, ISBN 978-88-370-9277-1
Jump up ^ "Researchers identify landscape behind the Mona Lisa". The Times. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
Jump up ^ "Ageing Mona Lisa worries Louvre". BBC News. 26 April 2004. Archived from the original on 16 August 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
Jump up ^ "Biographical index of collectors of pastels". Pastellists.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
Jump up ^ "Mona Lisa gains new Louvre home". BBC. 6 April 2005. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Fontoynont, Marc et al. "Lighting Mona Lisa with LEDs Archived 8 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine." Note Archived 29 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine.. SBI / Aalborg University, June 2013.
Jump up ^ "Nippon Television Network Corporation". Ntv.co.jp. 6 April 2005. Archived from the original on 8 October 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
Jump up ^ Riding, Alan (6 April 2005). "In Louvre, New Room With View of 'Mona Lisa'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 June 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
Jump up ^ Sassoon, Donald. "Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?". La Trobe University Podcast. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b c Sassoon, Donald (2001). "Mona Lisa: the Best-Known Girl in the Whole Wide World". History Workshop Journal (vol 2001 ed.). Oxford University Press. 2001 (51): 1. doi:10.1093/hwj/2001.51.1. ISSN 1477-4569.
Jump up ^ Gopnik, Blake (7 May 2004). "A Record Picasso and the Hype Price of Status Objects". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
Jump up ^ Stolow, Nathan (1987). Conservation and exhibitions: packing, transport, storage, and environmental consideration. Butterworths. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-408-01434-2. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Jump up ^ Bohm-Duchen, Monica (2001). The private life of a masterpiece. University of California Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-520-23378-2. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Jump up ^ The French Ministry of Foreign affairs. "The Louvre, the most visited museum in the world (01.15)". France Diplomatie :: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015.
Jump up ^ "On a Mission to Loosen Up the Louvre". The New York Times. 11 October 2009. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016.
Jump up ^ Young, Mark, ed. (1999). The Guinness Book of World Records 1999. Bantam Books. p. 381. ISBN 0-553-58075-2.
Jump up ^ "Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1790 to Present". Measuring Worth. Archived from the original on 8 August 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
Jump up ^ "Culture – Could France sell the Mona Lisa to pay off its debts?". France 24. Archived from the original on 30 November 2015.
Jump up ^ Zollner gives a date of c. 1504, most others say c. 1506
Jump up ^ Zöllner, Frank. Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452–1519. p. 161.
Jump up ^ Clark, Kenneth (1999). "Mona Lisa". In Farago, Claire J. Leonardo Da Vinci, Selected Scholarship: Leonardo's projects, c. 1500–1519. p. 214. ISBN 9780815329350.
^ Jump up to: a b "The myth of the Mona Lisa". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 July 2017.
Jump up ^ Samuels, Ernest; Samuels, Jayne (1987). Bernard Berenson, the Making of a Legend. p. 215. ISBN 9780674067790.
Jump up ^ Jones, Jonathan (26 May 2001). "L.H.O.O.Q., Marcel Duchamp (1919)". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 9 May 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2009.
Jump up ^ Marting, Marco De (2003). "Mona Lisa: Who is Hidden Behind the Woman with the Mustache?". Art Science Research Laboratory. Archived from the original on 20 March 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Dalí, Salvador. "Self Portrait as Mona Lisa". Mona Lisa Images for a Modern World by Robert A. Baron (from the catalog of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, p. 195). Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
Jump up ^ Sassoon, Donald (2003). Becoming Mona Lisa. Harvest Books via Amazon Search Inside. p. 251. ISBN 0-15-602711-9.
Jump up ^ "The £20,000 Rubik's Cube Mona Lisa". metro.co.uk. 29 January 2009. Archived from the original on 26 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
Jump up ^ Best Funny Mona Lisa Parodies La Gioconda Painting NO Panic! at the Disco. YouTube. 18 September 2014. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015.
Jump up ^ "La Gioconda, Leonardo's atelier". Museo Nacional del Prado. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
Jump up ^ "The 'Prado Mona Lisa' – The Mona Lisa Foundation". The Mona Lisa Foundation. Archived from the original on 17 December 2015.
Jump up ^ Carbon, C. C.; Hesslinger, V. M. (August 2013). "Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Entering the Next Dimension". Perception. 42 (8): 887–893. doi:10.1068/p7524. PMID 24303752. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
