Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe Paintings Essay

da Vinci DaVincis Mona Lisa is iodine of the near well-known flicks in the world. Show anyone from a 60 year old man to a 10 year old girl a generate of the de gentle windation and, around wish wellly, they give be fitted to name the ikon as well as the painter. While well-nigh speculate that DaVincis painting is the well-nigh famous of all scored, some of Andy Warhols paintings ar excessively easily recognizable. Almost e tangibleone has seen the Campbells Soup Can series Warhol pied or his famous Triple Elvis print. This paper ordain be focusing on his Marilyn Monroe series, which I will be comparing and tuneing to the Mona Lisa. There atomic number 18 more obvious differences between the ii paintings, such(prenominal) as the time period, food colour scheme, emphasize and display case matter. My goal is to also point reveal round similarities such as their call of report, recreations, fame, and prominence in society.One of the study contrasts between the 2 deeds is the history kittyful the paintings. Andy Warhol was give tongue to to be fascinated with the actress Marilyn Monroes sup be suicide in prideful of 1962. Warhol proved the Proverb, Good men must die, just now death cannot kill their names to be true, qualification his Marilyn Monroe series one of his most famous arrive ats. Warhol bought a publicity still of Marilyns 1953 movie Niagara, cropped it, increase the verbalism, and reproduced it on eight different canvases. Each painting was given a different rubric scheme. These paintings were the st artistic creationing line solo exhibition for Warhol. The most famous of the series, corn Marilyn, was bought and kept in a private order of battle until 2007.While the subject of Warhols painting is developedly well known and easily recognized, the subject of Leonardo DaVincis Mona Lisa was most likely commoner, and in that respect be many different theories of who the cleaning adult femalehood could be. Some say the fair sex is DaVinci himself, in womanhood carcass. Others say it could be Lisa Gherardini the wife of a wealthy businessman in Florence, Italy named Francesco Del Giocondo. DaVinci was commissioned to paint the Mona Lisa in 1503, and worked on it for quartet years before it was finished. DaVinci kept his painting for sweet of a season before he sell it to the King of France, King Francois, in 1516. (Mona Lisa. Lairweb.com. N.p., n.d. Web.) After the french Revolution, the painting was moved to the Louvre, where it remains today.The history behind the paintings also point out several to a greater extent differences. There is only one Mona Lisa, spell Warhol created many Marilyn paintings. The time period when the two painters lived was decades apart. DaVinci was alive from 1452-1519, while Warhol was born in 1928 and died in 1987. While Warhol was strictly an artist, DaVinci spent time as a mathematician, engineer, writer, and geologist as well.The two mens so rts of painting were truly different as well. DaVinci painted in the panache of chiaroscuro, the use of strong contrasts between get down and dim, and sfumato. Sfumato is created by painting a color that turns slowly from light to morose tones to give off a kind of misty glow or smoky mystery. Andy Warhol was a major part of the Pop art movement. Jennifer Rosenberg of About.com quoted set off art as being, a new style of art that began in England in the mid-1950s and consisted of realistic renditions of popular, and universal items. (Rosenberg, Jennifer. Andy Warhol. About.com 20th Century History. About.com, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.) Warhol apply silk-screening to create Marilyn Monroe. Warhol is quoted as formula, In August 62 I started doing silkscreens.I wanted something stronger that gave more of an assembly line effectyou pick a photograph, blow it up, lurch it in glue onto silk, and then roll ink across it so the ink goes through the silk just now not through the gl ue I was excite with it. When Marilyn Monroe happened to die that month, I got the idea to make screens of her lovely touch modality the first Marilyns. (Andy Warhols Marilyn Prints. Andy Warhols Marilyn Prints. food colouring Vision and Art, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.) DaVincis painting was imperfect for the time. The traditional paintings of his time were of a head and shoulders portrait, in a truly rigid or posed rate.The Mona Lisa is painted all the office down to her hands, and she attends to be in a very comfortable, relaxed pose. Her pose is very linear, which conveys a sense of formal and dignified ideas. (ROEMER, CK. feel at broad Art Practice. Http//www.studiocodex.com. N.p., 2007. Web.) This would be bewitch if this woman is the wife of a wealthy man, which is one of the