The Modern Mona Lisa - Essay Example

The Modern Mona Lisa Throughout history, women have been typically depicted as the object of the human gaze. Her depiction in paintings and other types of images has been designed most often as a means of pleasing the male gaze. “According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome – men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (Berger, 1972: 45, 47). A look through the more traditional forms of Renaissance painting reveal that in the earlier periods, women were still merely the focus of the gaze, but as time moved on, their images demonstrated more and more that they were “aware of being seen by a spectator” (Berger, 1972: 49), who was usually assumed to be male. This is particularly true in the depiction of female nudes in which “almost all post-Renaissance European sexual imagery is frontal – either literally or metaphorically – because the sexual protagonist is the spectator-owner looking at it” (Berger, 1972: 56). The primary purpose for such depictions, Berger suggests, is attributed to a desire to possess the things that are depicted. However, a great deal of the meaning of an image depends to a large extent upon the gaze of the subject depicted. By studying not only what is known about visual rhetoric of the gaze as it relates with other elements of the image, a comparison between Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting the “Mona Lisa” with images presented through photography by Steve McCurry of an Afghan girl both when she is young and when she is older becomes more illuminating. The concept of the gaze establishes the relationship to be formed between the viewer and the subject. “To gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze” (Schroader, 1998: 208). Depending upon who is doing the gazing and the angle and approach of the gaze, the relationship becomes one of equals or one of a superior to an inferior, with these roles sometimes assigned to the viewer and sometimes assigned to the subject. Within the images to be discussed, Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” and McCurry’s “Afghan girl”, a direct address is employed which establishes an immediate and arresting connection with the viewer. “The direct address to the viewer [occurs when] the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text [is] looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures” (Chandler, 2000: 2). Rather than peering out to the side of the viewer or into some middle distance of introspection, the direct address “represents a demand for the viewer (as the object of the look) to enter into a parasocial relationship with the depicted person – with the type of relationship indicated by a facial expression or some other means” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996: 122ff). The element of a facial expression that denotes the type of relationship to be founded is an essential key to understanding the fascination provided by the “Mona Lisa” and the “Afghan girl”. Neither woman looks up or down and makes no attempt to avert her gaze, any of which would assist in determining whether this woman is of high or low status and thus refuses to indicate how she might relate to the viewer (Meyrowitz, 1985: 67). Thus, the viewer is forced to turn to other elements of the images to attempt to determine the nature of his or her relationship with this woman. In both images, this proves to be as impossible as averting her look or deciphering what it might mean. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the most famous engineers, artists and inventors of the Italian Renaissance. Da Vinci revolutionized the artistic world with his explorations in color, light, landscapes and expression. He is considered the master of the sfumato technique as well as chiaroscuro (“The Art of Leonardo”, 2006). Sfumato is a word deriving from the Italian word for smoke and refers to a technique in which translucent layers of color are overlaid to create a perception of depth, volume and form in a painting by blending the colors to such a degree that there is no perceptible transition from one color to the next. Chiaroscuro refers to the subtle shading between light and dark areas that provide a figure with a three dimensional effect. Both of these techniques are used brilliantly in one of Leonardo’s most well-known portraits, the Mona Lisa. “His use of soft lines and colors created the illusion of movement which became the trademark of High Renaissance art” (Connor, n.d.). A close examination of the Mona Lisa provides greater knowledge of her depth, but little clue as to her identity. The Mona Lisa is a relatively small painting that was created towards the end of Leonardo’s life, being one of only two paintings he kept with him until the day he died. It represents many of the techniques Leonardo was famous for including chiaroscuro and sfumato, but provides very few clues as to what the painting was supposed to represent. The woman featured in the painting gives no clues as to her emotions or even her gender while the background provides no direction as to where the painting might have taken place. Her