Jump up ^ Carbon, Claus-Christian; Hesslinger, Vera M. "Restoring Depth to Leonardo's Mona Lisa". American Scientist. 103 (6): 404–409. doi:10.1511/2015.117.1. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015. (Subscription required (help)).
Jump up ^ Tweened animated gif of Mona Lisa and Prado version Archived 7 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine. by Carbon and Hesslinger
Jump up ^ Brooks, K. R. (1 January 2017). "Depth Perception and the History of Three-Dimensional Art: Who Produced the First Stereoscopic Images?". i-Perception. 8 (1). doi:10.1177/2041669516680114. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
Jump up ^ Dutta, Kunal (15 December 2014). "'Early Mona Lisa': Unveiling the one-in-a-million identical twin to Leonardo da Vinci painting". Archived from the original on 16 December 2014.
Jump up ^ Eyre, John (1926). The two Mona Lisas: Which was Giocondo's picture? Ten direct, distinct, and decisive data in favour of the Isleworth version and some recent Italian experts' opinions on it. London: J.M. Ouseley & Son.
Jump up ^ Chappelow, AC (July 1, 1956). "The Isleworth Mona Lisa". Apollo Magazine. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Pulitzer, Henry E. (1960). Where is the Mona Lisa?. London: The Pulitzer Press. ASIN B0027MR0A2.
Jump up ^ Asmus, John F. (1 July 1989). "Computer Studies of the Isleworth and Louvre Mona Lisas". Optical Engineering. 28 (7): 800–804. doi:10.1117/12.7977036. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b "New proof said found for "original" Mona Lisa –". Reuters.com. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
Jump up ^ Soares, Atila (2013). A Jovem Mona Lisa. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Multifoco. ISBN 9788582733882.
Jump up ^ Sauteur, Albert (April 22, 2014). "Albert Sauteur réinvente la perspective". Migros Magazine. Vol. 17. pp. 14–17. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ Alastair Sooke. "The Isleworth Mona Lisa: A second Leonardo masterpiece?". BBC. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016.
Bibliography
External video
Leonardo's "Mona Lisa", Smarthistory
Bartz, Gabriele (2001). Art and architecture, Louvre. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 978-0-7607-2577-1. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Bohm-Duchen, Monica (2001). The private life of a masterpiece. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23378-2. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Farago, Claire J. (1999). Leonardo's projects, c. 1500–1519. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-8153-2935-0. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Kemp, Martin (2006). Leonardo da Vinci: the marvellous works of nature and man. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280725-0. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
Littlefield, Walter (1914). "The Two "Mona Lisas"". The Century: a popular quarterly. Scribner & Co. 87.
Turudich, Daniela (2003). Plucked, Shaved & Braided: Medieval and Renaissance Beauty and Grooming Practices 1000–1600. Streamline Press. ISBN 1-930064-08-X. [dead link]
Vasari, Giorgio (1879) [1550]. "Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori" (vol 4 ed.). Florence: G.C. Sansoni.
Wilson, Colin (2000). The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-0793-3.
Woods-Marsden, Joanna (2001), "Portrait of the Lady, 1430 – 1520", in Brown, David Alan, Virtue & Beauty, London: Priceton University Press, pp. 64–87, ISBN 0691090572
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mona Lisa.
Sassoon, Donald, Prof. (21 January 2014). #26: Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?. La Trobe University podcast blog. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link) of the podcast audio.
Kobbé, Gustav "The Smile of the Mona Lisa" The Lotus Magazine Vol. 8, No. 2 (Nov. 1916), pp. 67–74
"Mona Lisa, Leonardo's Earlier Version". Zürich, Switzerland: The Mona Lisa Foundation. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
"True Colors of the Mona Lisa Revealed" (Press release). Paris: Lumiere Technology. 19 October 2006. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
Scientific analyses conducted by the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF) Compare layers of the painting as revealed by x-radiography, infrared reflectographya and ultraviolet fluorescence
"Stealing Mona Lisa". Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler. May 2009. excerpt of book. Vanity Fair
Discussion by Janina Ramirez and Martin Kemp: Art Detective Podcast, 18 Jan 2017
[show]
v
t
e
Leonardo da Vinci
List of works
Science and inventions
Personal life
Paintings
Medusa
The Annunciation
The Baptism of Christ
The Madonna of the Carnation
Ginevra de' Benci
Benois Madonna
The Adoration of the Magi
St. Jerome in the Wilderness
Madonna Litta
Virgin of the Rocks
Portrait of a Musician
Lady with an Ermine
La Belle Ferronnière
