Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable and famous works of art in the world, and one of the most replicated and reinterpreted. Mona Lisa studio versions, copies or replicas were already being painted during Leonardo's lifetime by his own students and contemporaries. Some are claimed to be the work of Leonardo himself, and remain disputed by scholars. Prominent 20th-century artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dalí have also produced derivative works, manipulating Mona Lisa image to suit their own aesthetic. Replicating Renaissance masterpieces continues to be a way for aspiring artists to perfect their painting techniques and prove their skills.
Contemporary Mona Lisa replicas are often created in conjunction with events or exhibitions related to Leonardo da Vinci, for publicity. The portrait, in the public domain and outside of copyright protection, has also been used to make political statements. Aside from countless print-reproductions of Leonardo's original Mona Lisa on postcards, coffee mugs and T-shirts, her likeness has also been re-imagined using coffee, toast, seaweed, Rubik's Cubes, and computer chips, to name only a few. Now over five-hundred years since her creation, the perpetuation of Mona Lisa influence is reinforced with every reinterpretation.
Background
At the beginning of the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Florentine nobleman Francesco del Giocondo to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa. The painting is believed to have been undertaken between 1503 and 1506. Leonardo's portrait of Mona Lisa ("Mona" or "Monna" being the Italian honorific for "Madame") has been on display as part of the permanent collection at Paris' Louvre museum since 1797. It is also known as La Joconde in French and La Gioconda in Italian.
Replicas of Mona Lisa date back to the 16th century, including sculptures and etchings inspired by the painting. By the early 20th century, historian Donald Sassoon has stated, Mona Lisa was still "just a well-respected painting by a famous old master" and was "not even the most valued painting in the Louvre." The painting's theft on August 11, 1911, and the subsequent media frenzy surrounding the investigation and its recovery ignited public interest and led to the Mona Lisa gaining its current standing.
Mona Lisa is in the public domain and not subject to copyright, whereas some modern works based on the original such as Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. are protected by copyright law.
Gioconda di Montecitorio
A 16th Century replica, named Gioconda di Montecitorio or Gioconda Torlonia hangs in the Chamber of Deputies (Italy), acquired from the collection of the Torlonia family. Following a restoration, some scholars assert that Leonardo made it as a replica of the original, while others dispute that conclusion.Roma: caso Gioconda di MontecitorioGioconda di Montecitoriola Giocondala gemella della Gioconda
Isleworth Mona Lisa
A version of the Mona Lisa known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa and the Earlier Mona Lisa was first bought by an English nobleman in 1778 and was rediscovered in 1913 by Hugh Blaker, an art connoisseur. The painting was presented to the media in 2012 by the Mona Lisa Foundation.
The current scholarly consensus on attribution is unclear. Some experts, including Frank Zöllner, Martin Kemp and Luke Syson denied the attribution; professors such as Salvatore Lorusso, Andrea Natali, and John F Asmus supported it; others like Alessandro Vezzosi and Carlo Pedretti were uncertain.
Prado Mona Lisa
In 2011, the Prado in Madrid, Spain, announced discovery of what may be the earliest known replica. Miguel Falomir, heading the Department of Italian Renaissance Painting at the time of the discovery, stated the Prado "had no idea of (the painting's) significance" until a recent restoration. Recovered from the Prado's vaults, the replica – which El Mundo newspaper dubbed "Mona Lisa twin" (above, far right) – was reportedly painted simultaneously alongside Leonardo as he painted his own Mona Lisa; in the same studio, by a "key" student. It was painted on walnut. The replica has been part of the Prado's collection since the museum's founding in 1819.
After restoration, the Prado's Mona Lisa revealed details covered by previous restorations and layers of varnish. Furnishings and fabrics were enhanced, as well as landscape and facial features. It is anticipated that such revelations may offer further insight into Leonardo's original. Experts at the Louvre reportedly supported the Prado museum's findings. The Prado replica was subsequently transported to the Louvre in 2012 to be displayed next to Mona Lisa as part of a temporary exhibition. Hermitage Mona Lisa
A version known as the Hermitage Mona Lisa is in the Hermitage Museum. It was made by an unknown 16th-century artist. The good workmanship, legibility and expressiveness emanating from the work were pointed out, the execution of portrait is presumably of Nordic Europe derivation, in particular German-Flemish.Portrait of Gioconda (copy), hermitagemuseum.org.
Mona Vanna
Two nude paintings bearing similarities to Leonardo da Vinci's original were part of a 2009 exhibition of artwork inspired by Mona Lisa. Displayed at the Museo Ideale in Leonardo's hometown of Vinci, near Florence, some believe one of the paintings – dating from Leonardo's time – to be the work of Leonardo himself, and it has at times been credited to him. Other experts theorize the painting, one of at least six known to exist, may be just another copy painted by "followers" of Leonardo. Scholarly dispute persists as to artist, subject and origin. The nude in question, discovered behind a wall in a private library, reportedly belonged to an uncle of Napoleon Bonaparte, who owned another of Leonardo's paintings. Facial features bear only vague resemblance, but landscape, compositional and technical details correspond to those of the Mona Lisa known worldwide today.
