Rough Notes from Eells on Pater on Mona Lisa

Emily Eells
Proust’s Cup of Tea: Homoeroticism and Victorian Culture (2002)

p. 183-148

Pater - homoerotic ’Conclusion’ of The Renaissance dropped from second edition; replaced by frontispiece

His description of it makes his meaning clear:

a face of doubtful sex, set in the shadow of its own hair, the cheek-line in high light against it, with something voluptuous and full in the eyelids and the lips.

The title of the 1873 edition - Studies in the History of the Renaissance - was changed to The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry in the 1877 edition.

p. 190

Pater’s implicit stress on the sexual ambiguity of the Mona Lisa is particularly perceptive, as computer-generated images have revealed that the face with its enigmatic smile in fact conceals a self-portrait of da Vinci. Until recently, John the Baptiste hung alongside the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, a juxtaposition which made the striking similarity in their androgynous faces all the more apparent.

See Lillian Schwartz, “Leonardo’s Mona Lisa” Art and Antiques (January 1987) pp. 50-54

Assessment of the claim : Antoinette LaFarge (Oct 1996). "The Bearded Lady & the Shaven Man: Mona Lisa, Meet Mona/Leo". Leonardo: The Journal of the International Society of Art, Science, and Technology.

And so for day 2056
30.07.2012