The Mona Lisa By Leonardo Da Vinci

The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci is not only one of the most important paintings ever created, it was one of the most important to Leonardo himself, a work he spent more than four years on and carried with him everywhere he went for the remainder of his life. The Importance of the Mona Lisa to Leonardo has caused great deals of speculation as to why he might have painted it and what the painting might be depicting.

When was the Mona Lisa Painted and Why?

The original Mona Lisa was painted in 1503 by Leonardo Da Vinci in his home in Italy. Vasari, the famous Italian biographer, wrote that it was a commission for Francesco del Giacondo and his wife Lisa Ghirardi, the model. Ghirardi would have been a 24 year old recent bride about to give birth to her second child at the time. Other scholars have made connections between Leonardo's father and Francesco as friends and that Leonardo's father might have commissioned the painting himself as a gift.

However, none of these facts are sufficient to explaining why the painting held so much value to Leonardo during his life. There are numerous theories recently postulated (in the last 100 years or so) that hope to tackle this question and make sense of the life and work of the world's most important artist.

Other Models in the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

With the outstanding theory being that the Mona Lisa is a painting of Lisa Ghirardi and other theories pointing to the possibility that it could be either Constanza d'Avalos or Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan, the question of its importance is still not answered. While the revolutionary style and expression in the portrait have enthralled the art world since it was painted, it doesn't explain DaVinci's attachment.

A Self Portrait or His Mother?

There are further theories that the painting might have been a self-portrait, supported by the similarity of the painting to other self-portraits of DaVinci he painted and with other paintings that carry similar facial features. Another theory still postulates that he may have instilled some of the features of his mother in all of these paintings, making the Mona Lisa a portrait not of Lisa Ghirardi in detail, but of his mother Caterina.

The Importance of his Life's Work

Throughout his life, Leonardo was intrigued by almost everything under the sun. He had a habit of infusing his interests into numerous works, adding touches of his obsession with weather and topography into the Mona Lisa in the background to show humanity's culmination with nature. For that reason, his artwork was incredibly important to him, not only as art but as an expression of his life's work. With such a small painting, and four years of work put into it, it could just be that he kept it with him as a representative of that.

With so much time and energy put into his masterpiece, Leonardo may have simply been wary to part way s with it, unable to find a suitable buyer, or lost the commission after the painting was completed. Whatever reason he so loved it though, Mona Lisa by da Vinci is full of the kinds of mystery and importance that has endured for more than 500 years.

Colin Andrews is the Director of Aspect Art Ltd, an on-line exporter of the highest quality reproduction oil paintings, http://www.aspectart.com To view all of Leonardo's paintings on-line please visit http://www.aspectart.com/shp/Da-Vinci-Leonardo/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Andrews

Colin Andrews - EzineArticles Expert Author
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Leonardo Da Vinci Has a Blog Now!

Author: Scuola Leonardo da Vinci

There it is, the blog is coming out from Scuola Leonardo da Vinci, the leading and most innovative Italian language school in Italy.





After more than 30 years of experience as an institute specialized in the field of Italian teaching, this important Italian language school has decided to open more and new ways of communication with students all around the world.





The Scuola Leonardo da Vinci's blog will collect lots of information about the schools history and locations, the language courses offered in the course of the year and, last but not least, about the Italian language and culture, and about Italy in general.





The idea of this blog is to introduce and experiment new forms of communication with the aim of conveying information about Italy and the Italian lifestyle, not only through conventional language courses but also by the internet, addressing directly to people interested in knowing this subject. Scuola Leonardo itself knows the difficulty of such experiment, as stated on its first post: "This is our first experience about writing and managing a blog. Please, give us just a little bit of time to familiarize and practise on it! But, let us say that any kind of suggestion will be well-appreciated and welcome!"





In conclusion the goal that this blog wants to reach is the publication of news concerning Leonardo da Vinci Italian language schools & courses and the collection of news, tips and useful information about Italy (with focus on the main Italian cities), the Italian culture and about everyday Italian language.





When asking them for something more, they answered: "Not enough? Uhm, it's getting a hard task then!" and they promise to use this space also for collecting all the news, stories, photos, videos and comments by their students, doing something that looks like a first step for a real web social 2.0 community about Italy and the Italian language.





Their invitation is to visit the blog of Leonardo da Vinci School as soon as possible because they are going to publish always new and interesting posts.