Salvator Mundi
Madonna of the Yarnwinder
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne
Mona Lisa
Head of a Woman (La Scapigliata)
Leda and the Swan
St. John the Baptist
Works on walls
The Last Supper
Sala delle Asse
The Battle of Anghiari
Sculptures
Sforza monument (unexecuted)
Horse and Rider
Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior
Works on paper
Vitruvian Man
Portrait of a Young Fiancée
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist
Self-portrait
Studies of the Fetus in the Womb
Manuscripts
Codex Arundel
Codex Atlanticus
Codex on the Flight of Birds
Codex Leicester
Codex Madrid
Codex Trivulzianus
A Treatise on Painting
Other projects
De divina proportione
Architonnerre
Leonardo's crossbow
Leonardo's fighting vehicle
Leonardo's robot
Leonardo's self-propelled cart
Viola organista
Leonardeschi
Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio
Cesare da Sesto
Giampietrino
Giovanni Agostino da Lodi
Bernardino Luini
Cesare Magni
Marco d'Oggiono
Francesco Melzi
Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis
Salaì
Andrea Solari
Posthumous fame
Cultural references
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Things named after da Vinci
Category
[show]
v
t
e
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
Subject
Lisa del Giocondo
Replicas
Isleworth Mona Lisa (16th century)
Mona Lisa (Prado, c. 1503–16)
L.H.O.O.Q. (1919)
Mini Lisa (2013)
Related
Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
Speculations about Mona Lisa
Timeline of fictional stories about the Mona Lisa
1911 theft
Eduardo de Valfierno
Yves Chaudron
Vincenzo Peruggia
On screen
The Theft of the Mona Lisa (1931)
The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen (1966)
City of Death (1979)
Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009)
Music
Mona Lisa (1915 opera)
"Mona Lisa" (1950 song)
"Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" (1984 song)
"Lisa Mona Lisa" (1988 song)
"The Mona Lisa" (2013 song)
Literature
The Second Mrs. Giaconda (1975)
I, Mona Lisa (2006)
The Smile (2008)
Other
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa"
Authority control
WorldCat Identities
VIAF: 180757281
LCCN: n98092274
GND: 4074156-4
SUDOC: 027396797
BNF: cb11944800v (data)
NLA: 35300571
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mona_Lisa&oldid=814917704"
Categories:
Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa
16th-century portraits
Italian paintings
1500s paintings
Paintings of the Louvre
Portraits of women
Hidden categories:
Articles containing Italian-language text
All articles with dead external links
Articles with dead external links from June 2016
Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL
Webarchive template wayback links
Pages containing links to subscription-only content
Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages
Use dmy dates from July 2017
Use British English Oxford spelling from August 2016
Pages using infobox artwork with the material parameter
Articles containing French-language text
All articles with unsourced statements
Articles with unsourced statements from May 2014
Articles with unsourced statements from August 2012
Articles with unsourced statements from November 2016
Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017
Articles with dead external links from March 2010
CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown
Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers
Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers
Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers
Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers
Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
View source
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
Afrikaans
አማርኛ
العربية
অসমীয়া
Asturianu
Azərbaycanca
বাংলা
Bân-lâm-gú
Башҡортса
Беларуская
Беларуская (тарашкевіца)
Bikol Central
Български
བོད་ཡིག
Bosanski
Brezhoneg
Català
Чӑвашла
Čeština
Chavacano de Zamboanga
Corsu
Cymraeg
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Esperanto
Euskara
فارسی
Fiji Hindi
Føroyskt
Français
Frysk
Gaeilge
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Ilokano
Bahasa Indonesia
IsiZulu
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
ಕನ್ನಡ
ქართული
Қазақша
Kiswahili
Kurdî
ລາວ
Latina
Latviešu
Lëtzebuergesch
Lietuvių
Limburgs
Magyar
मैथिली
Македонски
മലയാളം
Malti
मराठी
Bahasa Melayu
Монгол
မြန်မာဘာသာ
Nederlands
नेपाली
日本語
Nordfriisk
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
Occitan
Oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
پنجابی
پښتو
Polski
Português
Ripoarisch
Română
Русиньскый
Русский
Scots
Shqip
Sicilianu
සිංහල
Simple English
سنڌي
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Soomaaliga
کوردی
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
Tagalog
தமிழ்
తెలుగు
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
اردو
Vèneto
Tiếng Việt
Winaray
粵語
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 11 December 2017, at 18:03.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

