Leonardo de Vinci - La Joconde (Mona Lisa) - Louvre, Paris art postcard

Art Postcard
• Work of art title: La Joconde (Mona Lisa
• Artist (if known): Leonardo de Vinci
• Media or other details:  paiting (on wood, I believe!)
• Publisher / Gallery: Le Louvre / Editions A. Leconte
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp & postmark details (if relevant): n/a
• Size: Modern
• Notes & condition details:

NOTES:

Size: 'Modern' is usually around 6in x 4in / 'Old Standard' is usually around 5�in x 3�in. Larger sizes mentioned, but if you need to know the exact size please ask.

All postcards are not totally new and are pre-owned. It's inevitable that older cards may show signs of ageing and use, particularly sent through the post. Any faults other than normal ageing are noted.

Stock No.: A187

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: �1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): �2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal or Google Checkout ONLY please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information:

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The Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde, or Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo^[1]) is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503�1519 and bought by king Francis I of France. It is now the property of the French Republic and it is on permanent display at the Mus�e du Louvre in Paris.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a seated woman, Lisa del Giocondo, whose facial expression has been frequently described as enigmatic.^[2] The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.^[1] The image is widely recognised, caricatured, and sought out by visitors to the Louvre, and it is considered the most famous painting in the world.^[3][4]

Leonardo Da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy.^[5] According to Leonardo's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, ""...after he had lingered over it four years, left it unfinished....""^[6] It is known that such behavior is common in most paintings of Leonardo who, later in his life, regretted ""never having completed a single work"".^[7]

He is thought to have continued to work on Mona Lisa for three years after he moved to France and to have finished it shortly before he died in 1519.^[8] Leonardo took the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King Fran�ois I invited the painter to work at the Clos Luc� near the king's castle in Amboise. Most likely through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai,^[9] the king bought the painting for 4,000 �cus and kept it at Palace of Fontainebleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon had it moved to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870�1871) it was moved from the Louvre to the Brest Arsenal.^[10]

There has been much speculation regarding the painting's model and landscape. For example, that Leonardo probably painted his model faithfully since her beauty is not seen as being among the best, ""even when measured by late quattrocento (15th century) or even twenty-first century standards.""^[11] Some art historians in Eastern art, such as Yukio Yashiro, also argue that the landscape in the background of the picture was influenced by Chinese paintings;^[12] however, this thesis has been contested for lack of clear evidence.^[12]

Mona Lisa was not well known until the mid-19th century when artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique. Critic Walter Pater, in his 1867 essay on Leonardo, expressed this view by describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythic embodiment of eternal femininity, who is ""older than the rocks among which she sits"" and who ""has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave.""^[13]