subject: Portrait Paintings- All About The Mona Lisa Portrait [print this page] Oil portrait paintings are very popular since centuries ago. There are lots of artists who gained appreciation from the crowd for their fascinating and enchanting works of art. Portrait paintings are like showing an image of a certain subject especially human that convey emotions and feeling behind the oil medium. Actually, there are lots of portraits painting made with oil that became popular in the art industry and still recognized in the present society.
One of the famous portrait paintings is the work of Leonardo da Vinci which is the Mona Lisa. In fact, this took the famous artist several years to finish a very beautiful artwork . Many people in his time appreciated the unique way of expressing the emotion of the subject.
You might be wondering why Mona Lisa is still recognized and famous all across the globe. Well, many of us will conclude that it is purely fascinating for a woman's face captures the hearts and minds of the viewers. There is a feeling of passion, beauty and femininity that describes the quality of the woman's image. There are unlimited opinions about the concept of this kind of portrait. There are some persons view it as an enigma and there are also some who conclude that she is hiding a secret behind the feminine smile. Everyone has different interpretations that might only be judged by the original painter.
Because the subject seems to be hiding something, many people got curious about it. There's also a meaning to the position of the woman's hands. You might notice that the right hand is located over the left one that shows faithfulness and submissiveness. However, if you are not convinced with this concept, your opinion will be respected since that you have your own interpretation towards portrait paintings.
Unlike the other portrait paintings ,you may also notice that the image of Mona Lisa has no eye brows. There is a belief that ancient women remove their facial hairs since that they considered it as untidy and dirty. However, there are also some people who don't believe on that. They said that Leonardo had painted the image with eye lashes and eye brows but they just faded because of long years plus a through cleaning of the portrait.
The latter opinion of people was proven by a French engineer Pascal Cotte last 2007. He used a high resolution scanner that determined the faded lashes and eyebrows in the woman's face. However, they didn't bother to repaint the facial hairs to have an additional mystery of the artwork.
Portrait paintings have their own focus. The artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci focused on woman's image but people also noticed the dramatic background which has an image of landscape and icy mountains. There is also a valley,river and bridge behind the woman that implies the relation of humanity and nature.
There is also an argument whether Mona Lisa is a portrait of an actual woman or just a product of an artistic imagination. Whatever the story behind it, this will be a forever appealing one among the other portrait paintings.
