What visual techniques are used for the painting on Mona Lisa?

Question

i have a visual arts assignment and we have to write an essay on an artist and any painting hey have made. as you can tell i have chosen Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. one of the questions are asking what visual techniques have been used to create the painting. my dad is no help and i cant find anything on the internet. do you have any ideas what techniques have been used?

Answer 1

..Leonardo's masterful technique



According to Louvre Curator Jean-Pierre Cuzin, "The entire history of portraiture afterwards depends on the Mona Lisa. If you look at all the other portraits – not only of the Italian Renaissance, but also of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries – if you look at Picasso, at everyone you want to name, all of them were inspired by this painting. Thus it is sort of the root, almost, of occidental portrait painting."



Mona Lisa detail

In a break with the Florentine tradition of outlining the painted image, Leonardo perfected the technique known as sfumato, which translated literally from Italian means "vanished or evaporated." Creating imperceptible transitions between light and shade, and sometimes between colors, he blended everything "without borders, in the manner of smoke," his brush strokes so subtle as to be invisible to the naked eye.



Leonardo was fascinated by the way light falls on curved surfaces. The gauzy veil, Mona Lisa's hair, the luminescence of her skin – all are created with layers of transparent color, each only a few molecules thick, making the lady's face appear to glow, and giving the painting an ethereal, almost magical quality.

Answer 2

"I can't find ANYTHING on the Internet..." OH REALLY? What are you using as a search term? How cats paint kitchens???



The VERY SIMPLE KEYWORDS, "mona lisa painting technique" pull up MANY MANY articles.



"The first omprehensive evaluation of Leonardo's painting technique on the Mona Lisa started in 2004, and was preformed by the experts of the Centre for ..."

"A look into Da Vinci painting techniques used to create his great works of art."

"S. Lee Hager on focus in Mona Lisa"

"French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the "Mona Lisa," to analyze the master's technique that gave his works their dreamy quality."



And that was just the FIRST PAGE of results...The articles go into great detail regarding color, value, and paint application.



So, unless you tried searching with keywords totally unrelated to what you are asking us here, there is NO reason you cannot find in-depth and very clear discussion of the techniques used.



You just have to make a bit more effort to find this information on the Internet. I suggest another search, using the keywords presented above...