tremendous secret, believed to exist but never solved by many throughout history, is primarily due to her lack of contextual clues to indicate her feelings and attitudes or the relationship she wishes to establish, with her viewers. Most have felt Leonardo hid additional clues to this secret among the details of the Mona Lisa. While the Mona Lisa defies definition, her image remains a challenging puzzle for present and future generations. The Mona Lisa was painted on poplar wood using traditional oil paints (“Mona Lisa”, 2006). Its size is actually quite small, measuring only 31 by 21 inches, but its reputation has survived for several reasons. The soft environmental effects Leonardo used in painting the background have served as a superior example of his mastery of the art of sfumato, or atmospheric painting. The landscape remains imaginary and is mismatched, allowing one side to have a higher horizon line than the other. The mysterious woman depicted in the painting is given a small smile that is described in several different ways, making her personality and emotions impossible to determine. Her eyes are created in such a way as to create an illusion that they are following the viewer regardless of where they stand in relation to the painting. Also contributing to her fame is the fact that the Mona Lisa is one of only two paintings that Leonardo kept with him until the day he died (“Mona Lisa”, 2006). Throughout the ages, attempts have been made to fix the location of the portrait or the identity of the sitter. Identification of the woman in the portrait has remained indefinite, although most scholars agree that she is Mona Lisa Giocondo, the young wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant who was a friend of Leonardo’s father (Loadstar, n.d.). This would explain the name of the piece on a far more mundane level than some theorists have proposed, as will be discussed later. There remain several clues within the painting to indicate this was a woman of significant status. These include her fashionable and highly evident practice of plucking away all facial hair, her rich style of dress and the elaborate background behind her, indicating a position of comfort. She also must have experienced some degree of confidence in her social position to have flaunted other social conventions of the time, such as posing in an upright, stiff manner and wearing as many jewels as could be reasonably attached to her person for the sitting (Loadstar, n.d.). While some of these decisions were undoubtedly made by the artist, such as the specific pose in which the lady would sit, it would also require confidence on the part of the woman to agree to such unadorned posterity. Likewise, identification of the location has remained unclear, possibly because Leonardo was making it up as he went along. However, a bridge seen in the background has been identified as one located at Buriano (Arezzo) (Loadstar, n.d.), even though the rest of the surrounding landscape does not seem to offer a precise location affording this view. Generally, the painting has come to represent the ultimate in feminine mystique and beauty. With her indecipherable smile and fantastic environment, the Mona Lisa presents all the desirable aspects of womanhood in the soft folds of her clothing, her gentle facial expression and relaxed and stabilized pose. However, she also remains completely inaccessible. We cannot find her on a map based upon the landscape behind her. We cannot approach her emotions, not being completely sure of the nature of her smile. And we cannot escape the gaze of her eyes, which seem to follow an individual about the room and refuse to break the connection between subject and viewer despite providing no hints as to the nature of that connection. As a result, she fills the viewer with a sense of approachable regality. We are allowed to look, but we are not allowed to understand and under no circumstances are we permitted to possess. Instead, she seems to possess us without making any overt demands. The smile alone has been the subject of much consideration throughout history. While it remains enigmatic, there are several explanations offered for its charming mystery. The first of these is that this particular smile, with lips partially open and only half a smile showing, was a popular expression for a woman of means in Renaissance Florence. “During this period in history, women were instructed to smile only with one side of their mouths so as to add an air of mystery and elegance” (Loadstar, 2006). Several other paintings created both before and after the Mona Lisa feature this same sort of smile, including paintings created by Leonardo, such as the Last Supper and St. John the Baptist, as well as Leonardo’s mentor Verrochio. Other theories regarding the mystery of the smile have focused on the science of human eye functions, indicating that peripheral vision is the best way to view the smile or that visual noise interrupts our perception of the smile (“Mona Lisa”, 2006). Perhaps what continues to bring the eye back to the smile again and again is the way in which the light plays across the figure’s