 |
| Mona
Lisa |
|
Mona Lisa History: Leonardo da Vinci
began painting the Mona Lisa in
1503 and, according to Vasari, completed
it in four years.
Leonardo
took the painting from Italy to
France in 1516 when King François
I invited the painter to work at
the Clos Lucé near the king's
castle in Amboise. The King bought
the painting for 4,000 écus
and kept it at Fontainebleau, where
it remained until moved by Louis
XIV. |
It has for a long time been argued that
after Leonardo's death the painting was
cut down by having part of the panel at
both sides removed. Originally there appear
to have been columns on both sides of
the figure, as can be seen in early copies.The
edges of the bases can still be seen in
the original. However, some art historians,
such as Martin Kemp, argue that the painting
has not been altered, and that the columns
depicted in the copies were added by the
copyists. The latter view was bolstered
during 2004 and 2005 when an international
team of 39 specialists undertook the most
thorough scientific examination of the
Mona Lisa yet undertaken. Beneath the
frame (the current one was fitted to the
Mona Lisa in 1906) there was discovered
a "reserve" around all 4 edges
of the panel. A reserve is an area of
bare wood surrounding the gessoed and
painted portion of the panel. That this
is a genuine reserve, and not the result
of removal of the gesso or paint is demonstrated
by a raised edge still existing around
the gesso, the result of build up from
the edge of brush strokes at the edge
of the gesso area.
The
reserve area, which was likely to have
been as much as 20mm originally appears
to have been trimmed at some point probably
to fit a frame (we know that the in
the 1906 framing it was the frame itself
which was trimmed, not the picture,
so it must have been earlier), however
at no point has any of Leonardo's actual
paint been trimmed. Therefore the columns
in early copies must be inventions of
those artists, or copies of another
(unknown) studio version of Mona Lisa.
The round objects each side of the sill
remain as mysterious as so much of this
painting.
The
Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 from the
Louvre. Suspects in the case were French
poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had
once called for the Louvre to be "burnt
down," and Pablo Picasso. Both
were later released. It turned out that
Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia hid
in the museum at closing time and the
next morning cut the painting from its
frame and walked out the door with it
hidden under his coat. The theft was
planned by a con man who had commissioned
an art forger to make copies of the
painting that he could sell as the missing
original. Because he decided he didn't
need the original, he failed to contact
Peruggia. After keeping the painting
in his apartment for two years, Peruggia
grew impatient. He was finally caught
when he attempted to sell it to an art
dealer. The Mona Lisa was returned to
the Louvre.
In
1956, the lower part of the Mona Lisa
was severely damaged by an acid attack.
Several months later, someone threw
a stone at it. It is now covered by
security glass. In the 1960s and 70s,
the Mona Lisa was exhibited in New York
City and Washington DC as well as Tokyo
and Moscow before returning to the Louvre
Museum for good.
More
About Leonardo da Vinci |
|
|
