Mona Lisa’s Secret
There are many reasons why the “Mona Lisa” is without doubt the most famous, researched, debated and talked about painting of all time. His story, from the commission, concept, travel and emotions, are worthy of a Hollywood movie script. Then there is also the fact that its creator, Leonardo da Vinci, artist, scientist and inventor, is perhaps one of the most recognized names in the world.
What secrets can still be hidden under the layers of the most famous and celebrated painting the world has ever known?
The simplest story of the Mona Lisa begins in 1503 when Leonardo’s biological father commissioned him to make a portrait of Lisa, the wife of his friend Francesco Del Giocondo. Leonardo, who had just escaped from the mad Cesare Borgia, had reopened his workshop in Florence with great success and the commissions were purring. Between long nightly discussions with his newfound friend, Niccolò Machiavelli, the huge mural painting “The Battle of Anghiari”, and the incessant daily fights and mutual harassment with Michelangelo Buonarotti, Leonardo started the relatively small (77 cm x 53 cm ), oil painting of the Italian lady on poplar boards. Leonardo’s father died the following year and kept the painting. Closer to his death in 1519, Leonardo never stopped adding strokes here and there in this painting. By then the Italian Lady, the Giaconda was already a very famous painting.
With fame came questions and debates. What is the message here? Who is this woman? Whether it’s Lisa Gherardini or Lisa Del Giocondo, the identification of women has kept scholars busy for centuries. Gossip, reports, and books written on this topic alone could fill a library.
The controversy continued a few centuries later when academics and researchers questioned the originality, provenance, and ownership of the painting, and again the story became the source of countless books, essays, and reports. Salai, Leonardo’s supposed old lover and student swindler, was the source for this chapter. On January 12, 1524, Salai, who was also an informant-spy, was killed in a brawl. In the inventory of his possessions, among the eleven other paintings, all named after Leonardo’s known masterpieces, was one called “La Giaconda.” This information did not come to light until the early 1800s. It did not occur to anyone to verify that in 1524 the original “Mona Lisa” was safely hung in the Palace of Fontainebleau along with other masterpieces of King Francis I, instead of the home of a dead man in Milan, a thousand kilometers away.
All these facts have contributed to this painting being very beautiful and famous, but the main reason that makes the Mona Lisa so special is the brilliant and brilliant conception and the new approach of the painting. Leonardo’s new experiment, his ‘blemish’ technique, which mixes shadows and lights in the Mona Lisa portrait, was executed with the utmost precision. Mona Lisa’s expression eludes the viewer who questions whether she is happy or sad. His ‘fudge’ technique is eerily effective. Leonardo smoothed out all sharp contours by very subtle and gradual blending of one shade with another using thin, intricate layers, half the width of a human hair, to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. Surprisingly, certain areas have up to thirty coats of almost transparent hand-made paint. Is it an image from a dream, a vision, or a portrait of a real woman? The stage and background are overflowing with symbols and messages that scream to be understood. Does art imitate nature? The dreamy backdrops are at different levels, so if you look at the Mona Lisa from the left, it looks higher than from the right. Only a great master of perspective like Leonardo could effortlessly create this illusion of depth to its fullest advantage.
The great Florentine painter Georgio Vasari describes the painting in great detail, but I wonder where he saw it, since he never visited Fontainebleau, where the portrait of Leonardo da Vinci was displayed. We know that he visited Francesco Melzi, Leonardo’s last assistant and artistic heir, several times after his return to Italy. Did Vasari see a copy made by Melzi? I believe there are several copies of a “Mona Lisa” still hidden in dusty attics or secret vaults around the world. Leonardo was not a prolific painter and when he made an important work it was commented on and surely copied by many artists, as was the case of “Leda and The Swan”, which is lost, but copied extensively, as well as “The Annunciation”, The Baptism de Cristo “,” The Battle of Anghiari “among others. It is inconceivable that this, even then, highly celebrated painting was not copied by the best artists of the time. It was their way of paying homage to a great artist.
Imagine if we could see the Mona Lisa in its original colors as Vasari describes her in his 1550 edition of “LIVES OF THE MOST EXCELLENT PAINTERS, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS”: “… See that her eyes had that watery luster and shine that always they are seen in life, and around them were all those pink and pearly tints, as well as the eyelashes, which cannot be represented without greater subtlety. The nose, with its beautiful pink and tender nostrils, seemed to be alive The eyebrows for having shown the way in which the hair sprouts from the flesh, here tighter and here more sparse, and curved according to the pores of the skin, could not be more natural, united by the red of the lips to the flesh . face tints, they seemed, in truth, not to be colors but flesh. “Aggressive touch-ups over the past centuries have erased the Mona Lisa’s eyebrows and lashes, but recent X-rays of the painting show that originally existed.
Mona Lisa’s fame exploded to a new level when it was robbed on August 21, 1911. The Louvre was closed for a full week. Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet who once said the Louvre should be burned down, was the first to be suspected. He was arrested and jailed. The plot thickened when Apollinaire implicated the painter Pablo Picasso, who was also interrogated and imprisoned. Both men were later acquitted and released. Everyone thought that the painting was lost forever.
The actual robbery was a very simple and easy ruse. Vincenzo Peruggia, one of the Louvre’s employees, was an Italian patriot who believed that the painting should be returned to Italy. That fateful day he snatched the painting from her when no one was there, hid it in a broom closet until closing time, and came out with the painting under her coat. For two years he kept the “Mona Lisa” in his Paris apartment. He was eventually caught in Italy when he tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The “Mona Lisa” was returned to the Louvre in 1913 after being exhibited throughout Italy. Vincenzo served six months of house arrest and became Italy’s new national hero.
The painting was removed again from the Louvre during World War II and safely taken to various secret locations. I’m not even going to get into filming, rock, and other vandalism yet this artwork is gone.
Lately we have been bombarded with a multi-million dollar campaign by a Swiss corporation that wants to add more value to a painting they own, claiming that it is an early version of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.” It’s called “The Mona Lisa of Isleworth.” This oil on canvas, which was not Leonardo’s medium, is a poor representation of the original. The late 1400s canvas made from hemp was introduced as a new material for painting in some regions of Europe, but it was not the most popular and favorite medium at the time. The ‘Isleworth’ woman, her posture, veil, hair, eyes, mouth, does not capture the simple beauty and elusiveness of the original. It could very well be a copy of an amateur artist from the 17th century. We have the technology to examine the composition of the pigments and lacquers in this painting against what Leonardo used, as well as the canvas, but none of that has been done. Instead, they are based on reviews from “scholars” who claim to be Da Vinci experts. I don’t think the painting in “The Isleworth” is by Leonardo or anyone from his school or from his time.
The “Mona Lisa” has created mystery and questioned the unknown from the day it was first seen to this day, which is exactly what art is supposed to do. This timeless masterpiece remains impressive despite the ravages of time and gruesome retouching afterwards. However, the fame of the painting now works against him. The beloved “Mona Lisa” now has her own private space in the Louvre, but it is surrounded by bulletproof Plexiglas and you can’t get close without attracting the attention of the museum’s security guards. Worse, most visitors to the Louvre are more concerned with capturing an image of the painting with a camera phone rather than admiring the brilliant conception and execution of this masterpiece.
What a huge blockbuster this piece of art could make!