face, making the smile the bottom arch of a circle that keeps the eye centered in this area. Adding to the mystery, Loadstar (n.d.) indicates that the most expressive areas of the face are the corners of the mouth and eyes, areas that Leonardo intentionally keeps shaded, therefore disguising the true emotions of the woman and contributing to her air of mystery. The success of Leonardo’s approach, both in painting techniques as well as in his change of posture to a more balanced and relaxed pyramidal form is evidence in the great amount of repetition seen in artists following after him. Raphael (1483-1520) took Leonardo’s ideas and further pushed the idea of naturalism with his focus on composition, balance and unity. “His drawing style changed from the tight contours and interior hatching he had learned from Perugino toward the freer, more flowing style of Leonardo. From Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks he evolved a new Madonna type seated in a soft and gentle landscape … He adopted the Mona Lisa format for his portraits, and he also studied closely the sculpture of Michelangelo” (Connor, n.d.). These repetitions did not end with the end of the Renaissance, either. It is believed that this feminine unknown associated with the Mona Lisa has contributed to her fame in the modern era, as surrealists and pop culture have adopted her into their iconography. Marcel Duchamp, for instance, reproduced the Mona Lisa in 1919, providing her with a moustache and goatee and the inscription LHOOQ (which sounds a lot like ‘she has a nice ass’ when read aloud in French) (“Mona Lisa”, 2006). He did this supposedly to imply that the woman in the painting was in a state of sexual excitement and availability but needed a more manly image before she would truly appeal to her artist, who was presumed to have been homosexual (“Mona Lisa”, 2006). With the advent of the Dada and Surrealist movements at the beginning of the 20th century, the Mona Lisa experienced a sharp increase in her popularity as these artists celebrated the enigmas Leonardo presented so far ahead of his time. Her image became the subject of numerous artistic explorations and the pop icon of various advertising and other media throughout the 1970s. There are several other possible hidden meanings behind the Mona Lisa that have been tracked throughout the centuries as well, some of which were discussed in the highly popular book The DaVinci Code written by Dan Brown in 2003. In the book, Mona Lisa’s secrets are divulged as a means of finding yet another clue to the secret the characters are trying to decipher. The main character Langdon figures out the need to visit the painting after realizing the connections made between the fleur-de-lis, or flower of Lisa, that was the symbol of Priory of Sion, and the Mona Lisa. The reason this painting would have been important to them emerges when the symbolisms of this painting are understood in a particular light. Some of these concepts are brought out in a mini-lecture provided in the book itself. “By lowering the countryside on the left, Da Vinci made Mona Lisa look much larger from the left side than from the right side,” Langdon explains (Brown, 2003: 119), the side which was historically linked to the domain of the feminine. In addition, Brown brings out the ideas that the Mona Lisa might be a self-portrait of Leonardo himself; however, it is her ambiguity that is brought out as being her link with the brotherhood. “Mona Lisa is neither male nor female. It carries a subtle message of androgyny. It is a fusing of both” (Brown, 2003: 120), a concept represented in her very name, a combination of the Egyptian male and female deities of fertility. Having been made such a widely distributed and much-altered image within the pop culture scene, the Mona Lisa has, in the modern world, lost some of her appeal and mystery simply in the fact that she is now a very familiar image to most individuals of the Western world. Her gaze is nullified and rendered weak as a result of over-familiarity that causes most modern viewers to believe they are already intimately familiar with this woman before they’ve ever locked eyes with her. As a result, most have not ever noticed the subtle details that bring out her mystery and establish her importance. Once they are seen, however, the mysteries inherent in the portrait also serve to highlight the degree of talent and understanding that it must have taken for Leonardo to achieve the effects he did. This does not include the mere technical achievement in working with the paint, such as the sfumato and chiaroscuro effects that serve to blend and soften features while creating an idea of real three dimensional space, but also in his understanding of human psychology. Basing the design on geometric shapes might have been basic art 101 to him, but the way in which he combines his circles and spheres within the space to keep the eye constantly moving yet also constantly returning to the face and that mysterious little smile without making it seem completely obvious is amazing. His positioning of the woman in a way that made her seem completely relaxed as well as