mona lisa comparison essay

Mona Lisa and the Last Supper Paintings

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Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the greatest artists in history whose artistic paintings are very popular around the world. Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings are among the best paintings in his collection. Da Vinci’s curiosity and imagination influenced most of his artistic expressions.

Da Vinci’s artistic prowess is manifested in Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings. The two paintings put Da Vinci on the world map and until now he is regarded as the best painter of all time. Historical sources reveal that Da Vinci did not work on the two paintings during the same time.

Da Vinci painted the Last Supper painting before he started working on the Mona Lisa painting. The events in the renaissance period influenced the majority of Da Vinci’s paintings including Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. This paper will compare and contrast Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings done by Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Last Supper painting was specifically done for Da Vinci’s master known as Duke Ludovico. The Last Supper is a sacred painting that represents the last meeting that Jesus held with his disciples a few moments before his death.

The painting shows Jesus taking the last supper with his disciples as he disclosed to them who among his disciples would betray him. The painting is influenced by the chronology of Jesus that is recorded in the book of John chapter 13.

On the other hand, Mona Lisa is a secular painting that depicts an Italian woman with a very attractive smile seated on an arm chair. The woman has an enigmatic expression on her face.

The identity of the woman in the painting is not exactly known but sources suggest that the woman in the Mona Lisa painting is Lisa Del Giocondo who was the wife of a rich Italian merchant.

The Mona Lisa painting was the most poplar painting across the world compared to the Last Supper painting. The Mona Lisa painting was later displayed permanently in a Paris museum.

The naming of Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings is based on the themes represented in the paintings and situations at the time. The specific themes that Da Vinci wanted to communicate to his audience influenced the naming of the two paintings.

Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings portray ancient cultural issues. The Last Supper painting depicts Jesus and his disciples who were Jews sharing a meal during the ancient Passover festival. The ancient Jewish culture is therefore represented fully in the Last Supper painting.

The Passover festival is among the most important aspects of the Jewish culture because Jews commemorate their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Jesus shares a meal with his twelve disciples as part of the Jewish religious customs.

On the hand, the Italian culture is fully represented in the Mona Lisa painting. Da Vinci began painting in Italy and this is why the majority of his paintings including Mona Lisa portray an Italian culture.

Da Vinci later moved to France but his love for the Italian culture was always portrayed in his paintings. Historical sources reveal that the woman in the Mona Lisa painting was the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo who was a very rich Italian merchant during his days.

Lisa Del Giocondo belonged to the Gherardini family that marked the birth of their children with a special celebration. Da Vinci’s painting was a dedication to the Gherardini family during the celebration of the birth of Giocondo’s second born son named Andrea.

The materials on which the two paintings were made are completely different and unique. The two pieces of art portray the quality of Da Vinci’s judgment in choosing the right materials suitable for each type of painting. Da Vinci used the wood’s panel and oil paint to make the Mona Lisa painting.

The sfumato method of painting where the depth of a drawing is created using color layers is an ancient Italian method of painting that Da Vinci used to create the Mona Lisa painting.

The Mona Lisa painting is very unique and amazing because there is no hint of any brush strokes on the painting. It is sometimes very difficult to believe that an artist could actually do a painting with no brush strokes.

On contrast, oil and tempera were the materials that Da Vinci used to create the Last Supper painting. Da Vinci painted the Last Supper painting on a plaster and a stone wall. The tempera material used to paint the Last supper is a mixture of egg yolk and vinegar which were the most popular painting materials at that time.

Da Vinci Preferred to use a dry surface instead of a wet one to create a mural painting. A pitch was used to cover the Last Supper painting to cover the tempera use to create the painting. The oil paint common materials used create the two paintings. The materials used by Da Vinci to create Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings were the most appropriate at that time.

Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings have a subject matter and a message that the artist wanted to communicate to his audience. In fact, all of Da Vinci’s paintings have a subject matter and there is no way that Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings would fail to have a subject matter.

Lisa Del Giocondo is the subject matter in the Mona Lisa painting. On the other hand, Jesus talking to his disciple is the subject matter of the Last Supper painting. The style and size of Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings are very different.

The size of the Last Supper painting is 4.6 by 8.8 meters whereas the Mona Lisa painting is very small in size and is estimated to be 77 by 53 centimeters. The style of the Last Supper painting is a tempera variation that Da Vinci used to create a painting on plaster and stone.

The Italian sfumato style was used by Da Vinci to make the Mona Lisa painting. In the sfumato style, the artist creates imaginary expressions by blending light and shadow. The sfumato style comes out clearly in the Mona Lisa Painting where Da Vinci paints the eyes and the mouth corners of the woman by blending light and shadow.

