Mona Lisa

Beginning French Final

What is an Icon?

The Theft of the Mona Lisa

The theft of the Mona Lisa caused a frenzy and misguided suspicions when it was stolen in 1911. It is one of the most well-known paintings in the world, and one that seems to have universal appeal. Why is this painting still as revered and coveted today as the day it was stolen, or as when it was first painted? When people from different cultures or time periods share an understanding of an image, that image can be considered an icon.

In this lesson, rather than express your personal interpretations of the Mona Lisa, take the point of view of one of the many people who were affected by this painting and answer the question, “Why is this painting important?”  Students will investigate the question, “What is an icon?” and compare their impressions and interpretations of the Mona Lisa to the hypothetical opinions of other people affected by this painting. This lesson is also a natural starting point for students to investigate the following Life-long Learning Question: What shared understandings does an iconic image communicate?

Background: https://focus.louvre.fr/en/mona-lisa/understand/most-famous-painting-world

The Mona Lisa  is the portrait  of a Florentine lady (Monna  is  the abbreviation  of  Madonna, Madame), no doubt Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, who  commissioned the work  from Leonardo da Vinci (La Gioconda,  francized  to  Mona Lisa (La Jaconde),  is  his  wife’s surname).  By the new implementation on the canvas and the monumentality of the figure associated with  the  surrounding  landscape,   it  represents  an important moment in the evolution  of portraiture at the beginning of the 16the  century and  summarizes  the  lessons learned by Leonardo de Vinci in Tuscany, his work on optics,  space  and light.  It is through the latter that the painter solves perspective and drawing problems affecting  our perception of  form, contour and light which unifies  the entire  composition. The sfumato (in Italian: mist) invented by Leonardo aims to make the reliefs stand out by attenuating contrasts and contours. The fluidity of the whole is achieved by superimposing glimpses of lighter or darker shades, laid on a medium tone background. These light layers, which are not very full of pigments, blend together and play with transparency.

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa probably in Florence in 1503 on a thin white poplar panel (0.77 m high and   0.55 m wide).   The work is taken by the painter to Milan in 1506. it followed him to France, where Leonardo was invited by Francis I in 1517, after the  disappearance of his protector, Giuliano de Medici. It was probably in 1518 that King Francis I  acquired for a  large  sum  The  Mona Lisa. As royal property, it decorated various residences   of the sovereigns.  After Fontainebleau, it was hung in the Louvre Palace in 1650, then at the end of the 17th  and  18th centuries, at the Royal Palace of Versailles, where  it  does  not seem  to  have been an object of  particular interest.   In 1793, the “Central Museum of the Arts” was created at the Louvre and Mona Lisa was transported there in 1798.  In 1800, Napoleon I installed it with  a few  other portraits in his apartments in  the Tuileries. It was from 1804 that it took its place  permanently in the museum rooms.

Write a 3-5 page essay adapting the point(s) of view of how one or more of the following persons might think regarding the importance of the Mona Lisa.  To gain an understanding of the various or singular points of view, use one of the following links to learn:

• Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo’s masterful technique
• Madam Lisa Gioconda Mona Lisa’s identity
• Giorgio Vasari Da Vinci and the Renaissance
• Captain of the Guards at the Louvre discovery of the theft and how the crime was committed
• Prefect of Paris Police, Inspector Louis Lepine how the crime was committed and the suspects in the investigation
• The thief, Vincenzo Perugia how Mona Lisa was finally found and Perugia and his trial
• The French public the suspects in the investigation
• The Italian antique dealer, Alfredo Geri how Mona Lisa was finally found
• Sigmund Freud the myth of Mona Lisa
• A twentieth-century artist, such as Warhol or Duchamp, who has been inspired by this image the myth of Mona Lisa

Follow the same guidelines I provided for the format (double-spaced lines, 1” margins top and bottom of pages) of the essay that I gave for the Mid-Term.  Please Spell and Grammar check your essay; and use the Thesis Statement PPT under Resources/Handouts on MyVUU to guide your style.

This assignment corresponds to the Student Learning Objective of demonstrating an appreciation and understanding of various religions, philosophies, cultures, and art forms.