Both the "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo Da Vinci and "Woman Holding a Balance" by Jan Vermeer rely on light to make itself more meaningful. Mona Lisa has more light, and focuses more on the face of the woman, while Woman Holding a Balance is much dimmer, and uses the path of the light to focus on the woman as a whole, and not just her face. It's much easier to remember the Woman Holding a Balance, because instead of counting on the detail in the woman's features, it tries to make the viewer see more of the mood, sort of calm, and suspenseful, as if it was predicting some coming disaster by not seeming to care. The Mona Lisa looks mysterious, with her strange, confusing smile. The complete opposite of this is the Woman Holding a Balance, where the theme is solitude.

created by: Alex Browne