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Mona Lisa: Leonardo da Vinci’s Riddle of the Sphinx
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Who has not wondered about the painting which came to be known as “Mona Lisa,” and her mysterious smile? Since the early 1500s, Leonardo Da Vinci’s creation has seduced and inspired generations of viewers, and she has taken the throne as the most famous work of art in the world. While causing emotional responses, heated debates, and controversy, Mona Lisa remains impenetrable to reductionism. Legendary American singer Nat King Cole justly wondered in his song, “Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa, or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art.”
Art historians have assumed that Mona Lisa, literally ‘a woman named Lisa’ in Italian, was a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, based on Giorgio Vasari’s mention of Leonardo’s portrait in his famous book published in 1550 The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. While this account described the painting in great detail, it was written thirty-one years after Da Vinci’s death, and it is now widely believed that Vasari could not have seen the original panel, because Da Vinci brought it with him when he left Italy for good and moved to France. It is now displayed in The Louvre Museum. There is no contractual agreement for a commission to be found to support Vasari’s claim, nor is the painting listed in the detailed inventory of Francesco del Giocondo.
It has become customary to refer to the painting as a portrait, but what if it is not? Dr. Martin Kemp and Kenneth Clark, both authorities on da Vinci, have suggested that Mona Lisa diverges from the idea of a regular portrait, being the product of a larger concept than a likeness of a specific individual. Kemp even suggested renaming it as Portrait of a Lady on a Balcony, but the old title prevailed. In 2004, a new, state-of-the-art, multispectral camera analysis of the painting was carried out by Dr. Pascal Cotte. It revealed that Leonardo had initially designed 12 pins to decorate Mona Lisa’s hair (figure 2). He also observed tiny pin pricks – evidence of a spolvero pouncing technique used to transfer a drawing to the panel during the early stages of making the painting, forming the pattern of an intricate headdress. This unusual headdress could hardly befit the status of an ordinary woman. In 2015, renaissance clothing expert Dr. Elisabetta Gnignera commented that Mona Lisa’s dress seemed to be fictional rather than practical, resembling the clothing of a mythical figure with a drape over one shoulder. This corresponds with Dr. Kemp’s concept that Mona Lisa is not a typical portrait. She is neither a Madonna, nor a noblewoman. But who is she?
If we recall the Egyptian, Greek, or Renaissance portrayals of the sphinx, Lisa’s smile becomes familiar (figure 3). The sphinx, a mythical creature with a combination of a human head and a beast’s body, was known as an ancient guardian of the truth, and therefore of time (as time reveals the truth), bares the same smile. Later, the Archaic smile was accompanied by the legendary account which became known as ‘the riddle of the sphinx.’ (figure 4) As the guardian of the entrance to Thebes, the sphinx presented passersby with a riddle. If they could not answer it correctly, it would cost them their lives, as the sphinx (from the Greek verb sphíngō meaning "to squeeze") would devour them. Returning to Mona Lisa, we notice that she too can be seen as a guardian of a landscape behind her. Scholars have noted that the landscape seems foreign, quite unlike the scenery of Lisa’s Florentine home. However, Lisa’s landscape of high, ragged mountain peaks, winding streams, and pools of water fits in perfectly with the established canon of pictures of the flight into Egypt created by Flemish artists like Joachim Patinir and Peter Breughel the Elder. (figure 5 and 6)
When comparing the image of the Greek sphinx to Mona Lisa we find other important similarities: a female creature wears an analogous headdress in Dr. Cotte’s reconstruction of the Mona Lisa underpainting (figure 7a and b, figure 1), and the mythological garment over one shoulder is reminiscent of a sphinx’s garb (figure 8 and figure 1). Images of sphinxes are common in Renaissance literature, books of emblems, architecture, and sculpture, but what about in painting? In 1993, art historian John F. Moffitt identified a hidden sphinx in another significant Florentine painting, by artist Agnolo Bronzino, The Exposure of the “Luxuria” of Venus and Cupid (figure 9a and b). According to Dr. Moffitt, this sphinx is an allusion to a “once-standard school text originally composed in Greek” known as The Tablet of Cebes, which was “vigorously revived in the Renaissance.” This text, which may have served as an inspiration for Leonardo as it did for Bronzino, describes a painting which challenges the viewer to grasp its hidden meaning, instructing the reader not to remain foolish or ignorant. Dr. Moffitt compares this wise advice to imagery of the sphinx, as a metaphor for deciphering the truth. Obviously, the difference in Leonardo’s portrayal is that Mona Lisa’s lower body is hidden from our view, but one can imagine that a monstrous body lies beyond the limits of the frame.
The parallel between the sphinx and Mona Lisa was popular among 19th century European poets and writers. Théophile Gautier compared her to the sphinx in 1855, Oscar Wilde authored a short story inspired by Mona Lisa’s smile called “The Sphinx Without a Secret.” Critic Charles Clément declared, “As long as some vestiges of this fabulous and fatal beauty endure, all those who seek to decipher the mysteries of the soul on the traits of a face will journey towards this ageless sphinx to demand the solution of the eternal enigma. Lovers, poets, dreamers, go and die at her feet! Neither your desperation nor your death will erase from her mocking mouth the enchanting smile…”. In this context, we can conceive of the Mona Lisa in a new light, as guardian of the mountainous divine landscape to whom we must answer, as in the popular Greek mythology of the riddle of the sphinx. Failing to decipher the challenge holds grave consequences, but those who envision the truth will be greatly rewarded. Could this be the reason why Leonardo never wanted to part with this painting and held it in his possession until his death? The symbolism of the sphinx is prevalent in Freemasonry, and has always fascinated the esoterically inclined. This reading of Mona Lisa opens a path to a further investigation into the links between Leonardo da Vinci and his exploration of esotericism.
