The woman in Leonardo da Vinci's work gazes out from the canvas with a quiet serenity. But what lies behind the famous smile? Shrouded in mystery, the Mona Lisa has attracted more speculation and questioning than any other work of art ever created. This work provides an aide memoire of the world's most famous painting. The full-page colour plates portray the Mona Lisa in close-up photographs, while Serge Bramly, the author, explores its shadowy history and the fascination the painting has engendered.
Leonardo da Vinci was one of history's true geniuses, equally brilliant as an artist, scientist, and mathematician. Readers of The Da Vinci Code were given a glimpse of the mysterious connections between math, science, and Leonardo's art. Math and the Mona Lisa picks up where The Da Vinci Code left off, illuminating Leonardo's life and work to uncover connections that, until now, have been known only to scholars. Bülent Atalay, a distinguished scientist and artist, examines the science and mathematics that underlie Leonardo's work, paying special attention to the proportions, patterns, shapes, and symmetries that scientists and mathematicians have also identified in nature. Following Leonardo's own unique model, Atalay searches for the internal dynamics of art and science, revealing to us the deep unity of the two cultures. He provides a broad overview of the development of science from the dawn of civilization to today's quantum mechanics. From this base of information, Atalay offers a fascinating view into Leonardo's restless intellect and modus operandi, allowing us to see the source of his ideas and to appreciate his art from a new perspective.
- Discover the true portrait of Lisa Gherardini- Major BBC documentary to be broadcast in December 2015Groundbreaking and important new discoveries concerning the Mona Lisa The Mona Lisa is one of mankind's great mysteries. With over 9.7 million admirers per year, it is the most legendary painting of all time. No other work has provoked such a desire to know its secrets. Now, after a decade of research, Pascal Cotte has pioneered an extraordinary scientific imagery technique (L.A.M.), that takes us into the heart of the paint-layers of the world's most famous picture and reveals secrets that have remained hidden for 500 years. This book takes us on a remarkable journey that reveals stage by stage, layer by layer, his remarkable findings. It demonstrates definitively, for the first time, answers to the mysteries that have eluded us for centuries. Who was the lady in the picture? Did Leonardo paint another version? What really lies behind that iconic face? And how did Leonardo achieve that beguiling and seductive smile? There are over 150 brand new discoveries about the painting. A landmark event in the world of art, this book shatters many myths and alters our vision of Leonardo's masterpiece forever. Pascal Cotte's findings are the subject of a major BBC documentary and will be announced to the world in December.
"From 1501 to 1505, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence. Leonardo was a charming, handsome fifty year-old at the peak of his career. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-twenties, desperate to make a name for himself. The two despise each other."--Front jacket flap.
What has made the Mona Lisa the most famous picture in the world? Why is it that, of all the 6,000 paintings in the Louvre, it is the only one to be exhibited in a special box, set in concrete and protected by two sheets of bulletproof glass? Why do thousands of visitors throng to see it every day, ignoring the masterpieces which surround it?
While visiting the art museum, Katie has an adventure stepping in and out of five paintings by van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cezanne. Includes information about postimpressionism and the particular paintings and artists in the story.
A history of modern painting, presented through the story of the Mona Lisa, features an artist who serves as a museum tour guide introducing famous movements while sharing creative images of how the Mona Lisa may have appeared if painted by other master artists.
The book rests on the premise that the woman in the painting "Mona Lisa" is indeed the person identified in its earliest description: Lisa Gherardini (1479-1542), wife of the Florence merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Dianne Hales has followed facts from the Florence State Archives, to the squalid street where Mona Lisa was born, to the ruins of the convent where she died
The famous painting, Mona Lisa, describes how she was painted by Leonardo da Vinci, taken to France, hung in the Louvre Museum, was stolen and then recovered. Suggested level: junior, primary.
Revealed in more than four hundred paintings, photographs and illustrations this is an intimate look at the history of the world's most famous painting and the genius who created it.