attrs: class id

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

attrs: href class title

values:
/wiki/Mona_Lisa_(disambiguation)
mw-disambig
Mona Lisa (disambiguation)

attrs: role class

values:
note
hatnote navigation-not-searchable

values: text-align:center;font-size:125%;font-weight:bold;font-size: 125%; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic

value: td

attrs: colspan style

values:
/wiki/Lisa_Gherardini
mw-redirect
Lisa Gherardini

values: width:22em;width: 22em; line-height: 1.4em; text-align: left; float:right;

values: Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

values:
/wiki/Lombardy_Poplar
mw-redirect
Lombardy Poplar

values:
/wiki/French_Republic
mw-redirect
French Republic

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (May 2014)

values:
noprint Inline-Template Template-Fact
white-space:nowrap;

values: Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla

values: Portrait of a man in red chalk (Leonardo)

values: National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design

values:
/wiki/The_Walters_Art_Museum
mw-redirect
The Walters Art Museum

values:
/wiki/Giuliano_di_Lorenzo_de%27_Medici
mw-redirect
Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici

values:
/wiki/Florence,_Italy
mw-redirect
Florence, Italy

values:
/wiki/Uffizi_Gallery
mw-redirect
Uffizi Gallery

values:
/wiki/Virgin_Mary
mw-redirect
Virgin Mary

values: commons:File:Davide Ghirlandaio Retrato de dama de perfil Gemäldegalerie, Berlín.jpg

values:
/wiki/Chinese_paintings
mw-redirect
Chinese paintings

values:
/wiki/Urbino_University
mw-redirect
Urbino University

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (August 2012)

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (November 2016)

values: Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague (page does not exist)

values:
/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_Napol%C3%A9on
mw-redirect
Musée Napoléon

values:
/wiki/Colour_Rendering_Index
mw-redirect
Colour Rendering Index

values:
/wiki/King_Francis_I_of_France
mw-redirect
King Francis I of France

values:
/wiki/Femme_fatal
mw-redirect
Femme fatal

values: This claim needs references to reliable sources. (January 2017)

values:
/wiki/Jacqueline_Kennedy
mw-redirect
Jacqueline Kennedy

values: Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations

values:
gallery mw-gallery-traditional
max-width: 972px;_width: 972px;

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values:
/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre
mw-redirect
Musée du Louvre

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/issn/0007-6287

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.jstor.org/stable/877242

values:
/wiki/University_of_Heidelberg
mw-redirect
University of Heidelberg

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.2307%2F771197

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.jstor.org/stable/771197

values:
/wiki/Harry_N._Abrams,_Inc.
mw-redirect
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

values:
/wiki/Lorenzo_Torrentino
mw-redirect
Lorenzo Torrentino

values: International Standard Book Number (identifier)

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.monalisamania.com/faq.htm

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1093%2Fhwj%2F2001.51.1

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.worldcat.org/issn/1477-4569

values:
/wiki/Guinness_Book_of_World_Records
mw-redirect
Guinness Book of World Records

values:
nofollow
http://www.eh.net/hmit/compare/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.studiolo.org/Mona/MONA14.htm

values:
nofollow
http://monalisa.org/2012/09/11/prado/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1068%2Fp7524

values:
/wiki/PubMed_Identifier
mw-redirect
PubMed Identifier

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24303752

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1511%2F2015.117.1

values: The site requires a paid subscription to access this page.

