Tuesday, December 16, 2025

I am not able to appreciate the Mona Lisa. What all things am I missing?

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  • It’s something that didn’t hit me until I saw the actual painting in the Louvre. And this is something that is actually studied: seeing art in person is the way to go. You’re just not getting the full effect on a photo or repro.
  • Just do a Google Image search for her, and on a very basic level, the hues are all over the place. Beyond that, I won’t get to describe all the differences.
  • It also helped that I recently graduated college, and was steeped in the liberal arts. So all sorts of ideas were swirling in my head.
  • So I took the opportunity to visit the Louvre while visiting Paris. And then went to visit the Mona Lisa. On an unassuming day, she’s a relatively small painting in a rather large room. She had the usual throng of tourists surrounding her. Just sitting there modestly, as she does in the painting.
  • So I walked up to take a closer look.
  • And I started thinking. And wondering what she’s thinking.
  • And then I started wondering, “I wonder is she’s thinking what I think she’s thinking.”
  • And then she looked back.
  • “Yes.”
  • It wasn’t a sudden answer. It was a dynamic one.
  • One that silently crescendoed the more I realized I was catching on.
  • And then I got it.
  • Motion from stillness.
  • Reaching through 500 years of history.
  • A dynamic thought which never changes.
  • A movie that doesn’t need to move, and is therefore the perfection of painting.
  • A masterpiece and a culmination of the medium itself.
  • “it’s been done!” I ran out screaming. “You can stop painting now, it’s been done!”

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