This style makes some parts of the painting to appear different when observed from different angles. The painting style used to paint the two pieces of art is similar to that used by other artists.

The way in which the artist develops the subject matter in Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings is very different. In the Last supper painting, Jesus is portrayed as the main figure while his disciples appear as if they are shocked by the news that one of them would betray Jesus.

There is an expression of shock on the faces of Jesus’ disciples as a result of the announcement made by Jesus. The enigmatic smile of Mona Lisa appears very uncertain deu to the way Da Vinci develops the subject matter in the painting.

The woman in the Mona Lisa painting is depicted is a simple manner right from her posture to her dressing. The painting depicts a reserved woman in a wealthy Italian family. Da Vinci brings out the woman’s beauty in a simple but breath-taking style.

The facial expression of the woman in the Mona Lisa painting appears different when viewed from different angles and has made many people to question the sincerity in her smile.

The two paintings have some symbolism that Da Vinci uses to pass across his message. The bread that Jesus shares with his disciples in the Last Supper painting represents his body which he was about to give out as a living sacrifice.

The wine in the painting symbolizes the blood of Jesus that he would shed to guarantee humankind forgiveness of their sins. The Passover feast symbolized Jesus’ farewell party with his disciples.

On the other hand, the woman in the Mona Lisa painting symbolizes the wife of a wealthy Italian merchant known as Giocondo. The woman in the Mona Lisa painting clearly portrays how Italian women were reserved without any kind of sophistication during ancient times.

The reserved nature of an Italian woman is symbolized by the dressing of the woman in the painting. The woman’s eyes seem to suggest that there are some secretes inside her that provoke the curiosity of the audience.

The two paintings pass across some messages to the audience as depicted by the expressions and symbols in the two paintings. The symbols and expressions in the Mona Lisa painting pass across the message of simplicity, culture and beauty.

On the other hand, the symbols and expressions in the Last Supper painting pass across the message of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. The painting carries a message of hope to Christians and portrays Jesus’ death a positive thing for all Christians.

Da Vinci created Mona Lisa when Giocondo’s family was celebrating the birth of their second son. The Last Supper painting was made during the revival period when scientific inventions had taken the place of Christianity.

Many people had stopped believing in God and most of their attention had gone to science. The renaissance period influenced the messages in Da Vinci’s paintings. Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings depict the social, economic and religious events at the time Da Vinci was making the paintings.

In conclusion, Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings are among the best works done by Da Vinci. The analysis of the two paintings shows that the two paintings have both similarities and differences.

Da Vinci is the best artist of all time and his paintings portray his artistic prowess. The similarities between the two paintings are in the painting style and the use of symbolism. The paintings are different when it comes to the materials used, size, subject matter, cultural representation, messages passed across and the category of paintings.

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Who was the Mona Lisa in real life?

How many years did it take to paint the mona lisa , where is the real mona lisa kept, what is the value of the mona lisa , why is the mona lisa so famous.

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There has been much speculation and debate regarding the identity of the Mona Lisa ’s sitter. Scholars and historians have posited numerous possibilities, including that she is Lisa del Giocondo (née Gherardini), wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo—hence the alternative title to the work, La Gioconda . That identity was first suggested in 1550 by artist biographer Giorgio Vasari .

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, and it was in his studio when he died in 1519. He likely worked on it intermittently over several years, adding multiple layers of thin oil glazes at different times. Small cracks in the paint, called craquelure, appear throughout the whole piece, but they are finer on the hands, where the thinner glazes correspond to Leonardo’s late period.

The Mona Lisa hangs behind bulletproof glass in a gallery of the Louvre Museum in Paris , where it has been a part of the museum’s collection since 1804. It was part of the royal collection before becoming the property of the French people during the Revolution (1787–99).

The Mona Lisa is priceless. Any speculative price (some say over a billion dollars!) would probably be so high that not one person would be able or willing to purchase and maintain the painting. Moreover, the Louvre Museum would probably never sell it. The museum attracts millions of visitors each year, most of whom come for the Mona Lisa , so a steady stream of revenue may be more lucrative in the long run than a single payment. Indeed, the museum considers the Mona Lisa irreplaceable and thus spends its resources on preventive measures to maintain the portrait rather than on expensive insurance that can only offer mere money as a replacement.

