With the Mona Lisa, it was all about techniques than the picture itself. - The milky effect, soft edges etc. are signature to Da Vinci's style of painting that not many can recreate to this day. - Look at the pose. It's front facing and not stiff, unlike most of the Renaissance portraits at the time. - BACKGROUND. How many Renaissance portraits had such a vivid background? None. Da Vinci experimented with landscapes and perspective in color (the slowly vanishing colors) and that was breathtaking for a portrait commission of the time. ✔️points for creativity. - The painting also had illusions (with eye movements and also the smile which was soft to not show the true expression). Obviously, the stealing might add to the hype but the Mona Lisa was a revolutionary painting for Renaissance times.
You can't be serious with the background comment though. There are PLENTY of Renaissance paintings with extremly detailed backgrounds, to the point where my Art Professors at uni would talk about and analyze them twice as much as the actual focus of the painting. There are a lot of italian Renaissance painters that are specificly known for their elaborate backgrounds... (Sorry if the english is off by the way, i'm not a native speaker)
Thoran666 Totally agree. When I went to Paris, there was a whole, large room JUST for the Mona Lisa. It was super packed and crowded I had to literally push through the crowd to see her. When I got to the front, all I saw was a painting that would be in any museum in general, basically. Overall, it’s a good painting but it’s a tad overrated.
Reminds me of a dark fantasy book I read where the god of the dead punished his inmates by stealing their identity, leaving them to wander eternity with no faces & no voice. Book: Prince of Lies
When I saw it at the Louvre, I thought it was a great painting...but really it was more about the awe of being near the most famous painting in the world.
I disagree. Yes, the Mona Lisa is MORE famous than it would otherwise be without the publicity of being stolen. People want to bring down everything valued by society, but it's not just pure manufactured interest. Remember, tons of other paintings have received different opinions and glowing praise, but the Mona Lisa's fame stuck because it is a genuinely wonderful painting in its own right. Like I said in my other comment: The Mona Lisa is not the most impressively realistic painting, it's not the most powerful imagery, etc. But the simplicity and mystery in its concept is I think what makes it interesting even regardless of its history. It is only an image of one woman, nothing else, she has that subtle smile, and the strange background that is an eerily 'empty' foggy valley that looks like it could belong in the pages of some medieval legend. Furthermore, the lines are quite soft, with no major contrasting parts so it's very easy on the eyes. And your focus is drawn right to her face due to the use of light and darkness, and how her face looks at the viewer. These things combined give it a certain magical quality. It almost appears dream-like.
The point of the banana taped to the wall was a social commentary on the commodification of modern art, and how a value can be assigned to just about anything, regardless of quality, skill, or merit. There are parallels to be drawn between the banana and the hype behind the Mona Lisa...
You people are missing a major point of the video, which is that she provides a blank slate onto which professional critics and amateurs alike can write a bunch of flowery prose to make it look like art criticism is some kind of arcane discipline.
Buzzfeed is nowhere NEAR the level Vox is at. Every video at Vox is practically a documentary smooshed into a couple minutes. Every video at Buzzfeed is little more than memes and propaganda.
It's just another example of how meaning that we take as absolute because it's been the same our entire lives usually has mundane and arbitrary origins, typically not befitting the pedestal we've placed the thoughts on.
Michael Bush well... Da Vinci was considered a one of a kind genius already when he was alive and that one painting followed him all his life... He never considered it finished... It actually is a very special piece of art
lo zero reminds me of my trans self. So I'm buying the interpretation da vinci was essentially a trans woman drawing a portrait of herself since she couldn't modify her own body
That's a cool story but i'd replace the word overrated with overhyped. Media coverage indeed made the painting more famous than it needed to be. But it's a bloody damn great painting. And i know so not because i've read critics' explanations of light and shadow this and composition that but because i have my own eyes. This is undeniably a magnetic image. It simply has the exact recipe for drawing the spectator in and that recipe was masterfully executed. I am absolutely certain that anyone who gives a crap about art, visuals, or simply things that look good will agree that this painting is something else, even among leonardo's fantastic array of works. But it's definitely overhyped with people claiming there are sectet messages in there, often the painting is even said to be connected to the illuminati and whatnot. Basically there have been a ton of conspiracies around mona lisa for centuries which perpetuated the hype more and more. But there's no doubt the painting itself deserves all the praise it has received.
@@Hankblue Well a big part (maybe the biggest part) of art is the story and the history behind the piece. Yes modern artists can paint something similar but that wouldn't be interesting since it's been done for ages and the artist brings nothing new to the table.
But is that white canvas as famous as the Mona Lisa? Is it as iconic an image as the Mona Lisa? Is it on refrigerator magnets, mentioned in commercials, the subject of songs, articles, mentioned in the movies, TV shows etc.
You people are missing a major point of the video, which is that she provides a blank slate onto which professional critics and amateurs alike can write a bunch of flowery prose to make it look like art criticism is some kind of arcane discipline.
I mean, she was already a masterpiece, it wouldn't have been as big a deal if it wasn't a really good painting. It's just that most people don't really care that much about art, unless there's some sort of real-life drama mixed in.
+Ross Granick Bluntly put. Modern people or the general public don't see the artistic qualities. Except that her eyes follow you, no eyebrows, and creepy smile. That's Da Vinci's painting at work, his technique and ominous feeling he gave it. The time period it was painted the Renaissance=Rebirth of classical Greco-Roman art and the techniques he used to paint it makes it a masterpiece. People know about it widely in this time period because of the drama associated with it not for what it is, a painting by one of the masters in the Renaissance.
Ahhh...at 5:00, there's your answer. Kind of like some people don't become famous until after they're dead...After this painting was stolen, people started talking about her because they were forced to find what was so meaningful about it, and to highlight it...so she's not "famous for nothing", rather, she's famous for being the epitome of a critic's blank canvas. It's about finding your own meaning. And that's the mystery she brings- that just when you thought she couldn't be talked about more, here we are trying to get in on it and decipher more meaning for ourselves.
When I finally visited Louvre, I was shocked to see how small the most famous painting in the world actually was. lol A little after that I went to Hermitage in Leningrad (yes the city was still called that) and was shocked to see how HUGE Henri Matisse's "La Danse" was. I loved the latter experience much more
On a high school art trip to Europe when I was sixteen, I had a strong and unexpected reaction to seeing the Mona Lisa. Wondering lost through the Louvre, not speaking or reading French very well, with limited time to see that painting and everything else on my syllabus, after passing "Winged Victory" again for about the fifth time, I finally found my way into the correct gallery. As I scanned through the room, my eyes hit a crowd made up of the backs of people's heads. It appeared as if she was giving the throng her polite attention, like a bored but patient celebrity in a long receiving line. Someone moved out of the way and our eyes locked. I recognized her, but felt a sudden shock as it also seemed as if she recognized me and her beginning of a smile was in reaction to seeing me walk into the room. I remember shaking my head and thinking, "Oh, Lady! I've been looking every where for you." As I shouldered through the crowd to get closer, her eyes seemed to sparkle back with humor as if to say, "I've been waiting right here for you for over a century. Where have you been all this time?" Leonardo's genius is that he caught that instant; the moment when she spots you and lights up at the sight of you. Her attention seems personal and piercing, as if everyone else around her has just lost her attention and she is fighting the impulse to crack into a giant grin at the sight of your face. You can tell that she is done with the crowd and is ready to go off and have lunch or something with you and to have a nice catch up to see how you've been. It's like meeting a celebrity and finding out that they were a great admirer of yours and had been really looking forward to your meeting with anticipation. She gives the impression that seeing you is the highlight of her very long day. Like you've kept her waiting, but she just can't be mad at you, even though she knows she should be. I've never had a similar reaction to any other painting, certainly not to Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci, the only work of his in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Ginevra is just the opposite. She looks tired, pale, uncomfortable and ill. I can only guess that Leonardo really liked Mona Lisa and found her charming and just didn't like Genevra as much.
