Title: Mona Lisa

 

Dimensions (cm): 41x30.5x3.6

 

Artist: Bellamy Curtis

 

Editor:  Gary Luchi and Stephanie Bartusevics

 

Region: Europe

 

Description:

Painted between 1503 and 1506, the “Mona Lisa” is thought to be the earliest Italian portrait to focus so closely on the subject in a half-length portrait. As an artist, Leonardo Da Vinci was a major influence on Florentine and Lombard art of the early 16th century. The original works used oil paints which were an amalgamation of oil, pigment (metal compounds) and thinners, applied to a wooded panel which was unique for the time as the usual medium was canvas. An alternative title for the works, La Gioconda, is thought to derive from the name of the actual subject, Lisa del Gioconda who was the wife of a Florentine Merchant.