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.amazon.com/dp/B0027MR0A2

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1117%2F12.7977036

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values: width:22em;width: 210px; float: right; clear: right; margin:0 0 1.0em 1.0em

values: Category:CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20543781

values: Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci

values:
row
navbox-group
width:1%;background: #EAEAAE

values: The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (Leonardo)

values: The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist

values: Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci

values: List of things named after Leonardo da Vinci

attrs: alt src title width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: Timeline of fictional stories about the Mona Lisa

values:
nofollow
external text
https://viaf.org/viaf/180757281

values:
nofollow
external text
https://d-nb.info/gnd/4074156-4

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.idref.fr/027396797

values:
nofollow
external text
https://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35300571

values: Category:Articles containing Italian-language text

values: Category:All articles with dead external links

values: Category:Articles with dead external links from June 2016

values: Category:Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL

values: Category:Webarchive template wayback links

values: Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only content

values: Category:Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages

values: Category:Use British English Oxford spelling from August 2016

values: Category:Pages using infobox artwork with the material parameter

values: Category:Articles containing French-language text

values: Category:All articles with unsourced statements

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from May 2014

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from August 2012

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from November 2016

values: Category:Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017

values: Category:Articles with dead external links from March 2010

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers

values: Category:Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Mona_Lisa
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values:
This page is protected.
You can view its source [ctrl-alt-e]

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values:
https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Afrikaans
af
af
interlanguage-link-target

values: موناليزا – Arabic

values: মনালিছা – Assamese

values:
https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Liza
Mona Liza – Azerbaijani
az
az
interlanguage-link-target

values: মোনা লিসা – Bangla

values: Мона Лиза – Bashkir

values: Мона Ліза – Belarusian (Taraškievica orthography)

values: Мона Лиза – Bulgarian

values: མོ་ན་ལི་ས། – Tibetan

values:
https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Bosnian
bs
bs
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Breton
br
br
interlanguage-link-target

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-ca badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values: Мона Лиза – Chuvash

values:
https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Czech
cs
cs
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://co.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuconda
Giuconda – Corsican
co
co
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Welsh
cy
cy
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Danish
da
da
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – German
de
de
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Estonian
et
et
interlanguage-link-target

values: Μόνα Λίζα – Greek

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-es badge-Q17437796 badge-featuredarticle

values:
https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioconda
Gioconda – Basque
eu
eu
interlanguage-link-target

values: مونالیزا – Persian

values:
https://fo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Faroese
fo
fo
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://fy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Western Frisian
fy
fy
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Galician
gl
gl
interlanguage-link-target

values: Մոնա Լիզա – Armenian

values: मोना लीज़ा – Hindi

values:
https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Croatian
hr
hr
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Indonesian
id
id
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://zu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Zulu
zu
zu
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioconda
Gioconda – Italian
it
it
interlanguage-link-target

values: מונה ליזה – Hebrew

values:
https://jv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monalisa
Monalisa – Javanese
jv
jv
interlanguage-link-target

values: ಮೋನ ಲೀಸ – Kannada

values: მონა ლიზა – Georgian

values: Мона Лиза – Kazakh

values:
https://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Swahili
sw
sw
interlanguage-link-target

values: ລາໂຊກົງ – Lao

values:
https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iucunda
Iucunda – Latin
la
la
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Liza
Mona Liza – Latvian
lv
lv
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://lb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Luxembourgish
lb
lb
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Liza
Mona Liza – Lithuanian
lt
lt
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://li.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Limburgish
li
li
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Hungarian
hu
hu
interlanguage-link-target

values: मोना लिजा – Maithili

values:
https://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Maltese
mt
mt
interlanguage-link-target

values: मोनालिसा – Marathi

values:
https://ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Malay
ms
ms
interlanguage-link-target

values: Мона Лиза – Mongolian

values: မိုနာလီဆာ – Burmese

values:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Dutch
nl
nl
interlanguage-link-target

values: मोना लिजा – Nepali

values:
https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Norwegian
no
no
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://nn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Norwegian Nynorsk
nn
nn
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Uzbek
uz
uz
interlanguage-link-target

values: ਮੋਨਾ ਲੀਜ਼ਾ – Punjabi

values: مونالیزا – Pashto

values:
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Polish
pl
pl
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Portuguese
pt
pt
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioconda
Gioconda – Romanian
ro
ro
interlanguage-link-target

values: Мона Ліза – Rusyn

values: Мона Лиза – Russian

values:
https://sq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Liza
Mona Liza – Albanian
sq
sq
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://scn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioconda
Gioconda – Sicilian
scn
scn
interlanguage-link-target

values: මොනාලිසා – Sinhala

values: مونا ليزا – Sindhi

values:
https://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Liza
Mona Liza – Slovenian
sl
sl
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://so.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Somali
so
so
interlanguage-link-target

values: Мона Лиза – Serbian

values:
https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Serbo-Croatian
sh
sh
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Finnish
fi
fi
interlanguage-link-target