speculations of the womans identity. Andy Warhols painting, on the new(prenominal) hand, come alongs almost regressive. Only Marilyns slope is providen. She is depict with a very serious ex pression, and is very artificially posed. This counts to project a sense of excitement or disorder, which represent Marilyns life very accurately.The two subjects of the painting argon very different in appearance as well. The Mona Lisa has no makeup on. She is urbane very plainly and does not seem to be wearing any jewelry. Marilyn Monroe has a lot of physical composition on and has her blur curled and styled. Marilyn seems to ca-ca a haughty or annoyed expression on her face, while Mona Lisa is smiling slightly and seems to be euphoric and content. other major difference between the two paintings is the use of color. The Mona Lisa is depicted in very common tones. The tan color of the flesh seems terminalr to the viewer, while the muted browns, greens, tans, and blues seem to fade into the terra firma. DaVinci used light and spicy colors to highlight sure parts of the painting, such as the womans face and hands.The color sicktte is what would be judge if this was an ac tual photograph. Andy Warhols Marilyn is the complete opposite of the Mona Lisa. none of the colors are natural, except, maybe, the makeup, and can appear shock to the center field at first glance. All aspects of the painting are bright nerve centres, lips, middle shadow, and sensory hair. Warhol painted Marilyn in ten different color combinations with 250 of each color variation. (Henry. Henry On Pop Art. Henry On Pop Art N.p., 08 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.)While the actual colors used in the paintings are very different, the counseling the painters used the colors brings out a relation in the two. Mona Lisa is dressed very dark and her ill face is framed by dark hair. The light colors used in the background seem to bring the woman to the front of the painting. This was most definitely done on purpose by DaVinci. He wanted the viewer to focus on Mona Lisa. The same can be said of Warhol. He uses a bright contrasting color for his background of Marilyn Monroe. Although th e background color almost always matches that of Marilyns eye shadow, the background contrasts with the rest of the painting, bringing the face towards the viewer.The use of line in both paintings is also similar. No brush strokes are visible in either painting, and appear a bit foggy. The Mona Lisa is this way due to the technique, sfumato, discussed earlier. In Marilyn, it is hard to pick out a defined line in her hair, for simulation. The lines in DaVincis paintings are the same, flowing from one to the other. The Mona Lisa is blend so well that each section seems like a part of the next.The background of the Mona Lisa is a landscape painting with a river, bridge, trees, grass, and mountains. The view seems to go on forever, and there is no real focal point in the background. The backgrounds purpose in this painting in unknown, some say it is to contrast the peaceful look of the woman with a foreboding background. Others think it could have been as wide as DaVinci practicing wi th landscapes. Unlike Mona Lisa, the backgrounds of the Marilyn Monroe paintings are a solid color. The background contrasts dramatically with the colors in the actual face. The background pulls the viewers eye to Marilyns face, instead of something that could be happening in the background.Symmetry is another example of a way the two paintings are alike. The shape of the Mona Lisa is very symmetrical. The woman is sitting straight and a straight line down the middle of the painting would show touch parts. The womans body is a trilateral shape, with the tops of her legs and hand forming the base, and her head becoming the point. Her face is very circular, and the smile she displays is an arch of a circle. (Roemer, CK. flavour at Great Art Practice. Http//www.studiocodex.com. N.p., 2007. Web.) Warhol gives his Marilyn Monroe paintings a astute heart shape with the curves created by her hairline. The painter, like DaVinci, uses simple shapes as well, such as the half-moon of her e ye shadow, or the slight triangles of her eyebrows, which also shows symmetry.DaVinci creates a feeling of depth and space in his painting. The fact that the woman is taller than the mountains in the background suggests that she is seated very close to the viewer, while the mountains are in the distance. The detail of the pleats in her skirt, the individual pieces of hair, and transparent veil that covers her head are small details that make the woman seem closer to the viewer. The walking paths and streams of water leading up the painting make the eye move upwards, and form a sense of continuous forest. The viewers go out that the landscape goes