Photos of the painting only convey the image, not the experience. Definitely go if you ever get a chance. I'll have to content myself with Rembrandt's self- portrait in the National Gallery of Art. His eye follow me around the room but he doesn't look pleased to see me.
What I love about this painting is that it means to me something so different than the feeling you described, and yet I completely understand what you establish, about her look, about her face, about the crowd she's in front of. I had the chance to see it multiple time in my life since I live in France and going to Paris is not hard at all, and every time I saw her, it was in different and similar ways. She always has that look and smile, which basically means the same thing, and yet I interpreted her in different ways, depending on the conditions. Wether the room was crowded or nearly emtpy, wether I thought the painting would be bigger than what we described to me, or smaller than it was in my memory, wether I went to the Louvre just to see her, passing by, just to say her hello, or simply wandering in the museum and run into her by complete hazard, she looked at me like saying "Hey, I was waiting for you", or "It's been a long time. You grew up.", or "Don't worry about me, I'm not moving, go do much more important things." or "You changed a lot. It suits you well." I would love to see her again, now that my personnality is well defined, and that I realized art is more than an entertainment. Just to interpret her new reaction.
When you enter the hall of mona lisa on a calm day you are greeted by a plain looking wall. On this wall you see a big bulletproof casket with a rather small painting inside. It's a special moment but after all you've seen it a thousand times already online. after a few seconds of taking in the moment, you turn around. then you are greeted by large masterpieces filled with detail and meaning. beautiful pieces of art, yet only covered by a red lint.
Absence makes the 'Art' grow fonder - in people's imagination of what they're missing out on, and then they get to see it, echo the proclamation of its press writers. Funny how our perception of art is often dependent on 'experts' view on what is beautiful and refine about it.
Personally I'm fine with this kind of experimentation, "What is art, really?" is a valid artistic and philosophical question worth addressing creatively, and in this case, paradoxically... sometimes... making something that doesn't seem creative is the most creative way to ask the question; but I wonder when modern artists decided that "What is art, really?" was the *only* valid question an artist could pose to be taken seriously. It feels like narcissistic navel gazing.
Finally. An explanation that makes sense to me. Mona Lisa is one of least interesting paintings I have ever bothered to see, yet people keep talking about how she smiles, how beautiful she is (huh?) and how brilliant the triangles on the background are. The triangles on the background!
NighteeeeeY I'm just saying it has no visual appeal, has nothing to do with the "artistic meaning" (while you curl your mustache giving me a condescending look through your monocle). What is so great about a painting with an emotionless face, that is practically what my face is the majority of the day or in any of my photos, it isn't special in any way.
the Whole point of the painting style Da vinci used was that the soft edges of the eyes and mouth make it difficult to pin down exactly what expression she is giving the viewer. This is why different people, or even the same person at different times see different expressions on her face. This video is correct that the painting is a 'blank slate' but not in the way that the creator of this video means, her expression is the blank slate. It isn't overrated, Da vinci was the first to use this style of painting, and today we use makeup and airbrushing in photoshop to achieve the same effect on real life models. What does that tell you?
insertcleverphrasehere so what if we can't pin down her expression, no offense to Da Vinci because I think he has some amazing work but Mona Lisa is not that great, I'm not saying in terms of quality because it is very well done.
Yeah I'm not going to take a straight on picture? It won't be better than any other photo of it. But there will only me one photo of me with the Mona Lisa.
Rather than photo the painting itself, when I saw the Mona Lisa I decided to make a video showing all the many people crowding around the painting...all taking selfies!
I go to the Louvre every holidays (and I'm French so I have a lot of holidays), I sometimes happens to be in the Mona Lisa room... To see the Wedding of Cana.
When I visited the Louvre at the age of ten, there were a bunch of paintings better than the Mona Lisa like the one ahead of it. All just stared at the Mona Lisa. Why? I still wonder..
I remember when I went to Paris and visited the louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, and a bunch of people were talking pictures and it was like you saw it and that was it, interestingly now though the louvre doesn't pay insurance on the painting, they just pay millions of dollars on hand on guards which was actually cheaper than the insurance lol
One of the most interesting things about seeing the Mona Lisa in real life was all the people just... not seeing it. There was a half-hour line for getting close to the mona Lisa, and everyone in line was looking at their phone. When they did actually get close to the painting they took 5 seconds to take a picture with it (backs turned towards the painting) and left without even looking at it. It's a shame, because although it might be overrated, I loved taking the time to actually look at it and seeing all the skills that went into it.
When I saw the painting at the Louvre, I had the strangest impression: one moment she was smiling, one moment she wasn't. This happened over and over again. That's when I realized the appeal of the painting and of the "mysterious smile".
a lot of what was said in this video isn't true. its very clear people don't understand art history and the innovation the Mona Lisa had in the time of the renaissance, driving art to what it is today. its mostly history that makes it famous, and the creation of new techniques (atmospheric perspective, three quarter view, her hands, etc.) that Leonardo davinci created. I'd recommend to learn just a tad bit of art history before criticizing such art (not the video but the comment section). that doesn't mean its the best in the world, but without it art wouldn't be the same
basically what you said is exactly what the video explained, people who were into art around that time understood the big deal with the mona lisa, like you, and what you said, but people who never got into art or painting never understood what was all about until it get robbed. That´s why it is overrrated because people who know art and people who don´t know what the mona is all about, a mix of pure art and mysticism.
The Mona Lisa is not the most impressively realistic painting, it's not the most powerful imagery, etc. But the simplicity and mystery in its concept is I think what makes it interesting even regardless of its history. It is only an image of one woman, nothing else, she has that subtle smile, and the strange background that is an eerily 'empty' foggy valley that looks like it could belong in the pages of some medieval legend. Furthermore, the lines are quite soft, with no major contrasting parts so it's very easy on the eyes. And your focus is drawn right to her face due to the use of light and darkness, and how her face looks at the viewer. These things combined give it a certain magical quality. It almost appears dream-like.
High production quality, engaging presentation and quality content: this channel is quickly becoming one of my favourites! Great work and really interesting video!
Tbh Mona Lisa is amazing, if you look at it from any angle it always looks like she’s loooking at you. It has so many techniques that were ahead of its time. It’s also widely iconic. It’s not just some realistic eye drawings, it’s something that has a lot of amazing techniques
She actually had very fair and thin eyebrows but years of the painting itself decaying make it impossible to see them anymore. Look up Mona Lisa original and you can see what it looked like before it was aged by air, light, and other factors. There have been scans done on the painting (very carefully) in order to know exactly what the original colors were and what was missing from our sight.
