Leonardo Da Vinci's The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci was accomplished in many areas -- mathematics, science, architecture, botany, etc., but what he is most known for is being a brilliant artist. As a young child, he received very little education, but his artistic talents, despite any formal training, were apparent very early on. This is what led him, at the age of fourteen, to begin an apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrocchio, a prominent artist at the time, in Florence. When he was twenty years old, da Vinci moved on from being merely an apprentice and established his own workshop. Da Vinci was keenly interested in the human body, and, thus, his paintings always centered on humanity and portraying man in many of his forms. His paintings of the human body have been noted …show more content…
This painting, as many know, is the Mona Lisa. It is a portrait of a captivating young woman named Lisa Gherardini. Her husband, Francesco Del Giocondo, had requested for da Vinci to paint his wife in celebration of both their new home and the birth of their second son. Interestingly enough, however, Giocondo never actually received the painting he had commissioned da Vinci to do; da Vinci was a rigorous when it came to his artwork, and he was always seeking perfection. When it came to the Mona Lisa, and accurately painting the enigmatic smile of the woman in the half-portrait, it would never be good enough. The Mona Lisa remained a work in progress for da Vinci all the way up until his …show more content…
The Mona Lisa truly is a mystery to me. I enjoy the fact that Leonardo didn’t completely finish the artwork; he was searching all his life for perfection that he could never attain, although he tried valiantly to. I believe that this correlates to the everyday world of humanity and life itself. It shows that everyone is searching and striving for perfection, but that it is never something that can truly be grasped. Humans make even the tiniest of mistakes, and it forever ruins them for perfection. Every single person has flaws that seem unable to be treated or fixed. This does not mean, however, that they are of any less value. Something imperfect can seem so close to perfection that it practically is, and maybe that’s what really counts. It seems to be just so in the case of the Mona Lisa.
Because of all the above reasons, the Mona Lisa seems that it will hold its title as one of the most well-known paintings ever. She has no eyebrows or eyelashes but she conveys mystery and adventure in her smile and eyes. Her arms do not look real but when someone examines the painting closely, they suddenly do. Her smile is not exactly a textbook definition of a smile, and yet many know it to be one of the most genuine ones ever. She was never fully