There are many reasons why the “Mona Lisa” is undoubtedly the most famous, researched, debated and commented painting of all time. His story, from the commission, the concept, the trips and the emotions are worthy of a Hollywood film script. Then there’s also the fact that its creator, Leonardo da Vinci, artist, scientist and inventor, is perhaps one of the most recognizable names in the world.
What secrets can still be hidden beneath 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 paint a portrait of Lisa, the wife of his friend Francesco Del Giocondo. Leonardo, who had just escaped from the madman Cesare Borgia, had reopened his workshop in Florence with great success and his commissions were purring. Between long late-night conversations with his new friend, Niccolò Machiavelli, painting the huge mural “The Battle of Anghiari” and daily, incessant fights and mutual harassment with Michelangelo Buonarotti, Leonardo began 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. Until 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 Lisa Gherardini or Lisa Del Giocondo, identifying the woman has kept scholars busy for centuries. Gossip, reports and books written on this subject alone could fill a library.
Controversy followed a few centuries later as scholars and researchers questioned the painting’s originality, provenance, and ownership, and again the story became the source of countless books, essays, and reports. Salai, Leonardo’s alleged former lover and con artist student, was the source for this chapter. On January 12, 1524, Salai, who was also an informer-spy, was killed in a brawl. Listed in the inventory of his possessions, among the eleven other paintings, all named after Leonardo’s well-known masterpieces, was one called “La Giaconda.” This information did not come to light until the early 1800s. No one thought to check that in 1524 the original “Mona Lisa” hung safely in the Palace of Fontainebleau along with other masterpieces of King Francis I, instead of the house of one dead in Milan, a thousand kilometers away.
All these facts have contributed to making this painting very valuable and famous, but the main reason that makes Mona Lisa so special is the brilliant and cool conception and new approach to painting. Leonardo’s new experiment, his ‘sfumato’ technique, mixing shadows and lights in the portrait of Mona Lisa, was executed with extreme precision. Mona Lisa’s expression eludes the viewer who wonders if she is happy or sad. His ‘vanishing’ technique is disturbingly effective. Leonardo softened all the sharp contours by very subtle and gradual blending of one shade with another using fine, intricate layers, half the width of a human hair, to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. Amazingly, certain areas have up to thirty layers of nearly transparent hand-made paint. Is it a dream image, a vision, or a portrait of a real woman? The stage and background are overflowing with symbols and messages that cry out to be understood. Does art imitate nature? The dreamlike background scenery is at different levels, so if you look at Mona Lisa from the left, it looks taller 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 Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait was on display. 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 multiple copies of a “Mona Lisa” still hidden away in dusty attics or secret vaults around the world. Leonardo was not a prolific painter and when he did an important work it was commented on and probably copied by many artists, as was the case with “Leda and the Swan”, which is lost but widely copied, as well as “The Annunciation”, The Baptism of Christ”, “The Battle of Anghiari” among others. It is inconceivable that this famous painting, even then, 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 her original colors as described by Vasari in his 1550 edition of “LIVES OF THE MOST EXCELLENT PAINTERS, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS”: “…Seeing that her eyes had that luster and brilliance that are always seen in life, and around them were all these pinkish and pearly tints, as well as the eyelashes, which cannot be represented without greater subtlety, for having shown the way in which the hairs sprout from the flesh, here more up close and here more scarce, and curved according to the pores of the skin, it could not be more natural, united by the red of the lips to the carnations of the face, they seemed, in truth, not colors but flesh.” The aggressive touch-ups to Mona Lisa’s eyebrows and eyelashes have been obliterated over the past few centuries, but recent X-rays of the painting show they originally existed.
Mona Lisa’s fame exploded to a new level when it was stolen on August 21, 1911. The Louvre was closed for a full week. Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet who once said that the Louvre should be burned down, was the first to come under suspicion. He was arrested and put in jail. 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 prank. 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 when no one was around, he hid it in a broom closet until closing time and came out with the painting under his coat. For two years he kept the “Mona Lisa” in his Paris apartment. He eventually got caught in Italy when he was trying 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 again removed from the Louvre during World War II and safely taken to various secret locations. I’m not even going to get into the shootings, rocks and other vandalism attacks this work of art has been subjected to.
Lately we’ve been bombarded with a multi-million dollar campaign by a Swiss corporation wanting to add more value to a painting it owns, claiming it to be 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. Late 1400s canvas made of hemp was introduced as a new material for painting in some regions of Europe, but it was not the most popular or favored medium at the time. The ‘Isleworth’ woman, her posture, veil, hair, eyes, mouth, does not capture the simple and elusive beauty of the original. It could well be a copy by an amateur artist from the 17th century. We have the technology to examine the composition of pigments and lacquers in this painting against what Leonardo used, as well as the canvas, but nothing has been done. Instead, they rely on reviews from “scholars” who claim to be Da Vinci experts. I don’t think the painting of “The Isleworth” is by Leonardo or anyone from his school or 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 subsequent terrible retouching. However, the fame of the painting now works against him. The beloved “Mona Lisa” now has her own private space at the Louvre, but it’s surrounded by bulletproof plexiglass and you can’t get close without drawing the attention of museum security guards. And what’s worse is that most visitors to the Louvre are more concerned with taking a picture of the painting with their phone’s camera than admiring the brilliant conception and execution of this masterpiece.
What a blockbuster this piece of art could make!