ART, I like

Since I'm in such a giving mood today, I shall give you people two magnificent paintings, both by Leonardo Da Vinci. The first one would be the ever famous Mona Lisa and the second one, The Last Supper.

We'll first talk about Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda (La Joconde) is a 16th-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The painting, a half-length portrait, depicts a woman whose gaze meets the viewer's with an expression often described as enigmatic. It is considered by many to be Leonardo's magnum opus. Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo who was most likely the sitter. Lisa was a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany who married Francesco del Giocondo, a successful silk merchant. The painting was commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.

In Italian, ma donna from donna meaning my lady which became madonna, and its contraction mona. Mona is thus a polite form of address, similar to Madam or my lady in English. In modern Italian, the short form of madonna is usually spelled Monna, so the title is sometimes Monna Lisa, rarely in English and more commonly in Romance languages such as French and Italian. Mona Lisa's smile has repeatedly been a subject of many - greatly varying - interpretations. Sigmund Freud interpreted the 'smile' as signifying Leonardo's erotic attraction to his mother. Others have described the smile as both innocent and inviting. Many researchers have tried to explain why the smile is seen so differently by people. The explanations range from scientific theories about human vision to curious supposition about Mona Lisa's identity and feelings.

In late 2005, Dutch researchers from the University of Amsterdam ran the painting's image through "emotion recognition" computer software developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The technology demonstration found the smile to be 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, 2% angry, less than 1% neutral, and 0% surprised. There are many speculations regarding Mona Lisa and Her smile, and many new artists tend to agree that the reason behind her smile is to be questioned. By looking at her eyes; before the smile, the thought that comes first, to many minds, is that her eyes hold a certain sadness, again which reason is left for discussion. However, this leads people to question whether her smile was of a positive reason, and it leads many critics to suggest more deeper reasoning into Mona Lisa and her smile.

So there there, we've now got to know a little more about Mona Lisa. Oh yes, and her smile.

Let us now bring out the ever so famous painting of Mona Lisa..
























Now, for comic relief, let us now bring out Maybellyn's "Mona Lisa"..















For now, we'll move on to The Last Supper. A painting which has brought about a lot of controversies especially after the appearance of Dan Brown's Da Vinci code. In the Christian Gospels, the Last Supper (also called Lord's Supper) was the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles before his death. The Last Supper has been the subject of many paintings, perhaps the most famous by Leonardo Da Vinci. In the course of the Last Supper, and with specific reference to taking the bread and the wine, Jesus told his disciples, "Do this in remembrance of me", (1 Corinthians 11:23–25). (The vessel which was used to serve the wine is sometimes called the Holy Chalice.) Many Christians describe this as the institution of the Eucharist.

According to tradition, the Last Supper took place in what is called today The Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion, just outside of the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, and is traditionally known as The Upper Room. This is based on the account in the synoptics that states that Jesus had instructed a pair of unnamed disciples to go to the city to meet a man carrying a jar of water, who would lead them to a house, where they were to ask for the room where the teacher has a guest room. This room is specified as being the upper room, and they prepare the passover there. It is not actually specified where the city refers to, and it may refer to one of the suburbs of Jerusalem, such as Bethany; the traditional location is not based on anything more specific in the Bible, and may easily be wrong.

Now, we have also covered a little about The Last Supper.

Let us now bring out the painting of The Last Supper..













Feast your eyes as I now present to you Maybellyn's very own "The Last Supper"..
















I told you that I'm in such a giving mood today. Have a great day everybody. Enjoy. Oh, i do love art. Till then.

Au revoir.

Pretty girl.

Not forgetting, most of the information above was obtained from www.wikipedia.com.