Good luck Leonardo.





Elena Lorenzini

About the Author:

Scuola Leonardo da Vinci is one of Italy's largest provider of in-country Italian courses in Italy since 1977. It is present in the most beautiful cities of Italy (Florence, Milan, Rome and Siena). Each year the company welcomes students from 60 countries to its Italian language schools.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/leonardo-da-vinci-has-a-blog-now-240853.html

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Son-ship of Believers

In what manner have we responded when we hear a prayer,
identifying ourselves to God as His sons and daughters ?
Not often do we hear this kind of prayer being prayed here.
And why is this?

We are His sons and daughters, are we not?
If we truly have believed in Him.
So why not? Why aren't we,
praying to Father God to claim we are HIS sons and daughters, and declare out loud?

Read on.
For here, you will find it in bible study.
Just that we need to be abiding and be constant in it, holding unto the boldness God places into our heart to witness for Him, in Him and by Him.

God's Love is universal.
We call Him Father God with all our heart, all our mind, and all of our soul,
believing in Him in His Spiritual Adoption of us all, in case we have forgotten.
Have we been exercising this son-ship of believers in God?

Turn with me to 1st John 3:1;
" Behold, what manner of love the Father Hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called sons (and daughters) of God ".
And in verse 2;
" Beloved, now are we the sons ( & daughters ) of God ....."
" And it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when He Shall Come, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He Is " !
Praise The Lord. Hallelujah !

Believe in God's Love of our Father in His Spiritual Adoption of us all,
and hath us granted son-ship that we ought put into practise.
Do not withhold or doubt it, for this will be our reward at advent.
And isn't that wonderful to be given a heavenly vision that we just received?
Have we perceived it?

To be more clear to you, please read Revelation 22:4
His Face we shall see and His Name
shall be inscribed onto our foreheads to reach right into our hearts !

God Is Light.
Therefore there shall be no nights there. No such darkness as we suffer here on earth.
And we need no candles, nor electricity, or even the light from the sun, because our Lord Jesus Christ Giveth Light, and we shall reign with Him forevermore. Amen.

This Revelation of our lord Jesus Christ is so vivid and clear, yet not many of us bother to read or have seriously read it and believe in it.
So sad isn't it that we live in such irony.

This is our Lord in His Book of Revelation telling us what is to come !
He gave a dictation to His servant John who suffered for The Lord at Patmos.
John was rewarded in his suffering to be blessed with such powerful vision of God in His Judgement Day. And John received first hand divine revelation from The Lord that we ought to desire for. Not just material blessing that we ask of God all the time. Ask for spiritual blessing the most important of all. The former so temporal while the latter so much more beneficial as being everlasting.

Hear what Lord Jesus is saying to us now !
" Behold, I AM Coming soon " !
" And I Shall bring My Wages and Rewards with ME ", proclaims our Lord.

See ! Our Lord is going to come to give us what we deserve.

Reward and/or Reproach.
Just be mindful of what Lord Jesus wrote to the Seven churches.
Which category out of the seven do you and i belong?
Have we lost our first love for Him?
Are we lukewarm, neither hot nor cold The Lord will spit us out of His Mouth?
Will we be sent to the wine press?
Or be thrown out as trash?
How do we stand?

Our Lord Jesus 2nd Coming is imminent, there is no escape for any of us.
All will be divinely judged. And the judgement will be according to
what we have done or not done and our level of faith in Lord Jesus.

Our actions and/or inaction, will be the result of either reward or reproach from
Jesus Christ our Lord Whom we must serve now with a god fearing spirit in us.

The fullness of time is at hand, sadly some among us have yet learn to fully respect time to be punctual, to recognise the time facing us.

So let us be mutually admonished in today's sharing. Everyone and anyone is welcome to share. Just that we need to share out of love. For God Sees our heart as we learned from bible, " God from His Heavenly Throne, Can See deep right into the heart of man ".

Among all else, if we just heed 2nd Chronicles 7:14 and claim verses 15 and 16; already Pastor Timothy has helped us in reading out loud before each time he begins with his sermon. So let us believe in confident trust in our Lord Jesus Christ that we shall gain right to the Tree of Life and will have our name in the Book of Records in the heavenly places.

Praise be our Lord God Almighty.

The Grace of God be upon us all.

" Yes Lord Jesus, Come " !
" Come Jesus, my Lord, my God " !

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