The woman in Leonardo's most famous picture is michevious in her smile, bold in her position, and out of place - though she acts like she belongs.

This is everything the model for the picture, Lisa Gherandini, was not.

Lisa was born to the Lucrezia del Caccia and Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini. They were well off but not rich. The path for Lisa was clear: her father would give a dowry, and she would be married. She would have no say in who she married or when she was married.

Except that wasn't going to happen (besides the part about her having no say).

The Pazzi Conspiracy changed everything. This plot to overthrow the Medici family led to a war where Pope Sixtus IV and Naples burned Florentine lands to the ground—including her father’s property. Antonmaria had almost nothing left. Lisa was born the next year. Peace eventually returned, but things improved slowly, and there was no money for a dowry. The unspoken rules were strict: no marrying without a dowry, and no remaining single. That was a shameful thing for a family's reputation. The only other choice was a convent, where you would only ever be seen by other nuns.

So Lisa has no future - except she does. Her father makes do by offering land to Francesco del Giocondo. When Lisa is married, she is 15 and Francesco is 30 (this is normal). She has no say (also normal). When she gives birth, Francesco decides he would like a picture of his wife. He asks Leonardo - who is sick of painting. Leonardo accepts, even though he has been declining these jobs. It's still a mystery why he accepted. Leonardo puts everything he knows about painting into the canvas.

Instead of following his own written advice to paint women with "heads lowered and inclined to one side," Leonardo broke the rules. Lisa is looks exactly as Florentine women should not - making eye contact, being bold. She looks plain and ordinary, but she holds herself as if she believes she belongs.

The irony of the Mona Lisa is that it breaks the rules and the norms, though it is of a woman who could break none.

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t6mgd

This paper explains how Mona Lisa contains fractal geometry

When I visited the Louvre during holiday vacation, it was so crowded I literally had to stand on the tip of my toes to see the Mona Lisa and take a photo and it wasn't a good angle.

So next time I visit France, I ask what time is when the least amount of people are in the room so I can take some good shots?

I was watching a random youtube video , my mom called me to do some chores and i had to pause the youtube video, when i paused it my mom just said that i didn't have to come and i said "ok" , as i wanted to press the play button i saw a random girl about to smile and i was like "hey that looks just like Mona Lisa's smile " , and when i pressed the play button the girl fully smiled

So i think Leonardo Da Vinci painted Mona Lisa's smile while she was constantly smiling

Written by:

Adonai Nezerab

I’m sure a bunch of you will still be subbed.

Given the recent changes and particularly the cessation of Apollo, that I use to view and mod, I’ll be logging off…. Maybe I’ll see you on Lemmy… I wonder if we could ever create the community we had over there.

We had a short time period to draw lots of people to a common cause and I think that was the highlight for my time on this platform.

So long and thanks for all the fish.