The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It has been acclaimed as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world."[1] It receives an astonishing 6 million visitors at the Louvre Museum in Paris every year. Why is this painting so renowned? Although Da Vinci was a brilliant painter, sculptor, musician, engineer, writer and much more, he was arguably not the best or not the only brilliant artist of the time. Other renaissance artists like Michelangelo, Raphael and Sandro Botticelli created works whose clarity of form, ease of composition, use of color and theme are conceivably just as good or maybe even better than the Mona Lisa. So why is it that this painting so famous? Evidently, aesthetic appeal or level of skill is not the only factor that is involved in determining what is ‘good art’.
Carol Duncan in her work clearly states that art museums have been “instruments of political propaganda” (Duncan 89) and are used to produce political messages. The Mona Lisa was created during the Renaissance era, which was a period of rebirth of culture and knowledge in Europe. This era supported many groundbreaking discoveries in science and astronomy, which led to the golden age of learning and progress. Even in the field of art, Renaissance artists began to transform paintings and drawings from 2 dimensions to 3 dimensions, which changed the way people looked at art forever. The enlightenment and knowledge acquired in this period changed people’s way of thinking. Thus, the Mona Lisa became not just a Renaissance painting but also a painting that epitomized this era of enlightenment and development. In fact, it even symbolizes the progress of the human race from savagery to civilization. And like Duncan stated in her work, a museum is a sign of a civilized community of a modern nation, and so displaying such works becomes important in developing one’s identity. In France, after the Palace of Versailles was attacked in 1789 and monarchy was overthrown, the need to define national identity grew. This was around the same time toward the end of the 18th century that the Louvre was transformed from a palace into a museum. The Mona Lisa soon became an icon that represented the progress France made during the Renaissance. The painting is now a symbol of France’s national identity and a European narrative of class and enlightenment. Looking at Duncan’s concept of “genius iconography” (Duncan 95, 97) it is apparent that Da Vinci’s individual genius was used as national genius to “demonstrate the highest kind of civic virtue” (Duncan 98) and let it be known that the citizens belonged to a civilized community.
As Duncan quotes, “What we see and do not see in our most prestigious art museums.. involves the much larger questions of who constitutes the community and who shall exercise the power to define its identity” (Duncan 102). And so, it is not surprising that a painting of a well dressed, well to do, white woman created by a white, male genius was used to represent France. The ideology of how a community should be represented and what the Mona Lisa symbolized worked out perfectly. The speculation that it is a painting of Lisa del Giocondo, a woman was a part of the “prominent Gherardini family in Florence”[2] emphasizes this idea. Thus, the story behind the Mona Lisa shows that good art is not a only a measure of aesthetics or skill but also an evaluation of the identity it would give the community or nation it belongs to when it is used as a tool of political propaganda.
Today, this painting is known to be famous for being famous. This largely has to do with how museums act as secular sites “full of ritual situations and events” (Duncan 91). In my opinion, the process of viewing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre is similar to a ritual. The latest remodeling includes “a glass roof to allow more natural light (and) the gallery (is) separated into two distinct areas allowing the Mona Lisa to be displayed on its own and in a way that will allow for it to be seen from all angles.”[3] Thus, the process of viewers stepping into a long gallery at the end of which hangs the Mona Lisa behind a bullet proof glass with guards protecting it sets up the surroundings for a display of something amazing. Moreover, the fact that the viewer knows he/she is being watched by the guards and also other viewers instills a need to accept the given depiction of the Mona Lisa as the most brilliant work of art. This is the manner in which “the museum acquires social authority by controlling ways of seeing, and the objects around which museal vision is directed gather meaning from their context within the museum.” [4]
This draws attention to the story of 2 women who questioned this social authority by commenting that they did not like the Mona Lisa and who received the following response from the guards: “Ma’am, the Mona Lisa has stood the test of time. When you stand before her, it is you, not she, who is being judged."[5] This response goes back to John Berger and Sturken & Cartwright’s ideas of how we tend to look at paintings and drawings of people as objects and how this process of seeing gives us (the viewer) a sense of ownership. The process of viewing art is such that the viewer takes on the more dominant position as he/she has the power to judge and interpret the objectified. The response of the guards is particularly intriguing as it disrupts the conventional way of seeing and knowing art by stating that when we stand in front of the Mona Lisa, she is the one judging us, taking on the more dominant position and leaving the viewers powerless. Trying to understand and decode this facial expression has possibly been one of the main fascinations for the painting.
Therefore, since museums acquire the status of institutions with “objective or universal knowledge and (function) in our society as higher, authoritative truth” (Duncan 90), they become temples of learning in our community and preservers of social heritage. It is therefore not surprising that we, “museumgoers.. bring with (us) the willingness and ability to shift into a certain state of receptivity” to accept the information passed onto us by these highly regarded institutions as the universal truth. Another aspect in the area of hegemony we need to consider is that those in accordance with the museum’s idea of beautiful often take the highest ranks. In effect, accepting the museum’s representation of what is beautiful and what is not and what is art and what is not cultivates a sense of aesthetics in the community, which gives the museum a form of social control. This interplay of various forces is what has made the Mona Lisa a painting that is famous for being famous, and a painting that is an icon of true genius.
References:
Carol Duncan, “Art Museums and the Ritual of Citizenship,” Exhibiting Cultures, eds., Ivan Karp and Steven Lavine.
[1] John Lichfield, The Moving of the Mona Lisa, The Independent, 2005-04-02 (Retrieved 9 March 2012)
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_del_Giocondo
[3] http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81285
[4] Casey, Valerie. "The Museum Effect: Gazing from Object to Performance in the Contemporary Cultural-History Museu." École Du Louvre: ICHIM. Proc. of International Cultural Heritage Informatics Meeting, École Du Louvre, Paris. Archives and Museums Informatics Europe, 2003. Web. 9 Nov. 2013.
[5] http://www.icsaddis.edu.et/visualarts/IB_1&2_files/Renaissance%20Art.pdf
