Mona Lisa

lips

Leonardo da Vinci

trivia

Chuck Norris

staring

Corona Virus

eyelash

eyebrow

marijuana

smoking weed

getting high

Statue of Liberty

Napoleon Bonaparte

breaking up

Jonah Hill

Post Malone

eternity

immortality

being forgotten

is wearing an expression that looks like she's chewing a toffee.

To me, the Mona Lisa looks like she's chewing a toffee.

is, in fact, a scientific argument for the female role in procreation (which Da Vinci was ahead of his time in arguing) as she is pregnant in this portrait, with clear swollen hands and hands on the upper abdomen suggesting she is far advanced in pregnancy.

If Mona Lisa is not a portrait, then what is it? Perhaps more than any other painter, Leonardo's art is imbued with his scientific observations. While painting the Mona Lisa during the day, Leonardo would spend the nights at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence, dissecting corpses. His ambition was to discover the very source of life itself. Sherwin Nuland, a professor of surgery at Yale and an expert on Leonardo's anatomical studies, argues that the Mona Lisa symbolises the female role in procreation and that her expectant condition is evident in the painting. "She's supposed to be a relatively young woman in her early twenties. If you look at her hands, there's no question that she has swollen fingers," he says. "There's no question that she's holding her hands in the particular attitude that we're accustomed to seeing on the upper abdomens of women far advanced in pregnancy."

is a vampire, coasting through history on her secret tasks.

What is Mona Lisa thinking? Nothing, of course. Her blankness is her menace and our fear. [...] Walter Pater is to call her a 'vampire,' coasting through history on her secret tasks.

is thinking . . . nothing of course. Her blankness is her menace and our fear.

is a scientific work, a distillation of his discoveries in the natural sciences, in that it connects human beings and the natural world with the mysterious female at the centre of creation. That is, it connects a pregnant Mona Lisa with a pregnant landscape in the background.

The Mona Lisa therefore provides us with a snapshot of the mature Leonardo's mind. In part it's a psychological portrait but it's also a world view that connects human beings and the natural world with the mysterious female at the centre of creation. It is a distillation of all that he had discovered through a lifetime's observation into the secrets of nature.

is a strange work of art, historically. Her dress is utterly plain and timeless and, despite the fact that she is a married woman, she wears no jewellery, not even a wedding ring.

However, as a portrait, Mona Lisa is a puzzle and quite unlike any other picture of the time. In the materialistic culture of early-16th-century Florence, portraits weren't an expression of individuality and character, they were an advert for wealth and social status. But far from being the height of fashion, Mona Lisa's dress is utterly plain and timeless and, despite the fact that she is a married woman, she wears no jewellery, not even a wedding ring.

is strange in that her gaze, instead of modestly averting her eyes, she looks directly out towards us with the knowing air of someone who, much to our irritation, knows something we do not.

And then there's her gaze. Instead of modestly averting her eyes, she looks directly out towards us with the knowing air of someone who, much to our irritation, knows something we do not.

is a strange work of art in that her hair, sensually draped over her shoulders, would have been seen as implying loose morals.

In an age when women were expected to be chaste and virtuous, Lisa's hair, sensually draped over her shoulders, would have been seen as implying loose morals.

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