One time when I was a High School freshman, I drew The Mona Lisa with Jar Jar Binks’s face as a project in Art Class and I called it The Mona Meesa and I showed it to my friends and they thought it was hilarious! 😂😂😂😂
I understand nothing about art, I'll admit it, but when I went to the Louvre, having zero expectations about liking the Mona Lisa, I was actually extremely captivated by it. I've felt hypnotized and in owe. There were many people around it and the painting is small, but to this days I'm still so happy I've seen it 'cause I had a glimpse of Leonardo Da Vinci genius. Therefore I can't say that it's "overrated"
Yeah, in the painting she used to have a big turban too. And one eye used to google. And a tooth was gone. And she used to have huge man hands. That was the awesome version!
The beauty comes from the genius-level consideration that was put into making the artwork. Just imagine one thing you love about the human face but then imagine that and a hundred other things you love about the human face all put together in a work of art, that's exactly what an artists like Leonardo do.
I am an artist and I see a lot of things behind the painting, dont take it letterally. Try to see and understand how and why the artist did this and did that in the painting, every tiny details has different meaning. If you can not appreciate art how can you appreciate life?life is beautiful and so is art, art comes in many forms, we ourselves are a masterpiece created by God.
That Mona Lisa picture serves a very important and noble purpose in the art world, that is, it frees all the space around the much better paintings in the same gallery where it hangs at the Louvre, like the magnificent Veronese, and the amazing Tizianos.
Honestly, it's actually an amazing painting but because it's such a common pop culture icon it's desensitised our appreciation for it that it's now just an icon and not really a painting anymore
She never smiled mate. The right side of her mouth looked almost exactly the same as the left side. Tis why teh painting is/was so enigmatic, nobody knew if she was smiling or not? Mandela or what. lol
I don't know when we were there I was underwhelmed, it's a small bland painting and on the other side of the room is a very large painting with a lot of stuff on it wich was much better...
Mona Lisa is very fascinating and I think that's because of the way it has had all the world's attention despitebeing so simple compared to the rest of his work. It's in a way iconic and because of the story behind it and its fame, it has a certain feel to it, I think it'll forever be remembered as the one painting that everyone knows. And I think that it's very commandable that it has kept everyone's attention for so long because other better paintings weren't able to. .
The Mona Lisa first became famous in the very early 1500s. It was the most realistic head anybody had ever seen. Until Leonardo, the Florentines painted in a linear manner, essentially filling in the colour between the outlines, rather like a colouring book with a little form modelling. Leonardo softened all the edges and created the illusion of 3-dimensional form and atmosphere. Her smile, by the way, is a pun on her name. Leonardo loved puns and used them in several of his paintings. Mona Lisa's name was Lisa Gioconda, and giocando, in Italian, means playful or happy; hence the famous smile. However, this video is absolutely correct about the way that the painting was brought into the layperson's life from the 20th century onwards. Bravo!!
La Gioconda (the Mona Lisa) is famous for the "wrong" reasons these days. In its day, it was a breakthrough in realism. The Italian painters all painted between carefully drawn outlines during the Early Renaissance, but Leonardo was able to introduce the illusions of atmosphere and of three-dimensions by softening all the edges to differing degrees. Most Italians of the late 1400s and early 1500s had never seen an image that looked so very realistic. Leonardo's soft-focus technique is now known as sfumato.
When you see that STAMP in the Louvre for the first time, in the midst of so many other amazing (and GIANT) paintings, surrounded by fans - just because -, you start to wonder. For me, it‘s 15 years, now. ...nice video. :-) Thank you.
This might sound weird, but I notice that some RUclips videos with more simple thumbnails tend to get more views. Maybe that's a human thing. The Mona Lisa is considered great because of its simplicity.
I have to say, this video is very very VERY partially true. First of all the Mona Lisa was already WELL known and reckognized before the heist (people such as Victor Hugo, Napoleon, Charles Baudelaire praised its beauty). The reason why nobody seemed to notice its disappearance was most likely due to the fact that the Louvre was undergoing inventory and that at first people just assumed it was removed from exposition for that specific reason. Also the fact that photography of arts was contemporary to its disappearance factored in its booming popularity. To be perfectly honest you should have mentioned at least part of what makes Mona Lisa as a great painting art wise. It was ground breaking in many aspects of both technics AND trends of reprensentation and portraits. Da Vinci spent decades perfecting this painting. All the work of his life in paintings, optic, geology, anatomy were poured into that painting. It's simply unfair to call it " overrated ". The video of Great Art explained gives good info on all those specifics technics and aspects of the painting which makes it one of the greastest in history. I love your videos Vox but this one in particular seems very inaccurate at worst and very partial at best :)
didn't davinci just like, take 10 years to make it, and then didn't even finish it? I'm pretty sure he didn't spend every single day painting on it, he probably just kinda came back to it every now and then and made a small change and then forgot about it. the geology in the background is interesting, the anatomy is alright, the rest of the painting is just the simply mark of a master doing his best for a commission, that he didn't even finish in the first place. and yeah, the mona lisa was famous among rich bougie types, and in the art world she was known about as a pretty painting that was well made, but to your average person, it just wasn't something you *knew* much about. if you did hear about it, it was just a good painting. and that's all the mona lisa is. just a well done piece of art. that's not really bad by any means, it's just... typical, and tbh leonardo's other pieces are prettier, have better anatomy, and are.. actually *finished* lol
At any given time during the Louvre's operating hours, there gathers a crowd of about 50-60 people that surround the painting that is walled off by posts and ropes and has a large glass cover around it. It took me 10-15 minutes to get the end of the crowd and once I feared my eyes on all her glory I saw only a small painting by a man who was more an accomplished inventor than he was a great painter.
painted at age 64, almost entirely left handed after a suffered stroke and upon returning to France... things that make you go hmmm. Why so admired? L. was aannnomaly at Earth, very special. Maybe we get another someday! :) Thanks for inventing scissors L!
It just had certain vibe. Like when you see the Eiffel Tower in person. It’s just amazing. And apparently a white painting is better than the Mona Lisa here lol.
It might be a little overrated yes, but that painting means a lot. It shows some techniques that were new for that time, some of these created by Da Vinci himself. Like "sfumato leonardesco" ( sorry I have no idea how it's called in English), which was a brand new technique for blurring and creating shadows, also to make the main character stand out (that wasn't common in art till that moment). Plus, this painting shows perfectly what was considered the new purpose of art: to capture a moment and stop it forever. There's no iconography, no Mary with baby, but a real person watching you forever. Mona Lisa might not be outstanding nowadays, it's just a small painting similar to many others from those years, right? But if you think about it, those other paintings wouldn't be there without Mona Lisa.
I don't go to museums often, but when I do, I save the "famous" stuff for last. Like when I was in Washington DC in 2017, everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing about that really fancy diamond at the Smithsonian. I glanced at it, thought it was interesting for about 1/2 a second, and proceeded to be amazed by a millennium-old slab of copper ore in the opposite corner of the room.
Neither is trash, but they ARE pretty overrated. I appreciate the Mona Lisa for its composition, the many details that make it historically relevant (without taking its fame into account), and DaVinci's skill. However, it's not magical, it's not the best painting ever made, and it was never a beauty out of this world.
