9/10/12

Today in seminar, we looked at the Mona Lisa. This painting is arguably the most famous in the present world. It is famous for several reasons too, other than its beauty as a painting. The look she has is a sort of mysterious air about it. We discussed the contradiction of emotion between her cynical, mysterious eyes and the satisfied smirk she has on her face. Another thing we discussed was the background to this painting. While most people focus primarily on the lady in the painting, we focused on the background of it. The background is very interesting, to say the least. The scenery is a beautiful river along with mountains on the upper portion, but a desert in the lower portion. It has been concluded that this is a fictitious place, but is generally thought to be Italian. In my opinion, I am not a huge fan of the beauty, but I do appreciate the mysterious feel it has to it. It makes me wonder what she was looking at, or what was going on behind Da Vinci when he was painting it.

I know that these are my true feelings for they were what I experienced when I first looked at it, but I did not develop a true appreciation for its beauty after really looking at it.  Its similar to a first impression of a person, for they are usually how you truly feel about someone.

It was a very interesting class, and I took a lot out of it, especially the way I judge a painting’s beauty as well as its hidden meanings.