Vera Zakharova
European University at Saint Petersburg, Russia
The work is dedicated to the early stage in the mythologization of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Gioconda” associated with Théophile Gautier, Jules Michelet and Walter Pater who construct the very influential myth on the portrait of Mona Lisa in the middle of the 19th century.
One of the founders of the new approach to the portrait interpretation is T. Gautier who transforms the topos of “fidelity to Nature”, known from Vasari. He is no more interested in the “lifelikeness” per se. For Gautier, this concept is closely connected with the feeling of “vague anxiety” and the “intoxicating”, almost “hypnotic” effect of the portrait.
This transformation of the topos of “fidelity to Nature” in the work of Gautier should be linked with the interest in enigmatic, characteristic of Romanticism and with the widespread gothic romance in the 19th century literature, where the motif of “lifelikeness” is perceived as a sign of portrait’s potential ability to become “living”.
The perception of “Gioconda” as a “fatal portrait” was developed in the works of J. Michelet. Well known for his interest in the theme of evil, Michelet celebrates “magical”, “Faustian”, even “demonic” inspiration of Leonardo’s paintings. The suggestion of something sinister and hypnotic in Leonardo’s pictures is Michelet’s most significant contribution to the myth which was growing up around Leonardo in the 19th century.
Initiated by J. Michelet and by the French romantics, mythologization of “Gioconda” was finished in the W. Pater’s “Renaissance”. His interpretation of the portrait as a universal work of art, the embodiment of human experience refers to the ideas of rebirth, death and revival, which are key points in his conception of the “eternal Renaissance”. In the Pater’s text, “Gioconda” obtains status of a universal “icon” of Modern period, which exists regardless of time and space.