The 6 most famous portraits of women in the history of art

1)LA GIOCONDA - "La Gioconda", also known as "Mona Lisa", is an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, datable around 1503-1514, and kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris. An emblematic and enigmatic work, it is undoubtedly the most famous portrait in the world, as well as one of the best-known works of art, the object of infinite tributes, but also parodies and mockery. Gioconda's imperceptible smile, with its halo of mystery, has inspired many pages of criticism, literature, works of imagination, even psychoanalytic studies. Elusive, ironic and sensual, the Mona Lisa has been loved, idolized, but also derided or attacked. A true icon of painting, it is seen every day by thousands of people, so much so that in the large room where a cord is exposed must keep visitors at a considerable distance: in the long history of the painting there have been attempts to vandalism, as well as a runaway theft that in a sense has fueled the legend.

2)MARILYN - It was in 1960 that Warhol began his artistic career, which quickly led him to be the leading figure in American Pop Art. In the same year he began his production of images treated with a new technique: screen printing. The artist photographs a subject, develops it in slides; then, he projects the slide on a white canvas and copies the image first in pencil and then in acrylic colors. There are so many paintings that Warhol painted on Marilyn Monroe because he adored her. Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962. In the next four months, Warhol made more than twenty serigraphic paintings of her, all based on the same advertising photography of the 1953 film Niagara. Warhol found in Monroe a fusion of two of his constant themes: death and the cult of celebrity. Repeating the image, it evokes its omnipresence in the media. The contrast of bright colors with black and white canvases, symbolize life and death.

3)THE DAMA WITH ERMELLINO - 'The lady with an ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)' is an oil painting on wood between 1488 and 1490 by the painter Leonardo da Vinci. The painting is now kept at the Czartoryski Muzeum in Krakow, after undergoing a restoration to remedy some damage suffered during the Second World War. An imperceptible smile hovers over Cecilia's lips: Leonardo preferred to mention emotions rather than making them explicit. The long, elegant fingers of Cecilia caressing the animal testify to its delicacy and its aristocratic grace. The ermine, for its white fur, was considered a symbol of purity.

4)THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING - "The Girl with a Turban" or "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is one of the most famous paintings by Jan Vermeer. It seems that the Dutch artist painted it between 1665 and 1666, today it is kept at the Mauritshuis of The Hague. It represents a young girl of three quarters. It particularly affects the aesthetic expression, absolutely languid and bewitching (according to some charge also of an innocent eroticism), of the look of the young model. The suggestive legend that surrounds this painting, and which colors with a touch of sentimentality the biography of a great painter of which little is still known, has been re-enacted for literature in 1986 from the book "The Girl with the Turban" (translated into nine languages) of the writer Marta Morazzoni and then also in 2003 for the cinema from a film entitled "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", starring the actress Scarlett Johansson and inspired by the 1999 novel of the writer Tracy Chevalier. Today this picture is on temporary exhibition in Bologna, winning the most successful exhibition title in Italy.

5)PORTRAIT OF DORA MAAR - "Portrait of Dora Maar" or "Dora Maar Sitting" is a painting made in 1937 by the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso. It is kept at the Musée National Picasso in Paris. In 1936 Picasso, who settled near Cannes, met the young photographer Dora Maar and became his mistress. The young woman is portrayed in a black blouse and a checked red skirt. The angular shapes and the elaborate clothing emphasize the strong personality of the woman.

6)PORTRAIT OF JEANNE HEBUTERNE - Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne is one of Amedeo Modigliani's most famous paintings. It was painted in 1917, currently located in Japan and belongs to a private collector. In the painting is portrayed Jeanne, Modigliani's girlfriend who at the time was nineteen years old. He is younger than he is fourteen when they meet in Paris. Jeanne is a talented painter, when you know she is studying at the Accademia Colarossi, she is a girl with a strong personality, fascinated by Modigliani and her painting. Between them begins a relationship that will last until the painter's death.