Aura

FRANCO ORIGLIA/GETTY IMAGES

    For this week’s writing, I have chosen a photo of the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. This photo may not look exactly like the original. This is because this image is a photograph of the Mona Lisa that has been cropped down and heavily edited. You can tell from the heavy shadows and the orange hue. One thing you might notice is the heavy cracking in the photo, which leads you to believe it is actually a photo of the real Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is currently an extremely well-known and popular painting. If you take a second to google “The Mona Lisa,” you will find a plethora of results that aren’t quite the real painting. Why might this be? Many people have attempted to recreate or redesign the Mona Lisa. There are AI images of what the Mona Lisa would look like as a real person, there are digital prints of a reworked modern Mona Lisa, and there are even pictures of the Mona Lisa on socks! One thing I find myself asking is, “how does this impact the real Mona Lisa painting?” Does reprinting the painting onto merchandise have an impact on the value of the actual painting? 

“Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one
element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where
it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history
to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence.” 

– Walter Benjamin. 

 

    This quote from Walter Benjamin I found to be really influencing. When deciding what values or devalues art, you need to keep aura in mind. What Benjamin is describing, is essentially the definition of aura. The Mona Lisa has that one element he is explaining, which is time and space. When Leonardo Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, it was painted in a unique place, and it took a unique amount of time. Effort was put into the painting. No one can recreate the Mona Lisa exactly because they will never be in the same place or the same time period that it was originally created. The Mona Lisa will always have its aura to protect it and the value of it. The true value of the painting, in my opinion, is not depreciated when people recreate the painting or mass produce it. Which my opinion may be a hot take but let me explain. 

    When you go to a concert of a band or artist you really like, what is something you would most likely do? Maybe you would take photos or videos of the songs. You might buy a t-shirt or sticker. You want to remember the entire night. Now ask yourself, would taking videos or pictures or buying merchandise devalue the artist’s work? Would it devalue the concert experience? I don’t believe it would. I believe the original concert would always have its memories and its value because of aura. Aura protects the experience or event from being devalued. I find that reproducing items with the art on them shows a sense of appreciation. Back to the example I gave before, I would buy a poster or t-shirt from a concert I loved. It would be a way for me to remember the experience forever and show my appreciation for the art or band. The same goes for art. If someone loved the Mona Lisa but knew they would never be able to see it in person, they might have digital photos to see the art or they might buy a poster to show how they appreciate it. Obviously if someone had a digitally printed photograph of the Mona Lisa as a poster, it is not nearly the same as the real one. I don’t believe that would devalue the art. The Aura protects the original work because there is an experience and a time and place and an effort behind the original piece that no one can recreate.      

 https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/mona-lisa.htm

Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," inIlluminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 1969)