A student and companion of Leonardo da Vinci known as Salaì painted one of the nude interpretations of Mona Lisa known, titled Mona Vanna. Salai's version is thought by some to have been "based on" the nude sometimes attributed to Leonardo, which is considered a lost work. Discussion among experts exists as to whether Salai, known to have modeled for Leonardo, may in fact have been the sitter represented in the original Mona Lisa.
Another nude also known as Mona Vanna is generally attributed to Joos van Cleve, a Flemish artist active in the years following Mona Lisa creation. Though the figure portrayed in van Cleve's painting bears no resemblance to Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the artist was known to mimic themes and techniques of Leonardo da Vinci. The artwork, dating to the mid-16th century, is in the collection of the National Gallery, Prague.
20th century
By the 20th century, Mona Lisa had already been a victim of satirical embellishment. Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), in 1883, depicted Mona Lisa smoking a pipe. Titled Le Rire (The Laugh), the artwork was displayed at the "Incoherents" exhibition in Paris at the time of its creation, making it among the earliest known instances of Mona Lisa image being re-interpreted using contemporary irony. Further interpretations by avant-garde artists beginning in the early 20th century, coinciding with the artwork's theft, attest to Mona Lisa popularity as an irresistible target. Dadaists and Surrealists were quick to modify, embellish and caricature Mona Lisa visage.
L.H.O.O.Q.
Marcel Duchamp, among the most influential artists of his generation, in 1919 may have inadvertently set the standard for modern manifestations of Mona Lisa simply by adding a goatee and mustache to an existing postcard print of Leonardo's original. Duchamp pioneered the concept of readymades, which involves taking mundane objects not generally considered to be art and transforming them artistically, sometimes by simply renaming them and placing them in a gallery setting. In L.H.O.O.Q. the "found object" is a Mona Lisa postcard onto which Duchamp drew a goatee and mustache in pencil and appended the title.
The title, Duchamp is said to have admitted in his later years, is a pun. The letters L-H-O-O-Q pronounced in French form the sentence Elle a chaud au cul, colloquially translating into English as "She has a hot ass." As was the case with many of his readymades, Duchamp made multiple versions of L.H.O.O.Q. in varying sizes and media throughout his career. An unmodified black and white reproduction of Mona Lisa on a playing-card, onto which Duchamp in 1965 inscribed LHOOQ rasée (LHOOQ Shaved), is among many second-generation variants referencing the original L.H.O.O.Q.
Duchamp's parody of Mona Lisa was itself parodied by Francis Picabia in 1942, annotated Tableau Dada Par Marcel Duchamp ("Dadaist Scene for Marcel Duchamp"), another example of second-generation interpretations of Mona Lisa. Salvador Dalí created his Self Portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954, referencing L.H.O.O.Q. in collaboration with Philippe Halsman, incorporating his photographs of a wild-eyed Dalí showing his handlebar moustache and a handful of coins. In 1958, Icelandic painter Erró then incorporated Dalí's version into a composition which also included a film-still from Dalí's Un Chien Andalou. Fernand Léger and René Magritte are among the numbers of Modern art masters who have adapted Mona Lisa using their own iconography. None of the parodies have tarnished Mona Lisa image; rather, they reinforce her fame. Duchamp's mustached Mona Lisa embellishment continues to inspire imitation. Contemporary conceptual artist Subodh Gupta gave L.H.O.O.Q. three-dimensional form in his 2009 bronze sculpture Et tu, Duchamp? Gupta, from India, considers himself an "idol thief" and has reinterpreted a number of iconic works from European art history.
Post-tour years (1962–2000) In December 1962, André Malraux, the first French minister of cultural affairs, lent the Mona Lisa to the United States at the request of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. The painting was displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from January 9 to February 3, 1963. Then it was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from February 7 to March 4, 1963. Radio personality Bruce Morrow presided over a promotional event during Mona Lisa exhibition in New York City. 70,000 entries of a "Best Mona" painting contest were exhibited at the Polo Grounds, with Salvador Dalí helping to pick the winner.
During the painting's first American presentation in 1963, Fernando Botero—who had already painted Mona Lisa, Age Twelve in 1959—painted another Mona Lisa, this time in what would become his trademark "Boterismo" style of rendering figures disproportionately plump. Andy Warhol created multiple renditions of Mona Lisa in his Pop art style. Warhol's works Colored Mona Lisa (1963), Four Mona Lisas (1978), and Mona Lisa Four Times (1978) illustrate Warhol's method of silk-screening an image repetitively within the same work of art.
In 1974 Salvatore Fiume made Gioconda Africana, a tribute to black female beauty: this "Gioconda" was donated to the Vatican and stays in Vatican Museums.Musei Vaticani Mona Lisa is also referenced in artwork by Contemporary artists including Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, adding to the veritable "who's who" list of artists putting their own spin on the portrait. A paint by numbers version of Mona Lisa accompanied artist Suzanne Lacy during her 1977 travelogue Travels with Mona, documenting the painting process at landmark locations throughout Europe and Central America.