Annotated Mona Lisa, The - Strickland, Carol [3]
Photograph courtesy The Pace Gallery, New York (187)
© Richard Payne, AIA 1989 (180L)
Philadelphia Museum of Art: Given by Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cameron Morris (21BL, 157CR); Mr. and Mrs. Carroll S. Tyson Collection (105); George W. Elkins Collection (116T); The W. P. Wilstach Collection (117); Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection (148B, 150T)
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (78R)
Princeton University Library, Princeton, N.J. (91R)
Museum Reitberg, Zurich (22T)
Rijksmuseum Foundation, Amsterdam (53T, 53B, 54, 561
The Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England (95)
Scala/Art Resource, New York (26B, 32B, 33B. 38T. 38B, 46BL, 46BR, 50, 60, 61B, 74, 75, 98TR. 98TL, 149B, 157TL)
Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the Science Museum (93T)
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (20BL)
Courtesy Sonnabend Gallery, New York (186B)
Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek Munchen, photograph by Studio Koppermann (12T)
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister (71TL)
Statens Konstmuseer/Moderna Museet (140, 172)
Statens Museum für Kunst, Copenhagen (134T)
Tate Gallery/Art Resource, New York (80T, 174)
The Board of Trinity College, Dublin (27B)
Courtesy Jerry Uelsmann (186T)
Ulmer Museum, Germany (138T)
Courtesy The University of Pennsylvania Collection of Art, Philadelphia (86T)
The University of Texas at Austin, Gernsheim Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (92L)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Vincent Van Gogh Foundation (113R, 122)
Victoria and Albert Museum/Art Resource, New York (90R)
Virginia Division of Tourism (14C)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (189)
Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Gift of the T. B. Walker Foundation (164T)
©1992 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (frontispiece)
Courtesy of John Weber Gallery, New York (21TR, 179)
Collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: Purchase, with funds from the Friends of the Whitney Museum of American Art (160C, 166R); Purchase (170L); 50th Anniversary Gift of the Gilman Foundation, Inc., The Lauder Foundation, A. Alfred Taubman, an anonymous donor, and purchase (173); 50th Anniversary Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Victor W. Ganz (176T); Purchase, with funds from the Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation, Inc., Seymour M. Klein, President, the Gilman Foundation, Inc., the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts (176BR); Purchase, with funds from anonymous donor (190T); Gift of Brooke and Carolyn Alexander (191B); Purchase, with funds from the Louis and Bessie Adler Foundation, Inc., Seymour M. Klein, President (192)
Windsor Castle, Royal Library. © 1992 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (35B)
ILLUSTRATIONS
Luci Betti (6B, 7TL, 11T, 17T, 28TR)
Ken Scaglia (15, 30)
INTRODUCTION:
HOW TO LOOK AT A PAINTING
Like music, art is a universal language. Yet, even though looking at most works of art is a pleasurable enough experience, to appreciate fully what’s going on requires certain skills and knowledge. In The Annotated Mona Lisa 25,000 years of art history have been condensed into 208 pages in order to quickly provide some of the necessary skills and knowledge.
The Annotated Mona Lisa also presents this essential information as simply as possible, with a minimum of technical jargon but with a wealth of anecdote and biographical asides to lend a human dimension to the world of art. Timelines, summaries, and comparison charts appear throughout the book to help the reader absorb and retain important points.
Yet, while many of the critical tools for forming independent aesthetic judgments are provided here, ultimately, the reward comes in using these tools to draw your own conclusions about why a particular painting touches or moves you, or even why it doesn’t. The more time spent in museums and galleries, the more rewarding the act