values: interlanguage-link interwiki-fi badge-Q17559452 badge-recommendedarticle

values:
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Swedish
sv
sv
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Tagalog
tl
tl
interlanguage-link-target

values: மோனா லிசா – Tamil

values: మోనాలిసా – Telugu

values: โมนาลิซา – Thai

values:
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Turkish
tr
tr
interlanguage-link-target

values: Мона Ліза – Ukrainian

values: مونا لیزا – Urdu

values:
https://vec.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoconda
Zoconda – Venetian
vec
vec
interlanguage-link-target

values:
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa
Mona Lisa – Vietnamese
vi
vi
interlanguage-link-target

values: /static/images/wikimedia-button-1.5x.png 1.5x, /static/images/wikimedia-button-2x.png 2x

values: /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Mona_Lisa rootpage-Mona_Lisa skin-vector action-view


text:
Vesper Lynd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Vesper Lynd
James Bond character
Eva Green as Vesper Lynd
First appearance
Casino Royale (1953 novel)
Last appearance
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Created by
Ian Fleming
Portrayed by
Ursula Andress (1967 James Bond parody)
Eva Green (2006)
Information
Gender
Female
Occupation
Double agent
Affiliation
Novel:
MVD
MI6
Film:
HM Treasury
Quantum
Classification
Bond girl/Henchwoman
Vesper Lynd is a fictional character featured in Ian Fleming's 1953 James Bond novel Casino Royale. She was portrayed by Ursula Andress in the 1967 James Bond parody, which is only slightly based on the novel, and by Eva Green in the 2006 adaptation.
In the novel, the character explains that she was born "on a very stormy evening", and that her parents named her "Vesper", Latin for "evening". Fleming created a cocktail recipe in the novel that Bond names after her. The "Vesper martini" became very popular after the novel's publication, and gave rise to the famous "shaken, not stirred" catchphrase immortalised in the Bond films. The actual name for the drink (as well as its complete recipe) was mentioned on screen for the first time in the 2006 adaptation of Casino Royale.
In 1993, journalist Donald McCormick claimed that Fleming based Vesper on the real life of Polish agent Krystyna Skarbek, who was working for Special Operations Executive.[1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Novel biography
2 Film biography
2.1 1967
2.2 Eon films
2.3 Related character
3 References
Novel biography[edit]
This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (October 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Vesper works at MI6 headquarters as personal assistant to Head of section S. She is lent to Bond, much to his irritation, to assist him in his mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a SMERSH-controlled trade union. She poses as a radio seller, working with Rene Mathis, and later as Bond's companion to infiltrate the casino in Royale-les-Eaux, in which Le Chiffre frequently gambles. After Bond takes all of Le Chiffre's money in a high-stakes game of baccarat, Vesper is abducted by Le Chiffre's thugs, who also nab Bond when he tries to rescue her. Both are rescued after Le Chiffre is murdered by a SMERSH agent, but only after Bond has been tortured.
Vesper visits Bond every day in the hospital, and the two grow very close; much to his own surprise, Bond develops genuine feelings for her, and even dreams of leaving the service and marrying her. After he is released from the hospital, they go on a holiday together and eventually become lovers.
Vesper has a terrible secret, however: She is a double agent working for Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and only worked with Bond because she was ordered to see that he did not escape Le Chiffre. (Her kidnapping was staged to lure Bond into Le Chiffre's clutches.) Before she met Bond, she had been romantically involved with a Polish RAF operative. This man had been captured by SMERSH, and revealed information about Vesper under torture. Hence, SMERSH was using this operative to blackmail Vesper into helping them. After Le Chiffre's death, she is initially hopeful that she can have a fresh start with Bond, but she realizes this is impossible when she sees a SMERSH operative, Gettler, tracking her and Bond's movements. Consumed with guilt and certain that SMERSH will find and kill both of them, she commits suicide, leaving a note admitting her treachery and pledging her love to Bond.
Bond copes with the loss by renouncing her as a traitor and going back to work as though nothing has happened. He phones his superiors and informs them of Vesper's treason and death, coldly saying "The bitch is dead."
Bond's feelings for Vesper are not totally extinguished; Fleming's tenth novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, reveals that he makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-les-Eaux to visit her grave. In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond skips the song "La Vie En Rose" in Tiffany Case's hotel room "because it has memories for him"; this is a song closely associated with Vesper in Casino Royale. Furthermore, in the novel Goldfinger, when a drugged Bond believes that he has died and is preparing to enter heaven, he worries about how to introduce Tilly Masterton, who he believes has died along with him, to Vesper.
Film biography[edit]
1967[edit]
In the 1967 version of Casino Royale, Lynd was portrayed by Ursula Andress, who had portrayed another Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in the 1962 film version of Dr. No.
In this version, which bore little resemblance to the novel, Vesper is depicted as a former secret agent who has since become a multi-millionaire with a penchant for wearing ridiculously extravagant outfits at her office ("because if I wore it in the street people might stare"). Bond (played by David Niven), now in the position of M at MI6, uses a discount for her past due taxes to bribe her into becoming another 007 agent, and to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) into stopping Le Chiffre (played by Orson Welles).
