AQT Fine Arts

Mona Lisa Artist

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa Year Painted

1503-1506

Mona Lisa Summary

The painting depicts a seated woman with a calm, enigmatic expression set against a distant dreamlike landscape. The subtle modeling of form through sfumato creates one of the first convincingly lifelike portrayals in Western art. The subject’s ambiguous identity and mood have fueled centuries of fascination, interpretation, and debate.

Mona Lisa Important Facts

Housed in the Louvre, the most visited painting in the world, stolen in 1911 which boosted its fame, believed to depict Lisa Gherardini, groundbreaking use of sfumato, subject’s gaze follows viewer, symbol of Renaissance humanism.

Mona Lisa Painting

The Starry Night Painting

The Starry Night Artist

Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night Year Painted

1889

The Starry Night Summary

Painted while van Gogh was in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, the work depicts a swirling nocturnal sky over a small town. The color contrasts and rhythmic brushstrokes convey emotional intensity rather than literal realism. The piece captures van Gogh’s inner turbulence and desire for transcendence.

The Starry Night Important Facts

Housed in MoMA NYC, often interpreted as proto-expressionist, cypress tree symbolizes death/immortality, sky possibly inspired by astronomical observation, painted shortly after ear incident, not initially praised by critics.

Girl with a Pearl Earring Painting

Girl with a Pearl Earring Artist

Johannes Vermeer

Girl with a Pearl Earring Summary

A young girl wearing an exotic turban turns toward the viewer, her mouth slightly open as if about to speak. The pearl earring catches light and becomes the focal point of the composition. Its intimacy and ambiguity have earned it the nickname “the Mona Lisa of the North.”

Girl with a Pearl Earring Important Facts

Housed at Mauritshuis (The Hague), technically a tronie not a portrait, rediscovered in the 19th century, demonstrates Vermeer’s mastery of light, subject unknown, became globally famous after a 1999 novel and 2003 film.

Girl with a Pearl Earring Year Painted

1665

Guernica Painting

Guernica Artist

Pablo Picasso

Guernica Year Painted

1937

Guernica Summary

Painted in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, the canvas shows twisting, anguished forms of civilians and animals. Picasso used a limited monochrome palette to intensify the emotional brutality. The work is a universal symbol of the tragedies of war and civilian suffering.

Guernica Important Facts

Commissioned for 1937 World’s Fair, resides in Madrid’s Reina Sofía, Franco dictatorship barred its return to Spain, one of 20th century’s most famous anti-war statements, influenced by cubism and surrealism, featured repeatedly in political protests.

The Persistence of Memory Artist

Salvador Dalí

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory