The Interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa: One of the most famous painting in
the world.
By end of the 15th century, three outstanding masters Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and
Michelangelo dominated the period with their expression of humanist and classical values. More 1
than twenty years older than the great masters Michelangelo and Raphael, Leonardo pioneered
the High Renaissance style of balance, serenity, and technical accomplishment for nearly a
generation before the two other Renaissance masters arrived.And out of Leonardo’s
masterpieces, Mona Lisa would be the most well known piece (fig. 1). But as the most famous
art work in the world, there are a lot of story behind this painting. In this paper, I will talk about
interesting stories about Mona Lisa and explain how was Leonardo’s life and his artistic
characteristic
Leonardo da Vinci’s Life
Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452, in Italy, taught by Verrocchio and joined in
painter’s guild in 1472. In 1482, he moved to Milan worked for Ludovico Sforza and painted The
Last Supper and Virgin and Child with St. Anne (fig. 2) (fig. 3). 1500, when the France attacked
Milano, he moved back to Florence, around 1502-03, he worked for Cesare Borgia as a military
engineer. In 1506, he went back to Milano, and in 1507, he also worked as a engineer for Francis
Ⅰ in France. Between 1513 and 1516, he failed to gain the favor of the pope, and moved to
France. He left a lot of masterpieces such as Virgin of the Rocks (fig. 4), Mona Lisa and The last
supper. He was not only an outstanding painter, but also an inventor, scientist and talented in
1 Leonardo da Vinci The J.Paul Getty Museum
many area. He died in 1519. Leonardo Da Vinci’s father was the man of family who had a great
power in their town Vinci. And his mother Caterina was a daughter of peasant. But, few years
later, his father married with another woman, and Leonardo were raised by Caterina until 5 years
old. His father and his first stepmother Albiera had no child, and had 11 children with third wife.
So, there were 12 children including Leonardo. He was raised under two mothers. Psychologist
Freud’s interesting describe about two mother’s image in one of the Leonardo’s representative
paintings Virgin and Child with St. Anne could tell us about how Leonardo’s childhood was.
Also, according to him, the reason why he didn’t give Mona Lisa to commissioner and just
owned himself even though he drew it for four years and also why did he eventually regard as
unfinished work, was because he saw his mother’s smile and happiness in La Gioconda’s face.
Freud said Leonardo’s ideal type of women is overlapped with his mother, so he could never get
happiness about his childhood again.
Leonardo had very sensitive emotion and good looking appearance. His passion of
exploring or researching was not very normal and secular, so there were many kinds of conflicts
with orderer and breach of contract. He was a various ways...