Vesper and Tremble have an affair during which she eliminates an enemy agent sent to seduce Tremble ("Miss Goodthighs"). Ultimately, however, she betrays Tremble to Le Chiffre and SMERSH, declaring to Tremble, "Never trust a rich spy" before killing him with a machine gun hidden inside a bagpipe. She presumably does this for the same reason she does in the novel, as she remarks that it isn't for money but for love. Though her ultimate fate is not revealed in the film, in the closing credits she is shown as an angel playing a harp, showing her to be one of the "seven James Bonds at Casino Royale" killed by an atomic explosion.
Eon films[edit]
In the 2006 film version of Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd is a foreign liaison agent from the HM Treasury's Financial Action Task Force assigned to make sure that Bond adequately manages the funds provided by MI6. However, she is secretly a double agent working for Quantum, the very terrorist organization MI6 is trying to stop. She is an unwilling traitor, however; she is only helping them because they have taken her lover Yusef hostage and threatened to kill him if she does not cooperate.
Vesper is initially skeptical about Bond's ego and at first is unwilling to be his trophy at the poker tournament with Le Chiffre. However, she assists Bond when fighting Lord's Resistance Army leader Steven Obanno attacks him, knocking away a gun out of Obanno's hand and giving Bond the chance to kill him. She afterwards retreats to the shower, feeling that she has blood on her hands from helping to kill Obanno. Bond kisses the "blood" off her hands to comfort her, and they return to the casino. His kindness does not prevent her from doing her job, however; she refuses to bankroll him after he goes bankrupt on an early hand. Shortly afterwards, she saves Bond's life. Poisoned by Le Chiffre's girlfriend, Valenka, Bond struggles unsuccessfully to connect a key wire to his automatic external defibrillator, but Vesper arrives and makes the proper connection, allowing the machine to revive him.
After Bond wins the tournament, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, and Bond gives chase. They fall into Le Chiffre's trap, but both are saved by Quantum henchman Mr. White, who shoots and kills Le Chiffre for misappropriating the organisation's funds.
While both are in a hospital to recover from torture, Bond and Vesper fall deeply in love, and Bond plans to resign from the service to be with her. As in the novel, Bond and Vesper go on vacation to Venice, hoping to start a new life. Unknown to Bond, however, Vesper embezzles the money and delivers it to a gang of Quantum henchmen. When Bond realizes what has happened and goes after Vesper, the thugs take her hostage and lock her in an elevator while they do battle with him. After several explosions, the flooded building sinks, but Vesper resigns herself to death and locks herself in, even as Bond frantically tries to open the elevator. In a final gesture, she kisses Bond's hands to clear him of guilt; she then commits suicide by opening her mouth and drowning herself. Bond finally extricates her and tries to revive her using CPR, to no avail.
As in the novel, Bond copes with his lover's death by renouncing her, saying "The job's done and the bitch is dead." M chastises him, assuming that Vesper had cut a deal with her blackmailers to spare him in return for the money. When Bond opens Vesper's mobile phone afterwards, he finds that she has left Mr. White's phone number; this enables Bond to track down and confront him at the movie's end.
At the end of the 2008 film Quantum of Solace, Yusef is revealed to be an agent working for Quantum, asked to seduce high-ranking women in the world's intelligence agencies. He is then "kidnapped" by Quantum, and the women are forced to become double agents in the hope of securing his freedom. This information vindicates Vesper in Bond's eyes, making him finally see that her "betrayal" was not her fault. He does not kill Yusef, but leaves him to MI6 and tells M that she was right about Vesper. As he walks away, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.
In the 2015 film Spectre, Bond finds a video tape in Mr. White's hotel room in Morocco titled "Vesper Lynd Interrogation". Ernst Stavro Blofeld, whose Spectre organization is the power behind Quantum, taunts Bond by taking credit for Vesper's death as part of his personal vendetta against him.
Related character[edit]
The character of Vesper Lynd does not appear in the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale. Instead, the character was replaced by a new character named Valerie Mathis, played by Linda Christian, who is depicted as an American. She also betrays Bond (played by Barry Nelson), but comes to his rescue after he is shot by Le Chiffre (played by Peter Lorre). Valerie does not die in this adaptation.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ McCormick, Donald (1993). The Life of Ian Fleming. Peter Owen Publishers. p. 151.
[show]
v
t
e
James Bond characters
James Bond as literary character and as film character
Allies
M
Miss Moneypenny
Q
Bill Tanner
00 Agents
Felix Leiter
Girls
Honey Rider
Tatiana Romanova
Pussy Galore
Domino Vitali
Aki
Kissy Suzuki
Tracy Bond
Tiffany Case
Anya Amasova
Stacey Sutton
Natalya Simonova
Wai Lin
Vesper Lynd
Villains and
henchmen
Julius No
Rosa Klebb
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Oddjob
Auric Goldfinger
Emilio Largo
Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd
Francisco Scaramanga
Jaws
Hugo Drax
Max Zorin
Brad Whitaker
Necros
Alec Trevelyan
Xenia Onatopp
Le Chiffre
Raoul Silva
Sévérine
Organisations
SPECTRE
SMERSH
The Union
[show]
v
t
e
Casino Royale (2006)
Characters
Le Chiffre
Vesper Lynd
Music
"You Know My Name"
soundtrack
Tie-ins
007: Quantum of Solace
Related
Quantum of Solace
Casino Royale (novel)
"Casino Royale" (Climax!)
Casino Royale (1967 film)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vesper_Lynd&oldid=791993486"
Categories:
Bond girls
Fictional double agents
Fictional British secret agents
Fictional British people
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Fictional suicides
Fictional characters introduced in 1953
Characters in British novels of the 20th century
Fictional orphans
Hidden categories:
Articles needing additional references from July 2012
All articles needing additional references
Use British English from June 2011
Use dmy dates from June 2011
Wikipedia articles needing style editing from October 2015
All articles needing style editing
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
Polski
Português
Simple English
Svenska
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 23 July 2017, at 19:39.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

