Leonardo da Vinci: More Than Mona Lisa

The Baptism of Christ: In this painting, Andrea del Verrocchio was commissioned to paint the baptism of Christ. On the left, holding a cloth, is Leonardo's little angel in blue. (Artrenewal.org)

[xtypo_dropcap]F[/xtypo_dropcap]or the privileged in the Renaissance, studies in Greek and Latin were common. The stoic Greek and Roman philosophers, mathematicians, and artists laid the foundations in their respective fields, which became course material for over 1,000 years.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in a lower class of society; he never studied the classic scholars. Young Leonardo would instead poke in the rivers, play in the wind, getting into all sorts of well-intentioned mischief. He would watch birds in flight and dream seemingly impossible dreams. Leonardo’s education was given to him by nature—he had the keen knack of listening to it as few others could. As a boy, Leonardo da Vinci was unhindered by notions, allowing him to be free to contemplate the world with endless possibilities.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Paintings

In the 1460s, Leonardo’s father took young Leonardo to Andrea del Verrocchio, a famous painter and sculptor in Florence, Italy, to be an apprentice. Verrocchio was commissioned to do a painting of Jesus being baptized. Verrocchio let Leonardo, along with his other students, paint the minor characters in the painting, while he painted the main ones.

Leonardo painted an angel in the lower left-hand corner of the painting. Everyone, including Verrocchio, was bewildered in amazement. It was the most beautiful painting of a person anyone had ever seen on canvas. Leonardo used an oil-based paint that wasn’t commonly used at the time to give the angel vivid colors and smooth detail. Leonardo’s little angel stands out vividly.

The angel’s natural pose and gestures stand in contrast to the stiff portraiture common in the Middle Ages and seen in the other figures. This little angel moved Verrocchio so much, he vowed never to paint again, having been surpassed by his student Leonardo.

 

‘Mona Lisa’

Leonardo later received a commission to paint the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, La Gioconda, or most famously known as Mona Lisa. In this painting, he invented the technique called “Sfumato,” based on the Italian word “Sfumare,” which means “to evaporate like smoke.” It is a technique that gives the painting a blurred look. It works by painting layers of thin translucent colors to create the appearance of depth, volume, and shape. The gradients between the colors are almost imperceptible.

Da Vinci loved playing with composition. As the eyes look across a landscape, where do they gaze? The mind adjusts a painting as if it were looking at real objects; one has to be conscious of where the eyes roam.

Da Vinci used composition or how the eye moves across a painting to full effect. He was aware that the eyes look for openings. In the Mona Lisa, the wide base of the elbows touching the edges of the painting creates a base, or floor, for the eyes. The dark gown and pyramidal composition draw the viewer’s eyes upward. Mona Lisa’s dark hair creates a frame that further extends from the gown.

Leonardo painted the background as an open landscape. He invented a technique called atmospheric perspective wherein the landscape becomes hazier the farther away it is from the viewer. The viewer’s eyes rest naturally to meet Mona Lisa’s. Her calm smile and relaxed gestures make her so welcoming and enigmatic.

Grasping Gestures

Leonardo’s study of human anatomy helped him portray thoughts and emotions in his paintings. When Leonardo painted The Last Supper, he would sit in the market endlessly, watching people, their facial expressions, and hand gestures to get the right look for each character. Every gesture comes from a thought, and Leonardo broke away from the stoic, stiff portraits of the past and painted people in natural poses, imbuing them with a life of their own.

In nearly every one of his paintings, Leonardo would push the art world to new heights. He would study nature, sight, and perception to paint the world as it seems. In the Middle Ages, the rudimentary concepts in painting that we take for granted now were then nonexistent. Leonardo painted objects in the distance as smaller and lighter in color. He would look at the human hand and play with poise and posture to create a feeling.

Most of Leonardo’s characters look embraceable. Leonardo never married. He was a charismatic figure and loved company, but was often secretive about himself. In his paintings, he really shows his warmth and dedication to those around him and to his work. He strove for perfection. His paintings were an outlet for his ideas, a means to communicate his vision.

Leonardo abhorred violence and often spoke of how poorly people could be to one another. In his paintings, he is inviting and benevolent.

It is the subtle nuances that make Leonardo da Vinci’s works so grand. The little details, the challenging of old notions and views of the world, imbued his art with a surreal quality that stands apart from all others of his time.