Art historians have assumed that Mona Lisa, literally ‘a woman named Lisa’ in Italian, was a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, based on Giorgio Vasari’s mention of Leonardo’s portrait in his famous book published in 1550 The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. While this account described the painting in great detail, it was written thirty-one years after Da Vinci’s death, and it is now widely believed that Vasari could not have seen the original panel, because Da Vinci brought it with him when he left Italy for good and moved to France. It is now displayed in The Louvre Museum. There is no contractual agreement for a commission to be found to support Vasari’s claim, nor is the painting listed in the detailed inventory of Francesco del Giocondo.
It has become customary to refer to the painting as a portrait, but what if it is not? Dr. Martin Kemp and Kenneth Clark, both authorities on da Vinci, have suggested that Mona Lisa diverges from the idea of a regular portrait, being the product of a larger concept than a likeness of a specific individual. Kemp even suggested renaming it as Portrait of a Lady on a Balcony, but the old title prevailed. In 2004, a new, state-of-the-art, multispectral camera analysis of the painting was carried out by Dr. Pascal Cotte. It revealed that Leonardo had initially designed 12 pins to decorate Mona Lisa’s hair (figure 2). He also observed tiny pin pricks – evidence of a spolvero pouncing technique used to transfer a drawing to the panel during the early stages of making the painting, forming the pattern of an intricate headdress. This unusual headdress could hardly befit the status of an ordinary woman. In 2015, renaissance clothing expert Dr. Elisabetta Gnignera commented that Mona Lisa’s dress seemed to be fictional rather than practical, resembling the clothing of a mythical figure with a drape over one shoulder. This corresponds with Dr. Kemp’s concept that Mona Lisa is not a typical portrait. She is neither a Madonna, nor a noblewoman. But who is she?
If we recall the Egyptian, Greek, or Renaissance portrayals of the sphinx, Lisa’s smile becomes familiar (figure 3). The sphinx, a mythical creature with a combination of a human head and a beast’s body, was known as an ancient guardian of the truth, and therefore of time (as time reveals the truth), bares the same smile. Later, the Archaic smile was accompanied by the legendary account which became known as ‘the riddle of the sphinx.’ (figure 4) As the guardian of the entrance to Thebes, the sphinx presented passersby with a riddle. If they could not answer it correctly, it would cost them their lives, as the sphinx (from the Greek verb sphíngō meaning "to squeeze") would devour them. Returning to Mona Lisa, we notice that she too can be seen as a guardian of a landscape behind her. Scholars have noted that the landscape seems foreign, quite unlike the scenery of Lisa’s Florentine home. However, Lisa’s landscape of high, ragged mountain peaks, winding streams, and pools of water fits in perfectly with the established canon of pictures of the flight into Egypt created by Flemish artists like Joachim Patinir and Peter Breughel the Elder. (figure 5 and 6)
When comparing the image of the Greek sphinx to Mona Lisa we find other important similarities: a female creature wears an analogous headdress in Dr. Cotte’s reconstruction of the Mona Lisa underpainting (figure 7a and b, figure 1), and the mythological garment over one shoulder is reminiscent of a sphinx’s garb (figure 8 and figure 1). Images of sphinxes are common in Renaissance literature, books of emblems, architecture, and sculpture, but what about in painting? In 1993, art historian John F. Moffitt identified a hidden sphinx in another significant Florentine painting, by artist Agnolo Bronzino, The Exposure of the “Luxuria” of Venus and Cupid (figure 9a and b). According to Dr. Moffitt, this sphinx is an allusion to a “once-standard school text originally composed in Greek” known as The Tablet of Cebes, which was “vigorously revived in the Renaissance.” This text, which may have served as an inspiration for Leonardo as it did for Bronzino, describes a painting which challenges the viewer to grasp its hidden meaning, instructing the reader not to remain foolish or ignorant. Dr. Moffitt compares this wise advice to imagery of the sphinx, as a metaphor for deciphering the truth. Obviously, the difference in Leonardo’s portrayal is that Mona Lisa’s lower body is hidden from our view, but one can imagine that a monstrous body lies beyond the limits of the frame.
The parallel between the sphinx and Mona Lisa was popular among 19th century European poets and writers. Théophile Gautier compared her to the sphinx in 1855, Oscar Wilde authored a short story inspired by Mona Lisa’s smile called “The Sphinx Without a Secret.” Critic Charles Clément declared, “As long as some vestiges of this fabulous and fatal beauty endure, all those who seek to decipher the mysteries of the soul on the traits of a face will journey towards this ageless sphinx to demand the solution of the eternal enigma. Lovers, poets, dreamers, go and die at her feet! Neither your desperation nor your death will erase from her mocking mouth the enchanting smile…”. In this context, we can conceive of the Mona Lisa in a new light, as guardian of the mountainous divine landscape to whom we must answer, as in the popular Greek mythology of the riddle of the sphinx. Failing to decipher the challenge holds grave consequences, but those who envision the truth will be greatly rewarded. Could this be the reason why Leonardo never wanted to part with this painting and held it in his possession until his death? The symbolism of the sphinx is prevalent in Freemasonry, and has always fascinated the esoterically inclined. This reading of Mona Lisa opens a path to a further investigation into the links between Leonardo da Vinci and his exploration of esotericism.
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