All items with tags mona lisa
Mona Lisa Mosaic Made of Burnt Toast in Matera
published by Giorgio
With her Mona Lisa mosaic made of burnt toast, English artist Laura Hadland aroused the interest and curiosity of the inhabitants of Matera, an old town in southern Italy famous for its beautiful cave-houses. Ms. Hadland -best known for another similar work which she created as a birthday present for her mother in law- made this rather bizarre replica of Mona lisa, one of Leonardo’s most famous paintings (it took him a bit over 10 years) last Easter; all the 1,o80 pieces of toast used here come from the Consorzio di Tutela del pane di Matera (IGP). By the way, if want to view the video showing the artist adding her final touches to her work click here.
Italian researchers to hunt inFlorence for the remains of Mona Lisa
published by Giorgio
The hunt for the remains of Lisa Gherardini, the woman who, according to many art historians, sat for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa ,will start at the former convent of Sant’Orsola in Florence on May 9. The men from the National Historical and Cultural Preservation Committee will explore the crypt, the cloister and the church in the hope of finding the remains of the noblewoman; but there are doubts about the success of the whole operation; even if they should come across the remains of Mrs Gherardini (actually the skull is what they are really after) will they ever be able to restore a woman’s face and once and for all establish whether it is depicted in the portrait of Leonardo? Maybe yes, in fact according to an important document found in the archives of the Church of San Lorenzo in 2007, Fancesco Del Giocondo‘s wife Lisa Gherardini was really buried at the convent of Sant’Orsola.
Mona Lisa made of 100,000 carats of jewellery on display in Shenyang City, China
published by Giorgio
A Chinese millionaire with a passion for jewels has created a rather unusual replica of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa; made up of thousands jewels for a total of 100,000 carats, this extravagant piece of art is now on display in a shopping mall in Shenyang City, China. The name of this bizarre artist is still unknown but according to sources he spent 30 years of his life collecting all the necessary raw gem stones!
Source | OddityCentral
Leonardo's Mona Lisa inspired by literary images
published by Giorgio
Throughout the centuries, art historians have speculated over Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece Mona Lisa; the famous portrait with its rather enigmatic smile and mysterious landscape behind the sitter has always triggered the strangest conjectures; conjectures, mind you, without any firm evidence or proof. So after having read in the newspapers that Leonardo probably hid in the painting two numbers (7 and 2) indicating the date of the appalling flood which destroyed the bridge of Bobbio in Emilia (art historian Carla Glori believes that the Italian master depicted that very bridge in the background), we now have to consider a new and even more exciting conjecture; in fact according to Ross Kilpatrick, professor emeritus of Classics at Queen’s University in Canada, Leonardo painted not a real landscape but one inspired by two great poets of the past: Horace and Petrarch; apparently their poems - Horace’s Ode 1. 22 and some of Petrarch’s sonnets - hold the key to this age-old secret.
Orazio e Petrarca, nuove rivelazioni sulla Gioconda di Leonardo
Italian requests to exhume body of Da Vinci
published by Alison
As if the Da Vinci Code weren’t enough, an Italian has lodged a formal request with France to exhume the body of Leonardo Da Vinci, from what is believed to be his tomb at Amboise, in the Loire, France. It’s just another bizarre twist in the myth of the Mona Lisa and the genius of Da Vinci.
The idea behind asking to exhume his body would be to examine the skull of Leonardo Da Vinci to determine whether the Mona Lisa (called the “La Gioconda” by Italians), is in fact, a self-portait of the artist. What’s more, it seems that the French government may grant the request, and that the operation could take place by this summer.
It’s another step in the weird analyses taking place of the Mona Lisa, which include the study of the Mona Lise smile apparently due to high colesterol. For more details on that take, see the The Telegraph.
Source | Artsblog.it
Naked Mona Lisas on display at Da Vinci, near Florence
published by Giorgio
The small town of Da Vinci is hosting a new and to some extent bizarre exhibition dedicated to one of the world’s most famous paintings: the Mona Lisa. The bizarre element I am referring to is the centrepiece of the exhibition which this time will not be the famous Gioconda (that’s the name of the Painting in Italian) but a series of half-naked Mona Lisas depicted by other artists. Some of these portrayals on view date back to 17th century. This exhibition is at the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, near Florence (where Leonardo was born in 1452) and can only be seen as a nouveau variation on the theme; a variation which for some will border on the risqué!
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