Da Vinci's most well known and mysterious paintings is the "Mona Lisa." There has been much speculation down through history as to who's portrait it might be. We know that it was very important to Leonardo. He carried it with him everywhere. Why was he so attached?
Hauntingly beautiful, the mystery of her smile has provoked much discussion. What is she smiling about? Leonardo used a special techique called sfumato - the blurred outline and soft edges, with indistinct corners of the eyes and corners of the mouth.
Who was she? An unrequited love affair? One suggestion that I agree with, is that she was a self-portrait. I believe that Leonardo Da Vinci was painting his Soul. Michael J. Gelb in his book How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci has found evidence for this from Dr Lillian Schwartz of Bell Laboratories and author of The Computer Artist's Handbook.
"Applying sophistocated computer modeling with precision measurements of scale and alignment, Schwartz compared the Mona Lisa with the only extant self-portrait of the artist, drawn in red chalk in 1518. As she describes it, 'Juxtaposing the images was all that was needed to fuse them: the relative locations of the nose, mouth, chin and eyes and forehead i none precisely matched the other. Merely flipping up the corner of the mouth would produce the mysterious smile ..."
And then, of course, there is "The Da Vinci Code" which has been unleashing a torrent of interest and controversy, especially within the Vatican. But this is the story of another post..
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"How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day" (Michael J. Gelb)
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