totally balanced also helps the viewer feel more balanced and relaxed even as they study her face and are followed by her eyes as they move around the room. His way of hiding her feelings and identity in a mixture of smoke and shadows is indeed masterful, justifying the popularity and repetition of Leonardo’s work. Still, it remains that strong gaze, both direct and indirect, focused and unfocused, demanding and undemanding, that serve to contain and enrapture the attention of the viewer. Many of these same features are present in the photography of Steve McCurry as he documents the passage of time in the face of a particular Afghan girl. Her image emerged into the Western world with many of the same mysterious qualities as the Mona Lisa. When the image appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985, she was an unknown girl found lost within the multitude of refugees in a Pakistani refugee camp. As is Mona Lisa, she was a mysterious unknown woman, shrouded in the darkness of her equally mysterious homeland of which most Westerners had only vague ideas and again reflects a sense of the mysterious landscape of Mona Lisa’s environment. Her steady gaze into the camera captivates her audience and makes it as difficult to turn away from her as it is to avoid Mona Lisa’s eyes. Like the Mona Lisa, there are few, if any clues, as to who she is contained within the image at the same time that we are given the impression that she is someone with whom we share an intimate connection. Like the Mona Lisa, she is haunting and vulnerable at the same time that she is strong and corporal. Also like the Mona Lisa, the expression on her face demands attention and connection while it provides nothing to suggest relationship or status. By analyzing the elements of this image as it compares with that of the image taken 17 years later and as it compares with the Mona Lisa, reveals it is the gaze that captivates and the gaze that keeps us coming back seeking answers that cannot be found. The image itself is characterized by the same arresting gaze as that which graces the Mona Lisa but also contains some fundamental differences. The Afghan Girl’s green eyes are the most startling aspect of the image and insist upon being recognized. The gaze has the same type of frank scrutiny of the audience that is seen in the Mona Lisa, but the eyes are much more visible and undeniably present in the moment. It will be recalled that the Mona Lisa’s eyes are somewhat veiled behind half-closed lids and set back somewhat from the picture plane. The Afghan Girl’s eyes are nearly at the picture plane as her image, shoulders and head, fill the available space with little to no opportunity to see the background. These eyes continue to pull at the viewer in a way that is unexpected from a simple photograph in the modern world of moving film and digital perfection. For most of the modern world, photography has taken on the context offered by Michel Foucault who says that photography is a means of advancing “the normalizing gaze, a surveillance that makes it possible to qualify, to classify and to punish. It establishes over individuals a visibility through which one differentiates and judges them” (Foucault, 1977: 25). Despite this, the Afghan Girl, with her piercing gaze that at once sees everything and also sees nothing, refuses to be qualified, classified or judged in any way. There are numerous reasons why these eyes stand out to such an incredible degree, many of which become clearer when they are compared with the same eyes in an older face. In the younger photo, the whites of the girl’s eyes remain startlingly clear and bright, offering the strongest white in the image and thus pulling the viewer’s eyes to them for the very contrast they present. The whites of the older woman’s eyes are not any less bright, but seem somehow shadowed to a greater degree. One eye reveals a trace of red running through it that suggests a life of difficulty or sorrow. Comparing the two images side by side, taken 17 years apart, reveals that the woman’s eyebrows seem lower in the older photograph, suggesting either the eyes have sunk into the face somewhat or the brows have fallen slightly or both. This further gives an impression of sorrow and hardship experienced since the image taken of her much earlier in her life. The eyes remain the same startling shade of light green, but they are no longer as open as they were in her youth, perhaps suggesting a guardedness as a result of her unfamiliarity with removing the veil behind which she now lives her life. A darker band around the iris that is obvious in the younger photograph is not so pronounced in the older image yet the gaze remains as arresting, the face remains as strong. Despite these minor changes brought about by age and sorrow, then, the eyes continue to be the most arresting feature of the face and continue to give nothing away. As in the Mona Lisa, the eyes continue to pull at the viewer even as an attempt to solve the mystery of the image rests on the viewer’s ability to accurately assess what the rest of the image has to say. The Afghan girl, in both the old and the new