Mona lisa

Today I would like to tell you about one of the most well-known paintings in
the world, which is also my personal favourite, the portrait of Mona Lisa.

You know, the painting was created by Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Italian
artist from the 15th century. When I first saw this painting in one of my high
school textbooks, I just couldn’t take my eyes off it due to some mysterious
attractiveness.

At first sight, all I noticed in the painting was a long-haired woman with a

friendly smile on her face, which was quite round, and she had no eyebrows
either. The more I looked at it though, the more I felt like she was actually
smiling at me.

Some people have claimed that Mona Lisa was simply an imaginary character
while others have believed that she was actually Leonardo’s wife. Honestly, it
doesn’t really matter to me though because I think that the Mona Lisa is
a masterpiece that attracts people with that magical smile. This is also one of
the main reasons why I am a fan of the painting.

In terms of the actual truths behind this portrait though, I guess we may
never know, but I think that secrets make everything all the more intriguing.

The Thinker (in French Le Penseur ) is one of the most famous sculptures

by Auguste Rodin . The sculptor conceived this piece
between 1881 and 1882 to decorate the tympanum of the sculptural
ensemble  The Gate of Hell , commissioned in 1880 by the French Ministry of
Public Instruction and Fine Arts. This would serve as the entrance to what
would be the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.
The sculpture originally received the name The Poet , since it represented the
Italian writer Dante Alighieri , author of the Divine Comedy , a literary work
that served as one of the inspirations for the creation of Hell's Gate . In a
letter sent to critic Marcel Adam, he wrote: 

El poeta representa un cuerpo torturado y al mismo tiempo un hombre de

espíritu libre decidido a trascender mediante la poesía. También de vocación
dantesca, la obra personifica a Minos, juez de los infiernos que en la obra del
italiano asignaba a los condenados a uno de los nueve círculos en función de
sus pecados.
El pensador pertenece al grupo de trabajos hechos entre 1880 y 1881, en
donde la influencia de Miguel Ángel es particularmente fuerte; es indudable
que Il Pensieroso y Jeremías de la Capilla Sixtina guardan semejanza con él.2
El pensador (en francés Le Penseur) es una de las esculturas más famosas
de Auguste Rodin. El escultor concibió esta pieza entre 1881 y 1882 para
decorar el tímpano del conjunto escultórico La puerta del Infierno, encargado
en 1880 por el Ministerio de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes de Francia.
Esto serviría como entrada para el que sería el Museo de Artes Decorativas
de París.