Pomponivs Archibald What's interesting is that Mona Lisa doesn't even look like what its supposed. Its paint has faded over the centuries. Da Vinci would be shocked if he saw what his painting looks like now and he wouldn't consider it beautiful at all.
***** The narrator didn't call the Mona Lisa "bad", and yet you call it trash and the commenters "ignorant swine". I'm interested in hearing your opinion on the Mona Lisa.
Fun fact: after the theft of the Mona Lisa, a popular joke in France went, "I'm going o the Louvre. Can I pick up something for you?"
Yeah, can you get some milk?
Also toothpaste
@@laurahamilton9652 What about Milkpaste?
How the f is that a joke
Don't forget the Mona lisa
I'm offended.
Hahahahahahahahahaha
This is awesome 🤣🤣
I'm dead 😂😂
I love you
Sorry, Leo. The Lady with an Ermine is far better.
But you yourself thought it was just ok
With the Mona Lisa, it was all about techniques than the picture itself.
- The milky effect, soft edges etc. are signature to Da Vinci's style of painting that not many can recreate to this day.
- Look at the pose. It's front facing and not stiff, unlike most of the Renaissance portraits at the time.
- BACKGROUND. How many Renaissance portraits had such a vivid background? None. Da Vinci experimented with landscapes and perspective in color (the slowly vanishing colors) and that was breathtaking for a portrait commission of the time. ✔️points for creativity.
- The painting also had illusions (with eye movements and also the smile which was soft to not show the true expression).
Obviously, the stealing might add to the hype but the Mona Lisa was a revolutionary painting for Renaissance times.
I scrolled for this🤗
Thank you. Was trying to articulate forgotten information from my European art paper to answer to the Kim Kardashian comment. Top one on this video:(
Nana and da Vinci said he never actually finished her so yeah technically Mona Lisa is a work in progress to never be finished
You speak as if these artists were primitive.
You can't be serious with the background comment though. There are PLENTY of Renaissance paintings with extremly detailed backgrounds, to the point where my Art Professors at uni would talk about and analyze them twice as much as the actual focus of the painting. There are a lot of italian Renaissance painters that are specificly known for their elaborate backgrounds...
(Sorry if the english is off by the way, i'm not a native speaker)
I saw the painting IRL and was disappointed. Very small, rather boring compared to the rest.
I had the same reaction when seeing the Persistence of Memory by Dalí for the first time... Soooo small!
*when you see ur mans pp in real life* -
Thoran666 that’s what she said
Thoran666 Totally agree. When I went to Paris, there was a whole, large room JUST for the Mona Lisa. It was super packed and crowded I had to literally push through the crowd to see her. When I got to the front, all I saw was a painting that would be in any museum in general, basically. Overall, it’s a good painting but it’s a tad overrated.
I’ve never seen it. I had wanted to but idk now
I remember, when I was little, I was so scared of the Mona Lisa. Now when I look back at that, I feel so stupid.
I was too! I wonder why?!
She is scary, that's why!
Sameee
She's creepy.
Same
That blank face at the end was so unsettling for some reason.
Reminds me of a dark fantasy book I read where the god of the dead punished his inmates by stealing their identity, leaving them to wander eternity with no faces & no voice.
Book: Prince of Lies
When I saw it at the Louvre, I thought it was a great painting...but really it was more about the awe of being near the most famous painting in the world.
Mona LIsa is the Kim Kardashian of the art world. Famous because she's famous.
Lol
Excuse me what about Kim Kardashian dad? He created Kim
Wrong Ray J made her famous
I disagree. Yes, the Mona Lisa is MORE famous than it would otherwise be without the publicity of being stolen. People want to bring down everything valued by society, but it's not just pure manufactured interest. Remember, tons of other paintings have received different opinions and glowing praise, but the Mona Lisa's fame stuck because it is a genuinely wonderful painting in its own right.
Like I said in my other comment:
The Mona Lisa is not the most impressively realistic painting, it's not the most powerful imagery, etc.
But the simplicity and mystery in its concept is I think what makes it interesting even regardless of its history. It is only an image of one woman, nothing else, she has that subtle smile, and the strange background that is an eerily 'empty' foggy valley that looks like it could belong in the pages of some medieval legend. Furthermore, the lines are quite soft, with no major contrasting parts so it's very easy on the eyes. And your focus is drawn right to her face due to the use of light and darkness, and how her face looks at the viewer.
These things combined give it a certain magical quality. It almost appears dream-like.
no no, she is more like smells like teen spirit
i used to believe as a kid that the reason why Mona Lisa is popular is because she had no eyebrow 👁👄👁
BAHHAHAHHAGA THAT'S AMAZING
same here !!!!!!!
I just realised wth😳
Same
They have been removed in past harsh restorations. She originally had eyebrows
The Mona Lisa is still, nevertheless, a thousand times better than bananas literally hung at art galleries these days.
"No no, he's got a point."
Taped.
Wait that exist?
Amen
The point of the banana taped to the wall was a social commentary on the commodification of modern art, and how a value can be assigned to just about anything, regardless of quality, skill, or merit. There are parallels to be drawn between the banana and the hype behind the Mona Lisa...
*begin video*
"It was stolen"
*end video*
that doesnt explain why people cared it was stolen though.
+Ken M Why do stupid things go viral? It's the oddity of human nature.
You people are missing a major point of the video, which is that she provides a blank slate onto which professional critics and amateurs alike can write a bunch of flowery prose to make it look like art criticism is some kind of arcane discipline.
Mitch Johnson how smart do you think you are?
Tom I wish videos would start with that, then be the actual video
So, is the Mona Lisa the first art meme?
yes very
If not the first, certainly among the most successful and long-lived.
Exactly what I thought. Kinda how the Harambe memes started, --but he isn't coming back for the big reveal.
Google "giant snails and knights"
Memes have been around forever!
I love Vox's informative and intriguing videos. Buzzfeed is just garbage
How dare you try to compare buzzfeed to vox!
Vox is a smarter buzzfeed
Buzzfeed is nowhere NEAR the level Vox is at. Every video at Vox is practically a documentary smooshed into a couple minutes. Every video at Buzzfeed is little more than memes and propaganda.
@Mrjoelucaj CNN isn't liberal, it's corporate
+MrJoeLucaj Maybe, but there isn't really any political agenda in this video, so does it matter here?
It's just another example of how meaning that we take as absolute because it's been the same our entire lives usually has mundane and arbitrary origins, typically not befitting the pedestal we've placed the thoughts on.
why existentialism is accurate. +Dee Wye also if it's existed for several generations it merely means the meanings bubble hasn't been popped.
Michael Bush well... Da Vinci was considered a one of a kind genius already when he was alive and that one painting followed him all his life... He never considered it finished...
It actually is a very special piece of art
lo zero reminds me of my trans self. So I'm buying the interpretation da vinci was essentially a trans woman drawing a portrait of herself since she couldn't modify her own body
For some reason when I read this comment, I thought of Christianity. But this is true of all religions.
