The Golden Triangle

Leonardo Da Vinci - Mona Lisa

Let’s refer to Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ to fully understand the golden triangle. As opposed to the rule of thirds, the subject here is placed in the middle of the painting. But we observe that Leonardo is using another technique here. The golden triangle is a way of arranging the elements of a composition, in such a way that they describe a triangle, with the base ta the bottom of the painting. Here, Mona Lisa’s hands constitute the base of the triangle. The colour is predominantly warm, with light gently being depicted on her shoulders, and hands. The lines are continuous and we can see the viewer is placed in the middle of the frame. The eye movement of the viewer is coming down from the top to the bottom losing a bit of detail at the end.