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Do You think the Mona Lisa is over-rated?

Is the Mona Lisa overrated?

  • Yes

    Votes: 33 73.3%
  • No

    Votes: 12 26.7%

  • Total voters
    45

Miss Chicken

Little three legged cat with attitude
Admiral
Simple enough question - Yes or No?

If you like give us your reasons for answer.
 
It's definitely a Masterpiece, but I also consider it overrated. There are many wonderful paintings, both from contemporary and historical artists, that are just as good.

Any work of Art or Literature that is worshiped to that degree-- whether it's by da Vinci or Shakespeare or Beethoven-- is overrated.
 
The image has become cliched, but I do like the picture. I feel that it expresses warmth, calm, and integrity as it's principal qualities. I feel closer to da Vinci with this painting than any of his others, because it seems so personal.
 
I wouldn't call it overrated - its enigma and aura are still held in awe by many people, including me. Over-familiar, yes. :bolian:

Needs 'shopped.
A quick visit to the Ravescene Archives (this one was back when I was under a different username):

monaluvsit.jpg


(sorry)
 
There is no such thing as 'overrated' or 'underrated'.

Every work of art is 'rated' as highly as it deserves: according to the enjoyment people get from it. And the enjoyment that people get from art is purely subjective: there are no objective standards of aesthetic value. A child's finger painting can be of greater value than the Mona Lisa, to that child's parent. And yet it would be valueless to just about everyone else.

Anyone who presumes to tell someone else that their 'rating system' is wrong is a pretentious prick, IMO. You can invite them to consider the value of other works of art, the way RJDiogenes would: it may be they rate the Mona Lisa so highly because it's the only one they know. But they may conclude, in the end, that they like the Mona Lisa best after all. And either judgment would be just as valid.

And I say this as someone who doesn't really see the Mona Lisa's appeal. It's nice, but I can think of a lot of other paintings I like better.

I don't really care for much pre-19th century art, to tell the truth: I prefer, for example, Francis Bacon's Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X to the Velazquez portrait on which it was based.

But obviously, other people derive value from these earlier works that I don't. Are they wrong to do so? Who am I to say?
 
Besides, if the Mona Lisa wasn't so famous, we wouldn't have Marcel Duchamp's LHOOQ (1919):

L_H_O_O_Q.jpg


Or, what was perhaps Duchamp's crowning masterpiece, Shaved LHOOQ (1965)

d3997516x.jpg
 
Impossible to answer. I've only ever seen it in a crowded room, from a distance, behind bulletproof glass. Hardly a particularly inspiring setting.
 
I haven't seen the painting in real life. I know from personal experience that there is an entire world of difference seeing an art work in person rather than in repro. So, I can't say. I do know that I feel that there are certain of the world's great artworks that are overrated. Botticceli, I'm looking at your Venus. :lol:
 
This came up in another thread the other day, I'll just quote what I said there.

I remember when I went to the Louvre in Paris [9 years ago, I was 14 at the time], one of the first things on the route was the Mona Lisa. There was a huge crowd surrounding it and taking photos and in order to see it I would have had to shove my way through the crowd as though I were in some form of rugby scrum. I decided to stand up on a bench instead and saw it over everyone's heads, but nobody could see it properly anyway because it was stored behind bulletproof glass.

I turned around to get off the bench and there was this magnificent painting in front of me. It was two stories high and took up almost the entire wall. It was of a battle scene, and in the sky had storm-clouds and angels, it was epic and it was ambitious and... only two other people were looking at it because everyone was huddled over the Mona Lisa.

That's the day when my faith in humanity began to fall, when I realised that people weren't interested in the ambitious yet flawed work of art, they were only there to see the famous painting and to snap a picture of it.

That story has no relevance to the conversation other than to explain why I'm so grumpy. :shifty:
 
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