Mecca was underwhelming I found out in 2005
That's a cool story but i'd replace the word overrated with overhyped. Media coverage indeed made the painting more famous than it needed to be. But it's a bloody damn great painting. And i know so not because i've read critics' explanations of light and shadow this and composition that but because i have my own eyes. This is undeniably a magnetic image. It simply has the exact recipe for drawing the spectator in and that recipe was masterfully executed. I am absolutely certain that anyone who gives a crap about art, visuals, or simply things that look good will agree that this painting is something else, even among leonardo's fantastic array of works.
But it's definitely overhyped with people claiming there are sectet messages in there, often the painting is even said to be connected to the illuminati and whatnot. Basically there have been a ton of conspiracies around mona lisa for centuries which perpetuated the hype more and more.
But there's no doubt the painting itself deserves all the praise it has received.
I disagree, if a modern artist today painted plain-looking-woman-stares-musefully-at-you it would likely get no special attention.
i agree, there are so many paintings that are overlooked
@@Hankblue That’s because it’s been done for ages now. The Mona Lisa was a one of a kind revolutionary piece at the time.
@@HAL.9000 Yes, but it's not anymore. Which begs the question why it still has such a massive viewership..
@@Hankblue Well a big part (maybe the biggest part) of art is the story and the history behind the piece. Yes modern artists can paint something similar but that wouldn't be interesting since it's been done for ages and the artist brings nothing new to the table.
Did you know that x-ray technology has revealed there are 3 other versions of the Mona Lisa painted underneath.
Never knew that!
Source?
Da Vinci
3 years, 3 months & 3 days.
Or just like my dad did
He dont like his old painting so he make another one above it
How life became overrated.
How the show "Seinfeld" became overrated.
How Kappa became overrated.
AAA How Smash Bros became overrated
because oppression.
How feminism became overrated.
shows you that art is subjective and just a popular game. JUST LIKE RUclips CHANNELS.
Why are you everywhere, love ur animations btw
lol you think you can comment something "balanced" to make it seem like it's not you who's replying to himself.
+TheTrippleTKA what u meen?
dariomasi9 "why are you everywhere." "oh and I LOVE your animations btw" -- stop replying to yourself
***** im not Dariomasi9 that is someone who legit enjoys my animations.
The fact that y’all are discrediting the genius of Da Vinci just bc his painting is famous is so absurd
Her cleavage is done wrong. Even Mikey himself couldn't draw an actual woman's figure correctly.
Not really i like his many other work but monalisa is kinda normal to me not a masterpiece but good one noetheless
Looking at art is whatever it’s just like a picture
Jack Wyatt wow. Very profound....
He's dead anyways.
So the Mona Lisa can be considered overrated but an entirely white canvas isn't? Okay then
I think it's more just "Why did THIS painting become so famous when he painted so mant others?" As opposed to "Its not that good"
It is though to anyone not pretentious
I mean shes not that special, and there may actually be two of them. I find van Gogh's work much more interesting.
*I think for White canvas we have to invent new word because overrated is underrated for that*
But is that white canvas as famous as the Mona Lisa? Is it as iconic an image as the Mona Lisa? Is it on refrigerator magnets, mentioned in commercials, the subject of songs, articles, mentioned in the movies, TV shows etc.
I can't stop daydreaming of the Mona Lisa slowly dissolving in a bathtub full of paint thinner.
you monster!
Not all heroes wear capes
Are you Mr Bean?
nice try but the thinner wont do anything
Really??
One of the only channel on yt that keep quality>quantity
You should watch primitive technology
+Phil is a sexy beast You should watch Behind The Screenplay
+Jeremy Newcombe Lessons from the Screenplay*
Jeremy Newcombe I don't like him
CGP Grey
So basically it's because she went missing
You people are missing a major point of the video, which is that she provides a blank slate onto which professional critics and amateurs alike can write a bunch of flowery prose to make it look like art criticism is some kind of arcane discipline.
I mean, she was already a masterpiece, it wouldn't have been as big a deal if it wasn't a really good painting. It's just that most people don't really care that much about art, unless there's some sort of real-life drama mixed in.
+Ross Granick Bluntly put. Modern people or the general public don't see the artistic qualities. Except that her eyes follow you, no eyebrows, and creepy smile. That's Da Vinci's painting at work, his technique and ominous feeling he gave it. The time period it was painted the Renaissance=Rebirth of classical Greco-Roman art and the techniques he used to paint it makes it a masterpiece. People know about it widely in this time period because of the drama associated with it not for what it is, a painting by one of the masters in the Renaissance.
Ahhh...at 5:00, there's your answer. Kind of like some people don't become famous until after they're dead...After this painting was stolen, people started talking about her because they were forced to find what was so meaningful about it, and to highlight it...so she's not "famous for nothing", rather, she's famous for being the epitome of a critic's blank canvas. It's about finding your own meaning. And that's the mystery she brings- that just when you thought she couldn't be talked about more, here we are trying to get in on it and decipher more meaning for ourselves.
Forgotmyusername come to kardashian club
“Yoshikage Kira has entered the chat.”
i went to the comments searching for this
When I finally visited Louvre, I was shocked to see how small the most famous painting in the world actually was. lol
A little after that I went to Hermitage in Leningrad (yes the city was still called that) and was shocked to see how HUGE Henri Matisse's "La Danse" was. I loved the latter experience much more
On a high school art trip to Europe when I was sixteen, I had a strong and unexpected reaction to seeing the Mona Lisa. Wondering lost through the Louvre, not speaking or reading French very well, with limited time to see that painting and everything else on my syllabus, after passing "Winged Victory" again for about the fifth time, I finally found my way into the correct gallery. As I scanned through the room, my eyes hit a crowd made up of the backs of people's heads. It appeared as if she was giving the throng her polite attention, like a bored but patient celebrity in a long receiving line. Someone moved out of the way and our eyes locked. I recognized her, but felt a sudden shock as it also seemed as if she recognized me and her beginning of a smile was in reaction to seeing me walk into the room. I remember shaking my head and thinking, "Oh, Lady! I've been looking every where for you." As I shouldered through the crowd to get closer, her eyes seemed to sparkle back with humor as if to say, "I've been waiting right here for you for over a century. Where have you been all this time?"
Leonardo's genius is that he caught that instant; the moment when she spots you and lights up at the sight of you. Her attention seems personal and piercing, as if everyone else around her has just lost her attention and she is fighting the impulse to crack into a giant grin at the sight of your face. You can tell that she is done with the crowd and is ready to go off and have lunch or something with you and to have a nice catch up to see how you've been. It's like meeting a celebrity and finding out that they were a great admirer of yours and had been really looking forward to your meeting with anticipation. She gives the impression that seeing you is the highlight of her very long day. Like you've kept her waiting, but she just can't be mad at you, even though she knows she should be.
I've never had a similar reaction to any other painting, certainly not to Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci, the only work of his in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Ginevra is just the opposite. She looks tired, pale, uncomfortable and ill. I can only guess that Leonardo really liked Mona Lisa and found her charming and just didn't like Genevra as much.
Wow! Your comment really makes me want to see the painting in real life. You make her sound so magical! :D
Photos of the painting only convey the image, not the experience. Definitely go if you ever get a chance. I'll have to content myself with Rembrandt's self- portrait in the National Gallery of Art. His eye follow me around the room but he doesn't look pleased to see me.