photos, carries the same sort of enigmatic smile that is seen on the lips of the Mona Lisa. It is neither inviting and suggestive or malicious and cruel. It isn’t happy or sad or seemingly capable of expressing any emotion at all. This is more true of the younger girl than the older woman, who’s careworn lines and known history indicate a sense of pervading sadness and doleful acceptance of what her life should be. However, taken strictly on its own merit, even the lips of the older woman betray nothing of her inner nature, her life or her opinions and ideas. She regards her viewers with an open and honest appraisal but doesn’t judge and doesn’t allow herself to be judged. She is what she is and she is neither happy nor sad about the fact and accepts her viewers as such. While a connection is made between subject and viewer thanks to this open look, the nature of this connection is as unknowable as that between the viewer and Mona Lisa herself. Other elements of the photos depict vastly different living situations for the woman depicted. In the earlier photograph, the amorphous green wall behind her provides absolutely no clues as to her geographical location, just as Mona Lisa’s fantastic background only serves to place her in an environment that never existed. Slight streaks that run down the wall suggest a less than affluent environment, but that’s the only real contextual clue provided as to her location. The red veil she wears loosely over her head has been ripped and scorched, revealing the green of the dress she wears underneath. This tattered piece of cloth, however, is not capable of adequately concealing her wealth of unruly dark hair or the narrow beauty of her face. The contrast of the red and the green create a pleasing aesthetic effect for the viewer that nevertheless seems accidental and unstaged even while it serves to highlight and accentuate the color of her eyes. While it would be assumed that a woman dressed in rags would necessarily take the lower status in any given relationship established between herself and her viewer, the girl’s face gives away none of her importance. She is always on an equal footing with everyone who has ever viewed her simply through the strength of her gaze. These elements of the image are vastly changed when the woman is photographed again 17 years later. She is no longer the small, angular girl she was in the refugee camp, which is obvious by the more rounded edges of her chin and face, but her environment remains every bit as mysterious as it was in the earlier image. Here, the background of her location is faded into a deep shadow, appearing in the image as a soft black with no discernable shapes in the distance. Even the lower portion of the image where her body should be emerges as a soft dark area with no shape or form, giving the impression that her head remains floating freely in space, unconnected to the world in which the rest of the world views her. This is very representative of the woman herself as she continues to live behind the veil in unnamed rural villages in Afghanistan and prefers not to receive the attentions of the Western press. For 17 years, her identity remained unknown and nothing was known of what had happened to her, whether she had survived the refugee camps and where she went from there. At the same time, her clothing has seen an upgrade from the tattered rags she wore as a child. Her veil is a rich blue patterned with elaborate silky blue stitching throughout and her hair is now neatly contained within the fabric. Unlike the face of the past, this face has lost the browning of the sun and now reveals ruddy patches where the sun’s damage has left its permanent mark but the eyes are no more apologetic or defeated for it. While the identity of Mona Lisa remains a matter for conjecture, though, the identity of the Afghan Girl was finally discovered in 2002. Her name is Sharbat Gula and the means by which she was found were perhaps no less daunting than the measures that have sometimes been taken to discover the identity of Mona Lisa. Although the photographer had attempted to find her for years after he took the picture, he was unsuccessful and it was thought her identity would never be fully known. In a last effort to identify her before the refugee camp where she had been photographed was shut down, National Geographic magazine joined forces with the photographer and began asking around. “In January 2002, a National Geographic team returned to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan, where Sharbat Gula was originally photographed, to search for her. She was identified through a series of contacts that led to her brother and husband, who agreed to ask her if she was willing to be interviewed” (Braun, 2003). According to the article, the search for Sharbat Gula was lengthy, winding its way through a more than one remote village and following at least one trail that led nowhere before one of the people they asked recognized the girl as the sister of someone he knew. One of the searchers said, “The second I saw the color of her brother’s eyes, I knew we had the right family” (Braun, 2003). However, finding her