Trevon Mitchell
Freshman Composition -101B-02
Professor Ryan McGunkin
04-May-2020
A Visual Analysis of a Painting- The Mona Lisa
The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is the home to one of the most emblematic portraits ever done in the history of art and humankind because it houses the famous Mona Lisa painting. The Mona Lisa painting is a painting that was done by an Italian artist, Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century. Measuring 77CM by 53 CM, the Mona Lisa is a painting that has all the visual elements that one thinks of in a piece of art (Leonardo, 65). A critical analysis of the visual elements of the art shows that the main them that the Mona Lisa art communicates and represents the theme of happiness, one of the best things that a person can have in their life.
The theme of happiness is evident in the Mona Lisa painting, and this is depicted by the amazing smile that the painting holds.
A visual analysis of the painting is simply done by simply looking at how the painting is simply done. In the portrait, Mona Lisa is sitting upright and also in a sideways chair. The face and the chest have been drawn in a way that it looks like they are facing the viewers. Mona Lisa has been drawn in a manner that her left arm is comfortably sitting on the armrest of the chair she is sitting on while her right arm is done in a way that it is crossing on her front (, Leonardo 78). One of the few things that makes the painting a unique painting that represents a theme of happiness is the aerial perspective of background landscape with some sort of smoky blues that do not show any sign of having a vanishing point (Borkowski, 54-58).
Looking at the painting of Mona Lisa, one is able to see how happy happiness shines on her face meaning that the main theme shown by this painting is the theme of happiness. Happiness is a mental and also an emotional state of an individual that is gotten from having a pleasant or a positive emotion regarding a theme. A visual analysis of the painting, especially the choice of colors used in doing the painting shows happiness. The Mona Lisa art is done with simple but detailed colors that blend in with the smile to complete the theme of happiness in the painting. The artist used blue, yellow, and bright flesh colors, and these colors were in the renaissance period associated with happiness.
By looking at the atmosphere of the painting, one is able to tell that the artist took his time to draw the painting and blended in a happy atmosphere that is represented by the bright colors as dark colors are associated with sad times (Borkowski, 54-58).
Leonardo managed to blend in lighting into his painting to enhance his theme of happiness. Just like colors, light is normally associated with happiness, while darkness is, in most cases, associated with sadness or bad times, and that is why bad times are often referred to as dark times. In this painting, the artists used light in a clear way in that the lines are disappearing into shadows that have no boundaries (Borkowski, 54-58). The light used in the painting comes as a complement to other visual analysis elements such as mood tone and emotion of the picture. Mona Lisa’s painting shows how a fine texture of a painting can make a huge difference in communicating a certain theme. When a painting has a smooth texture, the painting is representing a good or a positive thing, and this is evident in the Mona Lisa painting, which has a smooth texture to represent a positive theme, which in this case scenario is happiness.
The Mona Lisa smile is a unique smile because it is complemented by the lack of eyebrows, which was done intentionally. The theme of happiness in this painting has been given so much attention by different artists and authors to the extent that in 2003, a movie was produced under the title The Mona Lisa Smile. Drawing its inspiration from how Mona Lisa’s smile was painted by Leonardo, the movie gives the theme of happiness in this painting more weight in an argument than anything else (Kontsevich, Leonid & Tyler, 44). In addition to that, the theme of happiness in the painting of Mona Lisa has been supported by scientific analysis of the painting, which concluded that Mona Lisa is indeed happy in the painting.
Works Cited
Borkowski, Joseph E. “Mona Lisa: the enigma of the smile.” Journal of Forensic Science 37.6 (1992).
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa. Becocci Editore., 2015.
Kontsevich, Leonid L., and Christopher W. Tyler. “What makes Mona Lisa smile?” Vision research 44.13 (2004): 1493-1498.