Many theories have attempted to pinpoint one reason for the art piece’s celebrity, including its theft from the Louvre in 1911 and its tour to the U.S. in 1963, but the most compelling arguments insist that there is no one explanation. The Mona Lisa ’s fame is the result of many chance circumstances combined with the painting’s inherent appeal.

Mona Lisa , oil painting on a poplar wood panel by Leonardo da Vinci , probably the world’s most famous painting . It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, when Leonardo was living in Florence , and it now hangs in the Louvre Museum , Paris , where it remained an object of pilgrimage in the 21st century. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination.

The painting presents a woman in half-body portrait, which has as a backdrop a distant landscape. Yet this simple description of a seemingly standard composition gives little sense of Leonardo’s achievement. The three-quarter view, in which the sitter’s position mostly turns toward the viewer, broke from the standard profile pose used in Italian art and quickly became the convention for all portraits, one used well into the 21st century. The subject’s softly sculptural face shows Leonardo’s skillful handling of sfumato (use of fine shading) and reveals his understanding of the musculature and the skull beneath the skin. The delicately painted veil, the finely wrought tresses, and the careful rendering of folded fabric demonstrate Leonardo’s studied observations and inexhaustible patience. Moreover, the sensuous curves of the sitter’s hair and clothing are echoed in the shapes of the valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo’s vision. In its exquisite synthesis of sitter and landscape, the Mona Lisa set the standard for all future portraits.

There has been much speculation and debate regarding the identity of the portrait’s sitter. Scholars and historians have posited numerous interpretations, including that she is Lisa del Giocondo (née Gherardini), the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo, hence the alternative title to the work, La Gioconda . That identity was first suggested in 1550 by artist biographer Giorgio Vasari . Another theory was that the model may have been Leonardo’s mother, Caterina. That interpretation was put forth by, among others, Sigmund Freud , who seemed to think that the Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile emerged from a—perhaps unconscious—memory of Caterina’s smile. A third suggestion was that the painting was, in fact, Leonardo’s self-portrait, given the resemblance between the sitter’s and the artist’s facial features. Some scholars suggested that disguising himself as a woman was the artist’s riddle. The sitter’s identity has not been definitively proven. Numerous attempts in the 21st century to settle the debate by seeking Lisa del Giocondo’s remains to test her DNA and recreate an image of her face were inconclusive.

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa about 1503, and it was in his studio when he died in 1519. He likely worked on it intermittently over several years, adding multiple layers of thin oil glazes at different times. Small cracks in the paint, called craquelure, appear throughout the whole piece, but they are finer on the hands, where the thinner glazes correspond to Leonardo’s late period.

French King Francis I , in whose court Leonardo spent the last years of his life, acquired the work after the artist’s death, and it became part of the royal collection. For centuries the portrait was secluded in French palaces, until insurgents claimed the royal collection as the property of the people during the French Revolution (1787–99). Following a period hanging in Napoleon ’s bedroom, the Mona Lisa was installed in the Louvre Museum at the turn of the 19th century.

In 1911 the painting was stolen, causing an immediate media sensation. People flocked to the Louvre to view the empty space where the painting had once hung, the museum’s director of paintings resigned, and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and artist Pablo Picasso were even arrested as suspects. Two years later an art dealer in Florence alerted local authorities that a man had tried to sell him the painting. Police found the portrait stashed in the false bottom of a trunk belonging to Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian immigrant who had briefly worked at the Louvre fitting glass on a selection of paintings, including the Mona Lisa . He and possibly two other workers had hidden in a closet overnight, taken the portrait from the wall the morning of August 21, 1911, and run off without suspicion . Peruggia was arrested, tried, and imprisoned, while the Mona Lisa took a tour of Italy before making its triumphant return to France.

During World War II the Mona Lisa , singled out as the most-endangered artwork in the Louvre, was evacuated to various locations in France’s countryside, returning to the museum in 1945 after peace had been declared. It later traveled to the United States in 1963, drawing about 40,000 people per day during its six-week stay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C . It also toured to Tokyo and Moscow in 1974.

Scholars have noted that the Mona Lisa is in fairly good condition for its age. The poplar panel shows some evidence of warping from resistance to its original frame and to braces added by early restorers. To prevent the widening of a small crack, visible near the centre of the upper edge of the painting, dovetails were added to the back of the painting. Restorers later pasted heavy canvas over the crack and replaced the top dovetail.

The glass protecting the Mona Lisa was replaced with a bulletproof case after several attacks in 1956, one of which damaged an area near the subject’s left elbow. The Mona Lisa thus escaped harm from acts of vandalism in 1974 during the work’s visit to Tokyo and in 2009 when a museumgoer threw a ceramic mug at it.

