Mona Lisa by da Vinci Postcard

The postcard is that of the painting Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda), a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination.

Mona Lisa Postcard

Mona Lisa is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of the Gherardini family of Florence and Tuscany and the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting was commissioned for their new home and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.

Additional Information:Mona Lisa (Italian: La Gioconda, French:La Joconde)Oil on poplar77 × 53 cm, 30 × 21 in

The work is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

SOURCE:Mona Lisa Wikipedia Entry

King Island Drummers by James Adcox Postcard

The back of the postcard reads:

King Island Drummers
Artist: James Adcox
48" x 39", Oil on Canvas, 2005

There are no information the painting on the postcard nor the artist on the net.

King Island Drummers Postcard(PH Wish from Sarah Konichek)

Indian Miniature Painting Postcard

The postcard does not include the title and the artist of the painting, so I cannot give information regarding this postcard.

Indian Miniature Painting Postcard

However, I decided to add general information about Indian miniature painting. Miniatures paintings are intricate, colorful handmade illuminations or paintings, small in size, executed meticulously with delicate brushwork. The colors used in the miniature paintings were derived from minerals, vegetables, precious stones, indigo, conch shells, pure gold and silver.

SOURCE:
Miniatures paintings

Sistine Chapel, Ignudo 5 by Michelangelo Postcard

The postcards show the image of Ignudo 5, the head of the Ignudo at the upper right corner of the Drunkenness of Noah (above the Delphic Sibyl).
The Ignudi (singular: ignudo, from the Italian adjective nudo, meaning "naked") are the 20 athletic, nude male figures that Michelangelo painted at the four corners of the five smaller scenes of Creation. Because they were not relevant to the themes of the piece, Michelangelo's ignudi outraged several pontiffs.

Ignudo 5 Postcard

Most of the figures are surrounded by a huge garland of oak leaves, and clustered about them are thousands of acorns resembling the penis, or "prickhead", in Tuscan slang (testa di cazzo). The most likely reason for their abundance is that Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, was of the della Rovere family: they function as, perhaps, Michelangelo's allusion to his patron.

SOURCE:
Sistine Chapel, The Ignudi

Houses at Auvers by van Gogh Postcard

The back of the postcard reads:

Houses at AuversVincent van Gogh. Dutch, 1853-1890Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Houses at Auvers Postcard

(PH Wish from Teresa Ostrander)

Houses at Auvers was painted in 1890, shortly after Vincent van Gogh (a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist) arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise (northwest of Paris) and he seemed to be on the mend. Indeed, Vincent's first letters to his brother Theo from Auvers-sur-Oise were cautiously optimistic. His health was good, and he found his room comfortable. The village had a picturesque appeal; even the new homes were "radiant and sunny and covered with flowers."

Unlike the writhing rhythms that characterized his landscape work at Saint-Rémy, Vincent van Gogh's first paintings at Auvers, such as Houses at Auvers, exhibited a new stability, seen in the strongly interlocked strokes of heavy pigment. Houses at Auvers shows the landscape of early summer. The view creates a flattened tapestry of shapes in which the tiled and thatched roofs of the houses form a mesmerizing patchwork of color.

Additional Information:75.6 x 61.9 cm (29 3/4 x 24 3/8 in.)Oil on CanvasLandscapeOn view in the: Sidney and Esther Rabb Gallery (European Art 1870–1900), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

SOURCE:Vincent van Gogh Final Paintings