"The Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci The placement of the figure of the Mona Lisa within the frame of the painting is believed to follow the golden ratio, with the head, hands, and body falling along the intersecting points of the golden ratio grid.
THE 'GOLDEN RATIO' IN THE ARTS. True Golden Spiral: the length of the side of a larger square to the next smaller square is in the 'Golden Ratio'. Many books claim that if a rectangle is drawn around the face of the Louvre 'Mona Lisa', the ratio of the height to width of that rectangle is equal to the 'Golden Ratio'.
Pacioli was effusive in his praise of the ratio, using language like 'essential', 'wonderful' and 'supreme' to describe its effects, and touting in particular the harmony of the Golden Rectangle, formed by creating a rectangle with sides in the proportion 1:1.618.
The golden ratio, also defined by the letter φ (phi), is the most telling example. This mathematical formula is considered by some as a universal rule of beauty. With a proportion equal to x²=x+1, the golden ratio in art creates a balanced relationship that the mind's eye loves.
Balance, Emphasis, and Subordination
Leonardo da Vinci applied the principles of art while painting Mona Lisa, for instance, asymmetrical balance. The woman exerts weight on a single side of the painting; however, there is still balance despite the figure's positioning being off-center.
The author hypothesizes that the great painter Leonardo da Vinci very intelligently painted the angles of the mouth of Mona Lisa's face to evoke this illusion of movement (smile) to increase the aesthetic value of this great work of art.
Louvre 'Mona Lisa': has a cloverleaf pattern where the threading is repeated in exactly the same way in each cluster. Oslo 'Mona Lisa' and Prado 'Mona Lisa': the cloverleafs in both display a consistent repetitive pattern.
During the Renaissance, painter and draftsman Leonardo Da Vinci used the proportions set forth by the Golden Ratio to construct his masterpieces. Sandro Botticelli, Michaelangelo, Georges Seurat, and others appear to have employed this technique in their artwork.
But when it comes to art, artists use this golden ratio because it is aesthetically pleasing. The golden ratio can be used in art and design to achieve beauty, balance, and harmony. Artists use the golden ratio as it helps in designing our paintings and is used to position the subjects.
The woman in Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was found to be only 86.6 per cent accurate to the Golden Ratio – the Greeks' interpretation of physical perfection. The guide marks her down for her wide 'manly' face, poor shaping of her eyes, slight double chin, and the small gap between her lips and nose.
Da Vinci demonstrated his understanding of the golden ratio in many of his other artworks, including The Annunciation, 1472-6, Vitruvian Man, 1490, and perhaps even in the Mona Lisa, 1503-9.
The Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States by the people of France in 1886. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. A golden rectangle is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio, one-to-phi, that is, approximately 1:1.618.
The Fibonacci spiral is found in compositions by painters. The most famous example was painted 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa.
One of the best things about the Golden Ratio is that it gives you a simple number to help structure the otherwise expressive nature of design. Simply multiply an element's size by 1.618 to figure out the size of another element, or overlay the Golden Spiral to adjust their placement.
History of the golden ratio.
In 1509, Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli published the book De divina proportione, which, alongside illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci, praised the ratio as representing divinely inspired simplicity and orderliness.
Painter and art theoretician Piet Mondrian often wove the golden ratio into his work to an astonishing degree.
Golden Ratio is one of the most common mathematical ratios in nature. We see this ratio everywhere from majestic landscapes like the Pyramids of Giza and the Mona Lisa to modern-day logos such as Twitter and Pepsi. Golden ratios are unique because of their golden proportion.
The golden ratio is approximately equal to 1.618 and is called phi. Dividing any line at this special number will give us a ratio that is proportional to both parts of the line and to the whole line as well.
Results: There is a golden ratio in the distances between xiphoid to waist and waist to the abdominal crease that is close to 1:1.66, and the waist is at the junction of the upper 2/5th and lower 3/5th of the height from xiphoid to abdominal crease.
It is a visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word "gioconda" in Italian. Leonardo made this notion of happiness the central motif of the portrait: it is this notion that makes the work such an ideal.
The Mona Lisa was a real woman who with a smile initiated a dialogue with the viewer that had not existed before; it changed the very nature of the relationship between art and audience. With that one smile, Leonardo had imbued a work of art with a conceptual stroke of what's now called “genius”.
The Mona Lisa is priceless. Any speculative price (some say over a billion dollars!) would probably be so high that not one person would be able or willing to purchase and maintain the painting. Moreover, the Louvre Museum would probably never sell it.