Mona Lisa Smile Essay Samples

Heralded as one of the wonders of the art world, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has inspired artists and sparked debates for centuries. At a price point of about $787 million, one must wonder if this incredible price point is due to the ongoing mystery of what lies behind Mona Lisa’s smile.
It is reported that Da Vinci played music for Mona Lisa while he painted her, however the validity of this is up for debate, much like the cause for the expression on her face. It is my personal opinion that the slight smile was due to a request from the artist, perhaps, because it is difficult to maintain anything other than a natural resting face position for long stretches of time. If this is not the case, I surmise the cause of her smile was because it is a great honor to be painted, especially during this time period where art was both heralded and commissioned in ways that were not done previously. The smile can also be interpreted as sarcastic, or annoyed. It looks as if Mona Lisa agreed to more than she’d bargained for, and was pained to find that she had to sit still for countless hours in order to create this now timeless work of art. Of course, I cannot say that any of my assumptions are fact. I don’t believe many things I have read about the Mona Lisa painting to be fact, simply because the historians who write about it, along with everyone else who currently writes about the painting, were not there to witness it.
That being said, I do feel like her mood is one of both serenity and annoyance. Annoyance, again, because of sitting still, and serenity because it is a painting that you can get lost in. I feel like Mona Lisa may have gotten lost in sitting for the painting. Maybe she was thinking about a lengthy to-do list, her children, or the great demands that came with being a woman in a time period where women were severely disrespected and underprivileged. My limitations in drawing these assumptions about the painting are limitless. First, Mona Lisa is all but dust now, so all that remains is a painting that cannot talk back. However, for a dead woman, she has inspired music, movies, suicides (allegedly), poetry, and love notes in abundance.
I cannot, you cannot, nor can anyone, ask Mona Lisa why her facial expression is so perplexing. I surmise that even if you could, she wouldn’t speak on it. I say this because nobody from the 16th century either bothered to ask her, or bothered to write down her response. I believe psychologists have severe limitations in making assumptions and drawing inferences because you can never truly know the reasons for a person’s actions or body language. Human beings are so complex that something such as Mona Lisa’s smile, pose, or mood she portrays can be attributed to a multitude of things, or nothing at all. Her face could have just been a serendipitous response to being painted and having to sit while her six children ran wild. The world will truly never know, and I am most perplexed as to why we are still talking about it.