To think that the Mona Lisa is a boring painting

[AKMD]

For reference.

To me, it is a small, dingy portrait of an average-looking woman. If it wasn't roped off and covered in bullet-proof glass I would walk straight past.

Anyone else think the same or AIB a savage heathen in need of re-education?

YABU. I don't like the picture, but that's not the point - I can see why it's an important picture with interesting history and significance.

I preferred the Veronese opposite when I went

Though I don't think ML is boring. I know perhaps why someone would describe it that way but I don't see how they would find it boring. It's not about the smile for me. I don't have the vocab to say what I really like about it. I find it helps if you imagine the scene being painted at the time...
Not my favourite painting by miles and miles though. I go in for the dashing vulgar Toulouse Lautrecs any day over murky old canvases!

Just had a quick look and it seems to me like she's gritting her teeth!

I have seen the ML, years ago but not long after I did History of Art A Level so was reasonably well-informed at that point. I couldn't get to look at her. But <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=images.tribe.net/tribe/upload/photo/28d/049/28d04921-b8bd-41d2-944e-62bd1fded7f0&imgrefurl=people.tribe.net/marietherese/photos/28d04921-b8bd-41d2-944e-62bd1fded7f0&h=842&w=621&sz=119&tbnid=2H1J5YsUNR4ukM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=66&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dleonardo%2Bcartoon%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=leonardo+cartoon&usg=__LrKXLSgEuGUh5h2bcAW4J3vnLUc=&docid=rL1s3n_qNlOI2M&sa=X&ei=HD7eT4KoKISA8gOD-ZnTCw&ved=0CHMQ9QEwAg&dur=95" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this is extraordinary and I could look at it for days.

Not bothered about ML, but I LOVE his Lady With An Ermine

arthistory.about.com/library/artists/tours/leonardo/n_leo_08.htm

MarySA the Venus is in the Uffizi in Florence. I've seen that as well and did like it. There was far less fuss - in a room with lots of other paintings, not overly-secured, room to sit down, crowds weren't ridiculous - and it's got a lot going on.

I think maybe I'm just not keen on single head-and-shoulders portraits in general. I had a very detailed guided tour of the Uffizi and had sore feet and was bored witless by the vast array of goggly-eyed Madonna and Child variations by the time we got round to anything interesting. I did quite like the portraits of the Medici family though as, having read up on them beforehand I knew all their shocking scandals ;)

It was surprisingly very small!

The Mona Lisa painting is fantastic. Better than I thought it would be. No matter where you stand, left, right, center or somewhere in between, it seems that she is looking at you with an enigmatic smile. That is quite an artistic feat.

YABVU

It's Art, before the days of digital cameras and the like.

It's also the only snapshots of what life was like in another time.

YABU

You do sort of think "is that it?
However, the Cistine Chapel really does take your breath away. Apart from those blokes who keep telling everyone to shush, no talking.

YABU to call him "Da Vinci" - that just means "Of Vinci" the town he was from.

You call him Leonardo, or Leonardo Da Vinci.

Yes, I know it's petty but it pees me off every time someone does that!

YABU about ML - look at the perspective. It's different on the left and right. It's an intriguing painting.

... and he invented "sfumato".

I love the Lady with Ermine too.

His work was way ahead of everyone else's at the time. And his portraits are still way better than some of the stuff you see today.

Someone mention ed Rothko. I had seen stuff in books and even on posters an wasn't impressed. Thought it was very much a case of I could do a loaf of messy squares like that.
Then I went to an exhibition and I cannot describe it. The paintings gave me such intense feelings. Not good feeling admittedly, very oppressive but they really had a profound effect on me.

Sorry for typos and autocorrects

YANBU - it isn't a patch on that picture of those dogs playing pool or that one from the 70s of that gypsy woman with her bristols out.

OK read this then have another look.

If you concentrate on the left side of the pic for 30 seconds and then look at the right - you will see her appear taller and thiiner.

The sfumanto technique means you cannot actually tell if she is smiling or frowning.

The detail on the costume is fantastic.

That's cos she's doing this face :-|

It must have been like looking at a photograph when it was first painted. It has depth, accuracy, movement and you really feel you could recognise her in the street.

This is more typical of a portrait of the time.

YABU, it's a beautiful picture

but since art is subjective YANBU

LOL at comparing the Mona Lisa to marmite!

I was underwhelmed. I remember thinking the picture on the wall opposite was far better, though can't remember what it was now.

It looked tiny, dark and dull. Though I do know nothing about art. My dts are more into art. They love Van Gogh, and Monet and were not impressed by the Mona Lisa. We all enjoyed the Orsay over the Louvre. And it was a lot quieter.

Thanks all for participating in this unusually intellectual AIBU :o I continue to be underwhelmed but I am happy in my uncultured state of liking art based on my own taste and not on the history, artist or importance to art history.

I'm off to clean my fur undies and polish my club now...