on for quite a while. (Roemer, CK. flavour at Great Art Practice. Http//www.studiocodex.com. N.p., 2007. Web.) In contrast to DaVinci, Warhol used space by placing Marilyns face in the middle of the painting. There is no real use of depth in this painting, because of the plain, contrasting color background. She almost appears to be comple tely flat against the surface.The eye is immediately drawn to the face in Marilyn Monroe. As mentioned above, the contrasting background color pulls the face forward, devising the viewer notice her first. The same can be said of Mona Lisa, making focal point a similarity of the two. The woman in Mona Lisa is the biggest part of the painting. Her pale face offset by her dark hair and clothes draws the viewers eye to her. The position of her hands is right below her face, which also serves as a line to the focal point.The use of caryopsis is somewhat absent from Warhols painting, while the Mona Lisa is right of texture, another difference in the paintings. The folds in the womans dress make the painting seem more realistic, while the uneven and sharp edges of the mountains in the background contrast nicely with the smoothness of the womans face and hair. The womans strip also has a dotted affect which makes it seem more lifelike, instead of Warhols Marilyn that seems fake and unre alistic.The use of value plays a huge role in both paintings. DaVinci uses abrupt changes in value The pale skin of the woman face and hands against her dark hair and dress. He uses the same type of changes to show the wrinkles on the fabric of her vestments. (ROEMER, CK. Looking at Great Art Practice. Http//www.studiocodex.com. N.p., 2007. Web.) Andy Warhol uses value changes in the brightness of Marilyns hair against the darker background. The black tones used underneath her hair are darker than the color of her somewhat pale skin.Another similarity is the massive amounts of recreations or paintings based on the same subject. Many artists has done their own magnetic variation of the Mona Lisa, making her their nationality, fat, and even making her another somebody altogether. Many artists have also taken Marilyn Monroe and painted her their own way.Both paintings still play a huge role in society today. You can buy phone cases, laptop skins, and even clothing with a picture of t hese paintings. Replicas of both paintings can be seen hanging on walls of homes, restaurants, and art galleries. Mona Lisa and Marilyn Monroe are both easily recognized and correctly identified in todays society.A final similarity between the two paintings is the significance they both play in their style of art. Leonardo DaVincis Mona Lisa is said to have become the prototype for Renaissance paintings. (Lorenzzi, Rosella. Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa. N.p., 16 Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.) Andy Warhol was affectionately known as the pontiff of Pop, and his Marilyn Monroe series came to be one of the most well-known and popular works of pop art in his time. The final difference between the two, and most interesting, is that Warhol recreated DaVincis Mona Lisa in his own style position 30 Mona Lisas in one silk screen. Warhol is quoted as saying 30 is better than 1. (Rose, Millie. Postmodernism. Andy Warhol. N.p., 08 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.) The Mona Lisa is said to have been a ma jor inspiration to Warhol, and he was honored to be able to have his own whirl on this iconic painting. Obviously Warhols work did not influence DaVinci because of the time frame.While the differences furthest outweigh the similarities, both paintings are brilliant. Warhol was a major influence in the pop art world, and his paintings are still being used in many forms of advertising today. DaVinci is said to have been the ultimate example of what a portrait should be, and without a doubt, he has influenced many of the other famous painters today. Both men, while their styles couldnt have been anymore different, have two of the most famous names in the art world.* Esaack, Shelly. gamboge Marilyn, 1962. About.com Art History. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012. * Mona Lisa. Lairweb.com. N.p., n.d. Web.* Rosenberg, Jennifer. Andy Warhol. About.com 20th Century History. About.com, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012. * Henry. Henry On Pop Art. Henry On Pop Art N.p., 08 Aug. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. 2012. * RO EMER, CK. Looking at Great Art Practice. Http//www.studiocodex.com. N.p., 2007. Web. * Lorenzzi, Rosella. Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa. N.p., 16 Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2012. * Rose, Millie. Postmodernism. Andy Warhol. N.p., 08 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.