attrs: id class style

value: a

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

value: img

attrs: href class

attrs: href title

value: b

attrs: class href

values: Help:Introduction to referencing with Wiki Markup/1

value: span

value: i

value: small

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Refimprove

values: text-align:center;font-size:125%;font-weight:bold;background: #FFD700; color: #000000;

values: text-align:center;background: #FFD700; color: #000000;

values:
/wiki/Quantum_(James_Bond)
mw-redirect
Quantum (James Bond)

values:
infobox
width:22em;border-spacing: 2px 5px;

values: plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-style ambox-Tone

values:
/wiki/Rene_Mathis
mw-redirect
Rene Mathis

values:
/wiki/Polish_people
mw-redirect
Polish people

values:
/wiki/La_Vie_En_Rose
mw-redirect
La Vie En Rose

values:
/wiki/Tilly_Masterton
mw-redirect
Tilly Masterton

values: Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering

values:
/wiki/Steven_Obanno
mw-redirect
Steven Obanno

values:
/wiki/Automatic_external_defibrillator
mw-redirect
Automatic external defibrillator

values:
/wiki/Mr._White_(James_Bond)
mw-redirect
Mr. White (James Bond)

values:
reflist mw-references-wrap
list-style-type: decimal;

values: List of recurring characters in the James Bond film series

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values:
/wiki/You_Know_My_Name
mw-redirect
You Know My Name

values: Category:Fictional British secret agents

values: Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1953

values: Category:Characters in British novels of the 20th century

values: Category:Articles needing additional references from July 2012

values: Category:All articles needing additional references

values: Category:Use British English from June 2011

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing style editing from October 2015

values: Category:All articles needing style editing

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Vesper_Lynd
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Vesper_Lynd rootpage-Vesper_Lynd vector-experimental-print-styles vector-nav-directionality skin-vector action-view