was only half of the battle. Gula lives a traditional Muslim lifestyle, which meant that in order to get her story, a female reporter was obliged to go talk with her – Muslim women are not permitted to associate with men outside of the family circle. Once her identity had been confirmed, the family finally agreed to allow the woman to meet with the male photographer that had taken her picture so many years ago so that he could find out what had happened to her and take the second photograph ever taken of her face. “I don’t think she was particularly interested in her personal fame,” McCurry said. “But she was pleased when we said she had come to be a symbol of the dignity and resilience of her people” (Braun, 2003). With her identity revealed, it was believed that knowing a little bit more about what had happened in this woman’s life would reveal some of the mystery behind the gaze depicted in the first photograph. The most obvious facts about her are that she lives in Afghanistan, in a remote village, and shares her home with her husband and her three young daughters. She is a member of the Pashtun ethnic group which typically lives in the area of Afghanistan that borders Pakistan as well as occupying the south-central region of Afghanistan. “Sharbat said she fared relatively well under Taliban rule, which, she feels, provided a measure of stability after the chaos and terror of the Soviet War” (Braun, 2003). Obviously she survived the refugee camp. Although she gave birth to four daughters, one of them died in infancy. Outside of this basic information about her, Sharbat lives in obscurity as every other good Muslim woman is expected to do, hiding her face away from the world behind a veil and remaining within the protected confines of her husband’s home, raising her daughters to follow in her footsteps and hoping they will never have to suffer through the same sort of frightening experiences she grew up with. The second photograph taken of her, as well as the new information provided about her, does little to penetrate the mystery of those startling green eyes staring out of the page of a magazine. “The award-winning photographer said his original image of Sharbat had seized the imagination of so many people around the world because her face, particularly her eyes, expressed pain and resilience as well as strength and beauty” (Braun, 2003). The second photograph taken of her did nothing to dispel these impressions. The images of Sharbat Gula and Mona Lisa continue to fascinate the modern world today because they defy what is understood and commonly accepted about the concept of the gaze. Both women peer out of their images and transfix the viewer with a steady look that reveals nothing about what is expected or offered but merely catches them in a moment of time. While there are several differences between the two images – Mona Lisa is painted while Sharbat was photographed, one is a mid-range depiction while the other is a close-up – these differences seem minor in comparison with their similarities. Both women reflect a level of strength and self-sufficiency in a world where these traits are not often revealed even while they acknowledge their vulnerability and femininity. They stare out of the picture plane with a clear gaze that concedes nothing and accepts nothing in return. They capture their viewer with an air of mystery that cannot be solved by centuries of research and study or even knowledge of identity and background. Millions have been captivated by both images as they attempt to understand the depths. Whether this time is seconds, minutes or even hours, the images continue to fascinate partially due to the sense that the roles have been reversed. Rather than the viewer consuming the image, for many it seems as if the image is consuming the viewer. Such is the power of the gaze thus presented. Works Cited “(The) Art of Leonardo da Vinci.” Gallery Player. (2006). November 30, 2007 Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin, 1972. Braun, David. “How they Found National Geographic’s ‘Afghan Girl’.” National Geographic News. (March 7, 2003). November 30, 2007 Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday Books, (2003). Chandler, Daniel. “Notes on ‘The Gaze.’” Aberystwyth University, 2000. November 30, 2007 < http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze01.html> Connor, Linda. “Leonardo da Vinci: A Portrait of a Man and His Time.” Computer Application in Education. Manitoba, Canada: University of Manitoba, (n.d.). November 30, 2007 Da Vinci, Leonardo. “Mona Lisa.” The Louvre, Paris, (1505). November 30, 2007 Kress, Gunther & van Leeuwen, Theo. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge, 1996. Loadstar. “Mona Lisa.” Lairweb. (n.d.). November 30, 2007 Meyrowitz, Joshua. No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. “Mona Lisa.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, (June 4, 2006). November 30, 2007 . Schroeder, Jonathan E. “Consuming Representation: A Visual Approach to Consumer Research.” Representing Consumers: Voices, Views and Visions. Barbara B. Stern (Ed.). London: Routledge, 1998: 193-230. Read More