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Comparative Analysis of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Frida Kahlo's Self-Portrait

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The mona lisa by leonardo da vinci, frida kahlo’s self portrait dedicated to dr eloesser.

• Broude, N., & Garrard, M. (Eds.). (2012). Reclaiming female agency: Feminist art history after postmodernism. University of California Press.
• Herrera, H. (2002). Frida: A biography of Frida Kahlo. HarperCollins Publishers.
• Kemp, M. (2004). Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. Oxford University Press.
• Sassoon, D. (2018). Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting. HarperCollins.
• Solomon-Godeau, A. (1991). Frida Kahlo: Still a Woman. Art in America, 79(11), 108-115.

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Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa Painting Analysis

Mona lisa analysis: essay introduction, mona lisa painting analysis: description, mona lisa analysis: essay conclusion.

Name of the painting: Mona Lisa

Name of the artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Dates created: 1504-1506

Mona Lisa is one of the most prominent and recognizable paintings in the world and is considered the greatest masterpiece of its author, Leonardo da Vinci. Created in 1503, the painting has been discussed for centuries by artists, academics, medics, and the general public (Mehra & Campbell, 2018). A vast amount of the painting’s interpretations already exist, and some are still being proposed nowadays. However, this paper mostly aims to explore the central theme, subject, and message of the Mona Lisa .

Da Vinci’s masterpiece was written during the Renaissance, and thus, was strongly influenced by the ideas of that period. The philosophy of the Renaissance placed a human in the center of the world; that is why portraits were so popular with Italian masters of the 15 th and 16 th centuries. Leonardo was among the first artists to capture a person sitting in front of the fictional landscape. Even though Mona Lisa is reminiscent of Madonna, it is still clear that the painter tried to depict an ordinary person. For creating this painting, Leonardo used a technique called “sfumato.” This term refers to the technique of oil painting that allows achieving a soft transition from one color to another. The great combination of the woman and the landscape in Mona Lisa is due to this technique (Da Vinci, n.d.). Therefore, this work by Leonardo may be considered not as a classical portrait, and this is what makes it unique among other paintings of a similar genre.

Mona Lisa has an outstanding impact on various types of Western art, but there were some things that shaped Leonardo’s work as well. As it was already mentioned, the Renaissance period had a strong effect on Leonardo’s works. The painter portrayed a real woman who was not consistent with medieval Christian philosophy. Leonardo is also famous for creating paintings on religious themes, but Mona Lisa does not depict another Madonna. The painting shows a typical woman of Leonardo’s age which confirms his commitment to the humanistic vision of the world. Therefore, it is impossible to omit the influence of this woman on Leonardo’s painting. Most critics and researchers agree that Mona Lisa portrays an Italian woman Lisa Gherardini. She was the wife of a rich merchant who ordered her portrait from Leonardo. This happened soon after Lisa gave birth to a child (Kemp & Pallanti, 2017). This might partly explain why Leonardo depicted the woman smiling.

I have always appreciated Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, but after careful examination, I discovered a new meaning in it. Being aware of the story behind the painting helps to understand it better and makes it more interesting to observe. When you know which person is portrayed in the painting, it is possible to enter his or her life for some time and experience the feelings that he or she had. It is also essential to consider the social and philosophical contest in which the painting was written. It might be hard to realize the significance of the Mona Lisa for the history of art if you do not know that it was one of the first portraits that depicted a real person. Undoubtedly, one can enjoy a painting even if one is not aware of its background. However, once you have become familiar with the painting’s story, you may start to value the piece of art even more.

This paper did not attempt to discover or propose new interpretations of the Mona Lisa . I tried to focus on the main factors that influenced Leonardo’s masterpiece as well as study the most crucial features of the painting. Now that I have become aware of the fact that Leonardo was one of the first Renaissance masters to combine a regular person with the landscape, I can appreciate the painting not only from the artistic perspective but also from the historical.

Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa .

Kemp, M., & Pallanti, G. (2017). Mona Lisa: The people and the painting . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Mehra, M. R., & Campbell, H.R. (2018). The Mona Lisa decrypted: Allure of an Imperfect Reality. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 93 (9), 1325-1327.

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Mona Lisa: A Comparative Evaluation of the Different Versions and Their Copies

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The Mona Lisa Foundation

Multiple comparison study.

As mentioned, there are literally dozens of copies and variations of the Mona Lisa; some good, and some less so. It is simply neither practical nor possible to analyse each one in this publication, and make a fair comparison with either of the originals.

