Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.was created between the years 1503 and 1505 and was not put on display until 1797 in the Musee du Louvre, Paris. This portrait first became well-known because in Da Vinci’s time the painting was incredibly lifelike, and viewers were mesmerized by the mystery and apparent mockery in the woman’s smile. When I look at the Mona Lisa I see mystery in this woman that is hard to pinpoint. There is mischief in her smile almost like she is only smiling to mock the painter, but on the other hand it could be construed as a masked sorrow. It is hard to believe that at over 500 years old; it is now considered to be by far the most famous work of Western art in the world.
In 1963, in respect to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Andy Warhol painted the cleverly titled Thirty Are
Better than One, which features 30 small pictures of the Mona Lisa in black and white. I think that because the painting is in black and white it makes the woman appear more timeless, and it also gives the painting a more modern feel. Like many of his other paintings, Warhol depicts the woman in the picture to be a celebrity, the woman in the painting may not have been a celebrity in her time, but because of the multiple time’s it’s circulated through the media this image is now recognizable to people all around the world.
The similarities I see between the two paintings is that they obviously both feature the same woman sitting in the famous painting, and both have an indefinite mystery that is impressed upon any onlooker. To me the famous Mona Lisa is more famous for its name and its impact on culture and history than for the greatness of the painting itself. I think it’s history is what has made it worth what it’s worth today. Thirty is Better Than One was inspired by Da Vinci’s painting but is an artwork in itself and has a more modern appeal. I personally think that Andy Warhol’s painting is more pleasant to look at, and it is the type of painting I would hang in my own home.
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