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by David Claudon

All pictures are ©2006 David Claudon

These paper dolls are available for sale. To purchase contact me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Michelangelo at 28 is based on the portrait of the artist by Marcello Venusti. His portrait shows an old man. I have made a younger Michelangelo, closer to the time of his David, around 1503. His work clothes are based on Raphael's painting of him in The School of Athens. With his dress clothes, he carries a sketch of the Persian head.
 

 

  
David is based on Michelangelo's statue of the same name, but the head is based on a drawing of a Persian idealized head. The fancy vest and sleeves and cloak is based on Luca Signorelli's Sermons and Deeds of the AntiChrist
 

 

  

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo's rival, aged 51, started painting the portrait of Mona Lisa in 1503 but never completed the painting.

Research now suggests that Francesco del Giocondo and his third wife lived near Leonardo and were friends of his family.

The painting was done on a wooden board. Museum officials have worried about the amount of warpage the painting exhibits today.

 

Leonardo the Inventor holds a model of his invention of a modern day helicopter. Leonardo's machines included ones for war, flying, work, water and land. Leonardo's second costume is based on the statue of him in Florence, Italy.

Leonardo was considered one of the handsomest men of his time period.

 
 

 

  
Mona Lisa as the Madonna of the Cat.

Says the Webmuseum, Paris:

According to Vasari, the subject is a young Florentine woman, Monna (or Mona) Lisa, who in 1495 married the well-known figure, Francesco del Giocondo, and thus came to be known as "La Gioconda''. The work should probably be dated during Leonardo's second Florentine period, that is between 1503 and 1505. Leonardo himself loved the portrait, so much so that he always carried it with him until eventually in France it was sold to François I, either by Leonardo or by Melzi.

Mona Lisa is considered one of the world's most recognized paintings. Called "La Giocanda," (the smiling one), there are numerous images of her today found online.

Scholars have for years tried to explain her smile. Recent research suggests that she was pregnant with her second child--she had five in all--perhaps the reason for the portrait.

Here she holds her baby and a cat. Leonardo actually planned to do a Madonna and Child with cat, but only the sketch for it remain. In fact, Leonardo drew a whole series of cat pictures.

To keep Mona in a good mood, Leonardo had musicians play while he painted her
 

 

See also Dunant's The Birth of Venus: Italian Renaissance Paper Dolls.

This website created by David Claudon, August 30, 2004. Last update July 18, 2006 .

 

[ Home ] [ Rich East ] [ The Cleopatra Costume ] [ Commedia dell'Arte ] [ Cyrano ]
[ Dressing for Shakespeare ][ The Iliad ][ Decorating Forties Style ]
 [ Decorating for a Fifties Christmas ] [ To Kill a Mockingbird ]
[ A Rainbow Honor Roll ] [ Miniatures ]
[ Paper Dolls ] [ Santa Collection ] [ Clarence ] [ St. Bernardine's Church ]