Art History 3.6 : Examine Values Placed On Artworks Essay

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ART HISTORY 3.6, EXAMINE VALUES PLACED ON ARTWORKS

Introduction

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece the Mona Lisa established a new type of portraiture; da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa over the time period of 1503-1507, during the height of the Renaissance. The Mona Lisa is thought to be a portrait depicted of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The work itself is s a half-length portrait of a woman, which has been acclaimed to be the best known and the most visited, work of art in the world. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797. Prior to painting the Mona Lisa da Vinci also painted Ginevra de Benci, the first painting in Italy to portray a sense of unique personality and Lady with Ervine, a portrait of Cecelia Gallerani, all of which were front on portraits as opposed to profile.

Artistic Value
In the Trecento (1300’s) artworks were typically seen as part of a religious story. The donor (person who paid for the artwork) was usually depicted within the work, for example, Enrique Scrovegni in Giotto’s Arena Chappell. In the Quattrocento we see a more individual approach to portraiture, the standard was profile with a decorative background and the exclusion of hands, an example of this is Pisanello’s Portrait of a Princess.

Traditionally Italian art was painted using tempera paint, in the 1300’s the use of oil

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