Some worth mentioning include copies in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the privately-owned copy known as the Vernon ‘Mona Lisa’, that was in the U.S.A.; a copy reputed in the collection of the Earl of Wemyss, in the U.K.; and another in Salzburg. Copies with a similar landscape to the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’, apart from the one in Oslo, are attributed to Joos van Cleve, Gabriel Ferrier, and others. Interesting copies are also in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich; the Luchner Collection, Innsbruck; and the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tours.

In addition, five other prominent paintings have been herewith selected for discussion, and are placed for comparison alongside the two originals.

The Reynolds ‘Mona Lisa’

Oslo ‘ Mona Lisa ‘

This painting is an almost exact copy of the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’, and it provides a window in to how certain sections of the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’, such as the far background landscape and the sky, could have looked.

While the near Tuscan background is almost identical, along with the low rolling hills in the distance, the open sky, the cluster of trees reflected in the blue water on the left reveals the probable intended landscape of the original. Furthermore, the conspicuous flanking columns in the Oslo painting are critical elements that could only have had their origin in the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’. Other main details of the composition: the shadows on the balcony ledge; the omission of the bridge on the right; the lighting on the neck, and more; all relate directly and solely to the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’.

The existence of this painting is another major element pointing to the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’ having been an original painted by Leonardo. After all, why would an artist copy a copy?

According to information provided by the museum, this painting was one of its first acquisitions. It was bought in 1837 in Copenhagen at the sale of the Conferensraad Frederick Bugge collection. Before that it had belonged to the Perrier collection (on the back of the canvas is noted: “ Collection de M. Perrier ”). It is thought that it came to Denmark via the Parisian dealer Suell shortly after 1800.

The signature: BERNdo LUINI MDXXV is false. Bernardino Luini was one of Leonardo’s most excellent students. The artist of this copy remains unknown, but the almost plastic waxiness in the appearance of the face displays none of Leonardo’s subtleties; and exudes little or none of the emotion or personality of the subject, a skill that Leonardo mastered. There have been suggestions that it was painted by the 17th Century Flemish-born Philippe de Champaigne, but that artist’s portraiture generally displays considerably more talent.

Flemish School ‘ Mona Lisa ‘

This 16th Century copy, ascribed to the Flemish School, is clearly based on the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’. The main clues lie in the composition of the landscape: the rocky outcrops in the right and left foreground; the low hills in the distance; and the two separate clumps of trees greatly resemble the earlier version. The background landscape of the Louvre version is completely different.

Walters Art Museum ‘ Mona Lisa ‘

Information provided by The Walters Art Museum has dated this painting to between 1630 and 1660. A recent X-ray has revealed that it was executed over a previous work depicting St. Veronica, and that there might be some connection with the 17th Century French artist Simon Vouet. Regardless, this copy of Mona Lisa is not likely to have been by Vouet.

There are traces of a frill edge at the top of the lady’s bodice; a detail that is effectively lost on both of the originals. Such a detail would be the last to be applied by the painter, and the first to be lost in restoration work. The main connection with the ‘ Earlier Mona Lisa ’ is the inclusion of the columns, but they are depicted without shadow. The shaft of light on her neck is also similar. However, the background, including the bridge, is entirely reminiscent of the Louvre ‘ Mona Lisa ’.

The Prado ‘ Mona Lisa ‘

[See: The ‘ Prado Mona Lisa’ ]

The Reynolds ‘ Mona Lisa ‘

The fame of this painting is derived from the fact that it was once owned by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the distinguished and prolific English portraitist. Reynolds had received the picture from the 5th Duke of Leeds, who was Foreign Secretary at the time. He valued the painting highly. Anecdotally, Reynolds asked the secretary of the French ‘ Academie Royale ’ whether the Louvre ‘ Mona Lisa ’ was still in the King’s cabinet: the answer that it was there “ but not esteemed or considered as the original ” (perhaps because of its poor condition at the time) must have encouraged Reynolds’s opinion that his painting was the original. After Reynolds’s death, the picture was acquired by Sir Abraham Hume, and eventually bequeathed to his grandson, John Hume Cust, son of the 1st Earl Brownlow. The painting was exhibited at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, with much publicity, in 2006.

Prior to that, in 2005, it had undergone some technical examinations. It was determined that the wood support, three horizontal boards, had come from two eastern Baltic oak-trees, felled after 1602. The painting largely originates as a direct copy of the Louvre ‘Mona Lisa’. The pillars are wider than in the Louvre version, and there is even a faint trace of shadow on the ledge near the left-hand base. The artist, though unknown, is considered to have been French.