What I love about this painting is that it means to me something so different than the feeling you described, and yet I completely understand what you establish, about her look, about her face, about the crowd she's in front of.
I had the chance to see it multiple time in my life since I live in France and going to Paris is not hard at all, and every time I saw her, it was in different and similar ways. She always has that look and smile, which basically means the same thing, and yet I interpreted her in different ways, depending on the conditions. Wether the room was crowded or nearly emtpy, wether I thought the painting would be bigger than what we described to me, or smaller than it was in my memory, wether I went to the Louvre just to see her, passing by, just to say her hello, or simply wandering in the museum and run into her by complete hazard, she looked at me like saying "Hey, I was waiting for you", or "It's been a long time. You grew up.", or "Don't worry about me, I'm not moving, go do much more important things." or "You changed a lot. It suits you well."
I would love to see her again, now that my personnality is well defined, and that I realized art is more than an entertainment. Just to interpret her new reaction.
Tessa T I love your imagination. Not everybody has the power to see certain things and interpret them in these ways. well im happy that you do. :')
Tessa T Love your comment♥
When you enter the hall of mona lisa on a calm day you are greeted by a plain looking wall. On this wall you see a big bulletproof casket with a rather small painting inside. It's a special moment but after all you've seen it a thousand times already online.
after a few seconds of taking in the moment, you turn around.
then you are greeted by large masterpieces filled with detail and meaning. beautiful pieces of art, yet only covered by a red lint.
yes! i was underwhelmed by mona but blown away by that painting
80%?! whoa!!
u watch vox??!?!?!?!?!?!?!
HaliTheGreat yes
Anime Balls Deep coo bra
Balls deep what you doing here😂😂😂so your more of a history guy huh.
And the other 20% is i have too much time and i like paintings so why not go there
Absence makes the 'Art' grow fonder - in people's imagination of what they're missing out on, and then they get to see it, echo the proclamation of its press writers.
Funny how our perception of art is often dependent on 'experts' view on what is beautiful and refine about it.
A little correction: The Sistine Madonna never was displayed in the Louvre, but was and is a part of Dresden's Old Masters Gallery.
Was looking for this.. apparently every painting in the world is actually in the Louvre.
It's incredible how many people don't realize or notice that the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
i noticed it before you said
Neither has Vermeer's Girl with a pearl earring
I never noticed
Brian Johnson ive noticed that
Brian Johnson she does have eyebrows
Atleast Mona Lisa is actual art. Overrated are those which they call 'modern art' and herald blank papers as *masterpieces*.
TheFourthWinchester the fountain that thing is just bullshit
The fact that you talk about "actual art" means you don't understand art.
Well whilst I do agree with you about understanding you also have to consider the complexity involved in the creation of it .
Personally I'm fine with this kind of experimentation, "What is art, really?" is a valid artistic and philosophical question worth addressing creatively, and in this case, paradoxically... sometimes... making something that doesn't seem creative is the most creative way to ask the question; but I wonder when modern artists decided that "What is art, really?" was the *only* valid question an artist could pose to be taken seriously. It feels like narcissistic navel gazing.
so you mean to you only realism is 'actual art'?
Finally. An explanation that makes sense to me. Mona Lisa is one of least interesting paintings I have ever bothered to see, yet people keep talking about how she smiles, how beautiful she is (huh?) and how brilliant the triangles on the background are. The triangles on the background!
Ikr
Plot twist:
Yoshikage Kira was the one who actually stole the Mona Lisa.
*chew*
Over there
nah he never went outside Morioh, let alone France
The Mona Lisa is very well painted, but it isn't visually interesting or "creative" or unique
Mona Lisa is good because of Leo not because of Mona, Right?
sir, you have no savvy about art and the meaning of the mona lisa.
NighteeeeeY I'm just saying it has no visual appeal, has nothing to do with the "artistic meaning" (while you curl your mustache giving me a condescending look through your monocle). What is so great about a painting with an emotionless face, that is practically what my face is the majority of the day or in any of my photos, it isn't special in any way.
the Whole point of the painting style Da vinci used was that the soft edges of the eyes and mouth make it difficult to pin down exactly what expression she is giving the viewer. This is why different people, or even the same person at different times see different expressions on her face. This video is correct that the painting is a 'blank slate' but not in the way that the creator of this video means, her expression is the blank slate.
It isn't overrated, Da vinci was the first to use this style of painting, and today we use makeup and airbrushing in photoshop to achieve the same effect on real life models. What does that tell you?
insertcleverphrasehere so what if we can't pin down her expression, no offense to Da Vinci because I think he has some amazing work but Mona Lisa is not that great, I'm not saying in terms of quality because it is very well done.
Funnily enough, I was just wondering this exact question yesterday. Thanks Vox!
Well, even if 100K people watch it.
it's probable that someone might have just thought of the same thing that day.
SAME LOL
I googled it a few years back haha "why is the Mona Lisa so famous?"
It's 'funnily enough'.
Guy edited it. So before you tell Typo (Nice name by the way) that "That's what the guy said.", it's edited.
When you visit her in the louvre every chick is trying to take selfies with it.
Karl Fernandez-Cao lol
Yeah I'm not going to take a straight on picture? It won't be better than any other photo of it. But there will only me one photo of me with the Mona Lisa.
My girlfriend didn't even want to see it, choosing instead to focus on the other beautiful paintings there.
So true
Rather than photo the painting itself, when I saw the Mona Lisa I decided to make a video showing all the many people crowding around the painting...all taking selfies!
2:08 HONESTLY HAVING YOUR HOMETOWN REFERENCED IN A RANDOM VIDEO ABOUT MONA LISA BEING A MEME IS THE MOST SURREAL AND TERRIFYING SENTENCE OF ALL TIME
Quite frankly, Mona Lisa is rather ordinary. In the time period that she lived, it was very popular to pluck off eyebrows and pull out your eyelashes.
I saw her in person and I was not impressed. Sadly, I found the paintings surrounding the area more interesting.
Kael M very true
Kay M and all the people crowded like animals to take selfies with it makes it worse
Me too!
I go to the Louvre every holidays (and I'm French so I have a lot of holidays), I sometimes happens to be in the Mona Lisa room... To see the Wedding of Cana.
Why "sadly"? The paintings in the area are soooo gorgeous and poetic
I actually painted the Mona Lisa.
***** You were dead in 1956 you silly billy.
Stalin got burned.
You made this? I made this.
Victor Alpert A swastika would be black, red and white actually.
Good Job!
People wrote fanfiction of her absence? Woah fanfics are lurking in the society centuries ago
*when i looked at that picture.. how do i say this, this may sound crude.. but..*
she actually is fine..
When I visited the Louvre at the age of ten, there were a bunch of paintings better than the Mona Lisa like the one ahead of it. All just stared at the Mona Lisa.
Why? I still wonder..
Last time I came this early, I got laughed at.
Hahahahahaha
you're not early but on time
I don't understand where "must of" comes from...
because must've sounds like must of
Precisely.
