 Leonardo had a way with light and shadow, or as he called it, chiaroscuro. He makes the Mona Lisa look round and lifelike. (See the real painting!) |
"Ah!" says Carmine. "The Mona Lisa. Probably Leonardo da Vinci's most famous and beloved work. He loved it too—he spent three years painting it and kept it his whole life. This gal really shows off Leonardo's artistic genius!
"It's a formal portrait, but Leonardo gives her personality and a smile that has kept people talking for five hundred years! His style was something new in portraiture.
 "Before the Renaissance, the Madonna and baby Jesus were often shown as formal, stiff figures without great emotion." |
 "Leonardo was one of the first to paint the Madonna and Child as a loving mother playing with her baby." |
"The Renaissance was a celebration of the human spirit and life! Artists made even religious subjects less distant by showing them as stories filled with human emotions and experiences.
"Leonardo transforms the Last Supper into a story of high emotion.
Look at the faces of Jesus' disciples as they learn one of them will betray
him.
"'Mona
Lisa' and 'Madonna and Child' also show Leonardo's use of aerial perspective.
By making things in the distance look faded, blurry and bluish, Leonardo
makes the background look deep.
"So which of these paintings do you think were made by Leonardo da Vinci? Click on the painting to find out!"
"I don't think our time meddler dared touch the Mona Lisa! Nothing looks changed here, so let's look around and see if there's anything else that's been changed."
©2007 SANFORD, A Newell Rubbermaid Company
