6 ms·

What’s behind that enigmatic smile?

16 points by prismatic 5y ago

kzrdude 5y ago
The article is a nice blurb for that author's book I, Mona Lisa
throwra620 5y ago
shp0ngle 5y ago
It's actually written in the article at the very end, but it's really interesting to point out that Mona Lisa really was not all that famous until 1911, when it was stolen by an Italian nationalist. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made-the-mona-lisa-a-masterpiece https://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made... It actually took 28 hours before anyone noticed that it's missing.
- cafard 5y ago
  Walter Pater, who died in 1894, gave the Mona Lisa (referring to it as La Gioconda) some paragraphs in his The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry. (https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2398/pg2398.txt https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2398/pg2398.txt) I believe that W.B. Yeats used them, or an excerpt from them in an Oxford anthology of modern English verse (well after 1911, to be sure).
verisimi 5y ago
Constipation?!?
beardyw 5y ago
I have a few prints of paintings. The only one on a wall right now is by John Singer Sargent (the others are contemporary). I don't have a copy of Mona Lisa on the wall and I don't know anyone who would. The physical painting is famous for being famous. It isn't great art.
- AndrewSwift 5y ago
  Which Sargent? I have fumée d'ambre gris hanging over me ;-)
  - beardyw 5y ago
    That's great. I have The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.
renewiltord 5y ago
Recently struggling with the fact that most critics appear to be writing for other critics with their off-the-wall views representing art of its own kind - posturing for others in the field. This one was much better for a non-artist. The crux of the thing appears to be that women were not shown looking at the camera in that age and this painting therefore challenges that. Additionally, the theft of the painting added significance to it. All right. That’s pretty neat. I only skimmed the article to try to get to this so I may have missed more.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
0des 5y ago
Might get accused of heresy here, but I have always found the person depicted in the Mona Lisa to be conventionally unattractive.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  I always assumed that was the majority view, no?
kingcharles 5y ago
And it's not like there isn't more than one "original" anyway. If the one the Louvre owns is even an original (and wasn't switched during the 20th Century theft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Early_versions_and_copies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Early_versions_and_c...

16 points by prismatic 5y ago

kzrdude 5y ago

The article is a nice blurb for that author's book I, Mona Lisa

throwra620 5y ago

shp0ngle 5y ago

It's actually written in the article at the very end, but it's really interesting to point out that Mona Lisa really was not all that famous until 1911, when it was stolen by an Italian nationalist. https://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made-the-mona-lisa-a-masterpiece https://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made... It actually took 28 hours before anyone noticed that it's missing.

cafard 5y ago
Walter Pater, who died in 1894, gave the Mona Lisa (referring to it as La Gioconda) some paragraphs in his The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry. (https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2398/pg2398.txt https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2398/pg2398.txt) I believe that W.B. Yeats used them, or an excerpt from them in an Oxford anthology of modern English verse (well after 1911, to be sure).

verisimi 5y ago

Constipation?!?

beardyw 5y ago

I have a few prints of paintings. The only one on a wall right now is by John Singer Sargent (the others are contemporary). I don't have a copy of Mona Lisa on the wall and I don't know anyone who would. The physical painting is famous for being famous. It isn't great art.

AndrewSwift 5y ago
Which Sargent? I have fumée d'ambre gris hanging over me ;-)
- beardyw 5y ago
  That's great. I have The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

renewiltord 5y ago

Recently struggling with the fact that most critics appear to be writing for other critics with their off-the-wall views representing art of its own kind - posturing for others in the field. This one was much better for a non-artist. The crux of the thing appears to be that women were not shown looking at the camera in that age and this painting therefore challenges that. Additionally, the theft of the painting added significance to it. All right. That’s pretty neat. I only skimmed the article to try to get to this so I may have missed more.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

0des 5y ago

Might get accused of heresy here, but I have always found the person depicted in the Mona Lisa to be conventionally unattractive.

kingcharles 5y ago
I always assumed that was the majority view, no?

kingcharles 5y ago

And it's not like there isn't more than one "original" anyway. If the one the Louvre owns is even an original (and wasn't switched during the 20th Century theft). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Early_versions_and_copies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa#Early_versions_and_c...