I remember when I went to Paris and visited the louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, and a bunch of people were talking pictures and it was like you saw it and that was it, interestingly now though the louvre doesn't pay insurance on the painting, they just pay millions of dollars on hand on guards which was actually cheaper than the insurance lol
"... there's one more ermine."
now THAT'S my kind of art critic
One of the most interesting things about seeing the Mona Lisa in real life was all the people just... not seeing it. There was a half-hour line for getting close to the mona Lisa, and everyone in line was looking at their phone. When they did actually get close to the painting they took 5 seconds to take a picture with it (backs turned towards the painting) and left without even looking at it. It's a shame, because although it might be overrated, I loved taking the time to actually look at it and seeing all the skills that went into it.
When I saw the painting at the Louvre, I had the strangest impression: one moment she was smiling, one moment she wasn't. This happened over and over again. That's when I realized the appeal of the painting and of the "mysterious smile".
a lot of what was said in this video isn't true. its very clear people don't understand art history and the innovation the Mona Lisa had in the time of the renaissance, driving art to what it is today. its mostly history that makes it famous, and the creation of new techniques (atmospheric perspective, three quarter view, her hands, etc.) that Leonardo davinci created. I'd recommend to learn just a tad bit of art history before criticizing such art (not the video but the comment section). that doesn't mean its the best in the world, but without it art wouldn't be the same
Prove it
@@Katamar13 Read the comment, slower
basically what you said is exactly what the video explained, people who were into art around that time understood the big deal with the mona lisa, like you, and what you said, but people who never got into art or painting never understood what was all about until it get robbed. That´s why it is overrrated because people who know art and people who don´t know what the mona is all about, a mix of pure art and mysticism.
The Mona Lisa is not the most impressively realistic painting, it's not the most powerful imagery, etc.
But the simplicity and mystery in its concept is I think what makes it interesting even regardless of its history. It is only an image of one woman, nothing else, she has that subtle smile, and the strange background that is an eerily 'empty' foggy valley that looks like it could belong in the pages of some medieval legend. Furthermore, the lines are quite soft, with no major contrasting parts so it's very easy on the eyes. And your focus is drawn right to her face due to the use of light and darkness, and how her face looks at the viewer.
These things combined give it a certain magical quality. It almost appears dream-like.
Not really. There were plenty of other paintings like it- a portrait of an unnamed woman against a dull background- at the time, and even more today.
Or maybe Davinci was just too lazy to add anything to the background lol JK
A
some one who understands the subtleties of the art
At least someone gets iy
High production quality, engaging presentation and quality content: this channel is quickly becoming one of my favourites! Great work and really interesting video!
This is so cool! My mom is called Gioconda after this painting and yeah, this is pretty cool ❤️
Yes! Please make more of these! I've been looking for this forever. Why stuff became important, the actual historical reasons not the "art reason".
Thank you! I never understood why this painting is so famous, so it is really nice to get it explained :-)
Time to include a slot in my daily calendar to watching VOX. Super stuff!
the lonely island wrote a song bout it being overrated
boy638
What's it called?
Guido Anselmi It's called Mona Lisa, it's from the movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
Oh, right, I forgot, haha. I love that movie.
Tbh Mona Lisa is amazing, if you look at it from any angle it always looks like she’s loooking at you. It has so many techniques that were ahead of its time. It’s also widely iconic. It’s not just some realistic eye drawings, it’s something that has a lot of amazing techniques
Mona Lisa became overrated when Panic! At the Disco made a song about her
Jk jk jk
Now the song is playing in my head oh no
The Lonely Island you mean
They did?
Vox makes one of the most edited and best informational videos on RUclips, no doubt.
You could land a helicopter on that baked potato forehead.
omg
How is that funny?
It's a line from a satirical song about how the Mona Lisa is literally overrated
The song probably isnt funny either.
well aren't you a happy chap
She has no eyebrows.
Voldemort's wife.
that was the style
She actually had very fair and thin eyebrows but years of the painting itself decaying make it impossible to see them anymore. Look up Mona Lisa original and you can see what it looked like before it was aged by air, light, and other factors. There have been scans done on the painting (very carefully) in order to know exactly what the original colors were and what was missing from our sight.
One time when I was a High School freshman, I drew The Mona Lisa with Jar Jar Binks’s face as a project in Art Class and I called it The Mona Meesa and I showed it to my friends and they thought it was hilarious! 😂😂😂😂
I understand nothing about art, I'll admit it, but when I went to the Louvre, having zero expectations about liking the Mona Lisa, I was actually extremely captivated by it. I've felt hypnotized and in owe. There were many people around it and the painting is small, but to this days I'm still so happy I've seen it 'cause I had a glimpse of Leonardo Da Vinci genius.
Therefore I can't say that it's "overrated"
Wtf,does no one actually remembers that the Mona Lisa painting was her with a neutral face(😑) and not her smiling? Mandela effect? Hello?
Ikr
Im just replying to myself to say I was here FIRST to comment about her 'smile' and to make sure that its time to wake up
this whole thread is hilarious
Yeah, in the painting she used to have a big turban too. And one eye used to google. And a tooth was gone. And she used to have huge man hands. That was the awesome version!
+jandroid33 You forgot the drooling.
You didn't say anything about how it came to be called Mona Lisa. It's proper title is la giaconda.
Ohhhh..... that's what the news headline said.
Giaconda
Mona lisa because her name was Lisa Gherardini, and Mona=madonna. La Gioconda was because of her husband's name
I took a humanities class and my professor would talk about how beautiful the painting is... I personally don't see the beauty
The beauty comes from the genius-level consideration that was put into making the artwork.
Just imagine one thing you love about the human face but then imagine that and a hundred other things you love about the human face all put together in a work of art, that's exactly what an artists like Leonardo do.
Same here. Let's face it, Rembrandt did better portraits.
I am an artist and I see a lot of things behind the painting, dont take it letterally. Try to see and understand how and why the artist did this and did that in the painting, every tiny details has different meaning. If you can not appreciate art how can you appreciate life?life is beautiful and so is art, art comes in many forms, we ourselves are a masterpiece created by God.
That Mona Lisa picture serves a very important and noble purpose in the art world, that is, it frees all the space around the much better paintings in the same gallery where it hangs at the Louvre, like the magnificent Veronese,
and the amazing Tizianos.
It's so good because...
when i was a little boy i looked at her hands sitting in her lap...
Honestly, it's actually an amazing painting but because it's such a common pop culture icon it's desensitised our appreciation for it that it's now just an icon and not really a painting anymore
I was much more struck by the crowds gawking at it in the Louvre, than I was by the painting itself.
She never smiled mate. The right side of her mouth looked almost exactly the same as the left side. Tis why teh painting is/was so enigmatic, nobody knew if she was smiling or not? Mandela or what. lol
What a video.. The Mona Lisa is a wonderful painting!
'Mona Lisa' the song by Lonely Island basically describes my feelings towards the painting.
I don't know when we were there I was underwhelmed, it's a small bland painting and on the other side of the room is a very large painting with a lot of stuff on it wich was much better...
I remember my Art Professor. I told him the painting is ok. Like any other painting. He did not accept it because of some bullshit.
What was his argument anyway?
Is it just me, or does anyone else think she isn't pretty at all?
Doesn't "pretty" relative to the time? At that time she could be the prettiest.. Who knows..
Kinda boring overatted and ugly like Julia Roberts in pretty woman .pretty sure she is the modern day Mona lisa.
