Art and Music Pairing - Essay Example

Art and Music Pairing This essay will describe the art and music pairing of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and the song “She” by Elvis Costello. Although there are numerous songs written about the “Mona Lisa”, one believes that this song will be an appropriate soundtrack for Da Vinci’s painting. The song describes a woman whose face the singer cannot forget. The mystical face of the “Mona Lisa” and its enigmatic smile seems to be portrayed in the lyrics of the song particularly in the part when the singer described the woman as “mirror of my dreams” and the “smile reflected in a stream”[Elvnd].

Like the “Mona Lisa” the woman talked about in the song is mysterious. The song also talks of a woman who “may not be what she may seem inside her shell”[Elvnd]. The eyes of the “Mona Lisa” may very well be explained in the song as the eyes that “can be so private and so proud”[Elvnd]. The music and the lyrics of the song complement with perfection the depiction of the “Mona Lisa”. It is as if Costello was thinking of the “Mona Lisa” when he wrote “She”. One better understands the mystery of the “Mona Lisa” while listening to the song.

Da Vinci’s painting could very well be the inspiration of Costello in writing the lyrics of the song. The “Mona Lisa” appears to be concealing her true emotions through her faint smile. In the same manner, the woman epitomized in “She” is a lady whose true personality is something which cannot be deciphered by the singer. She is characterized in the song as being “a hundred different things within the measure of a day”[Elvnd]. Like the mystery of the “Mona Lisa”, the woman in the song leaves the singer in a bewildered state, not knowing whether she is a “beauty or the beast”, “famine or the feast” or someone who may turn his day “into a heaven or a hell”[Elvnd].

Aside from the description of the woman’s physical features, the singer goes on to describe how this woman has greatly affected his life. Costello describes the woman as the reason why he lives and that he would remember everything about this woman and keep it as his souvenir. The “Mona Lisa” has been a symbol of the beauty of a woman which has made it very famous, seen almost everywhere, sometimes in postcards or in advertisements. It has become a “souvenir” too for people who continue to be mystified and amazed by its beauty.

The look of the “Mona Lisa” still baffles so many people, art lover or not. So many songs have been written about her but one is convinced that Costello’s “She” is the “Mona Lisa”. Works CitedElvnd: , (Costello , par 2), Elvnd: , (Costello , par 3), Elvnd: , (Costello , par 1),