Well people back in the olden day's those she was pretty now I don't know..
Beauty standards change throughout time
Steve Rogers? Is that your name?
Mona Lisa is very fascinating and I think that's because of the way it has had all the world's attention despitebeing so simple compared to the rest of his work. It's in a way iconic and because of the story behind it and its fame, it has a certain feel to it, I think it'll forever be remembered as the one painting that everyone knows. And I think that it's very commandable that it has kept everyone's attention for so long because other better paintings weren't able to.
.
The Mona Lisa first became famous in the very early 1500s. It was the most realistic head anybody had ever seen. Until Leonardo, the Florentines painted in a linear manner, essentially filling in the colour between the outlines, rather like a colouring book with a little form modelling. Leonardo softened all the edges and created the illusion of 3-dimensional form and atmosphere. Her smile, by the way, is a pun on her name. Leonardo loved puns and used them in several of his paintings. Mona Lisa's name was Lisa Gioconda, and giocando, in Italian, means playful or happy; hence the famous smile. However, this video is absolutely correct about the way that the painting was brought into the layperson's life from the 20th century onwards. Bravo!!
I’ve always felt the painting suffered for its lack of ermines.
Same..
The Mona Lisa was the VERY first painting that had someone smiling.
Prove it
Yeah, source?
Hmmm... im running through my brain for paintings older than that with a smile...u might just be right... lemme do some research
So?
@@anatomicallycorrectmuppets8180 your name is based
Who painted the mona lisa?
*da vinky?*
La Gioconda (the Mona Lisa) is famous for the "wrong" reasons these days. In its day, it was a breakthrough in realism. The Italian painters all painted between carefully drawn outlines during the Early Renaissance, but Leonardo was able to introduce the illusions of atmosphere and of three-dimensions by softening all the edges to differing degrees. Most Italians of the late 1400s and early 1500s had never seen an image that looked so very realistic. Leonardo's soft-focus technique is now known as sfumato.
When you see that STAMP in the Louvre for the first time, in the midst of so many other amazing (and GIANT) paintings, surrounded by fans - just because -, you start to wonder.
For me, it‘s 15 years, now.
...nice video. :-) Thank you.
who painted the mona lisa?
DA VINKYYY?!
da vinci was something else.
This might sound weird, but I notice that some RUclips videos with more simple thumbnails tend to get more views. Maybe that's a human thing. The Mona Lisa is considered great because of its simplicity.
I don't like flashy thumbnails.
Hy
I have to say, this video is very very VERY partially true. First of all the Mona Lisa was already WELL known and reckognized before the heist (people such as Victor Hugo, Napoleon, Charles Baudelaire praised its beauty). The reason why nobody seemed to notice its disappearance was most likely due to the fact that the Louvre was undergoing inventory and that at first people just assumed it was removed from exposition for that specific reason. Also the fact that photography of arts was contemporary to its disappearance factored in its booming popularity.
To be perfectly honest you should have mentioned at least part of what makes Mona Lisa as a great painting art wise. It was ground breaking in many aspects of both technics AND trends of reprensentation and portraits. Da Vinci spent decades perfecting this painting. All the work of his life in paintings, optic, geology, anatomy were poured into that painting. It's simply unfair to call it " overrated ".
The video of Great Art explained gives good info on all those specifics technics and aspects of the painting which makes it one of the greastest in history.
I love your videos Vox but this one in particular seems very inaccurate at worst and very partial at best :)
didn't davinci just like, take 10 years to make it, and then didn't even finish it? I'm pretty sure he didn't spend every single day painting on it, he probably just kinda came back to it every now and then and made a small change and then forgot about it. the geology in the background is interesting, the anatomy is alright, the rest of the painting is just the simply mark of a master doing his best for a commission, that he didn't even finish in the first place.
and yeah, the mona lisa was famous among rich bougie types, and in the art world she was known about as a pretty painting that was well made, but to your average person, it just wasn't something you *knew* much about. if you did hear about it, it was just a good painting. and that's all the mona lisa is. just a well done piece of art. that's not really bad by any means, it's just... typical, and tbh leonardo's other pieces are prettier, have better anatomy, and are.. actually *finished* lol
The best painting in the world is any screen shot from yellow
Submarine
See, I was right. People only care when you’re gone.
It's better than modern art.
.
^^modern art
At any given time during the Louvre's operating hours, there gathers a crowd of about 50-60 people that surround the painting that is walled off by posts and ropes and has a large glass cover around it. It took me 10-15 minutes to get the end of the crowd and once I feared my eyes on all her glory I saw only a small painting by a man who was more an accomplished inventor than he was a great painter.
He DEFINITELY wasn't a greater inventor than a painter, not by any stretch of the imagination.
painted at age 64, almost entirely left handed after a suffered stroke and upon returning to France... things that make you go hmmm. Why so admired? L. was aannnomaly at Earth, very special. Maybe we get another someday! :) Thanks for inventing scissors L!
It just had certain vibe. Like when you see the Eiffel Tower in person. It’s just amazing. And apparently a white painting is better than the Mona Lisa here lol.
No the point of the video is it’s hype. That vibe you perceive is because you have been taught to care about it
It might be a little overrated yes, but that painting means a lot.
It shows some techniques that were new for that time, some of these created by Da Vinci himself.
Like "sfumato leonardesco" ( sorry I have no idea how it's called in English), which was a brand new technique for blurring and creating shadows, also to make the main character stand out (that wasn't common in art till that moment).
Plus, this painting shows perfectly what was considered the new purpose of art: to capture a moment and stop it forever.
There's no iconography, no Mary with baby, but a real person watching you forever.
Mona Lisa might not be outstanding nowadays, it's just a small painting similar to many others from those years, right?
But if you think about it, those other paintings wouldn't be there without Mona Lisa.
Somebody else would have done it. It’s pretty disrespectful to our race to assume that nobody else would have started smudging and using glazes.
Saying that someone did something, does not imply that nobody else would've been able to do the same thing
This is like that one contraband CS:GO skin
Art is the memes on the internet equivalent of real life.
I got to see it in person. The painting glows like plasma screen television. It’s quite spectacular.
I don't go to museums often, but when I do, I save the "famous" stuff for last. Like when I was in Washington DC in 2017, everyone was ooh-ing and ahh-ing about that really fancy diamond at the Smithsonian. I glanced at it, thought it was interesting for about 1/2 a second, and proceeded to be amazed by a millennium-old slab of copper ore in the opposite corner of the room.
The same people that call modern trash art are calling the Mona Lisa ass.
both are overrated imo
Neither is trash, but they ARE pretty overrated.
I appreciate the Mona Lisa for its composition, the many details that make it historically relevant (without taking its fame into account), and DaVinci's skill. However, it's not magical, it's not the best painting ever made, and it was never a beauty out of this world.
Pomponivs Archibald What's interesting is that Mona Lisa doesn't even look like what its supposed. Its paint has faded over the centuries. Da Vinci would be shocked if he saw what his painting looks like now and he wouldn't consider it beautiful at all.
True, same with Greek statues
***** The narrator didn't call the Mona Lisa "bad", and yet you call it trash and the commenters "ignorant swine". I'm interested in hearing your opinion on the Mona Lisa.