=Questions to arouse interest.= What is this woman doing? Where do you
think she is sitting? How is she dressed? How has she arranged her hair?
What can you say of her hands? How many think she is smiling? that she
is sad? that she is vain and self-conscious, or dreamy and forgetful of
self? How many think she is looking at us? beyond us? What is there
mysterious about her expression? Why do you think no one is able to
understand it?
=Original Picture=: Louvre Gallery, Paris.
=Artist=: Leonardo da Vinci (lā´ō när´dō dä vēn´chē).
=Birthplace=: Vinci, Italy.
=Dates=: Born, 1452; died, 1519.
=The story of the picture.= When the artist, Leonardo da Vinci, was a
boy he liked nothing better than to model in clay. Although he modeled
many figures in action, his chief delight was to model heads of smiling
women and children. His boyhood was such a happy one, and he was so well
liked, that even people with the most severe features relaxed them in a
smile when he appeared. If they did not, he quickly made a sketch so
comical in expression that they could not fail to be amused.
After he grew to manhood he had a very dear friend named Francesco del
Gioconda, who asked him to paint a portrait of his wife, Mona Lisa, or
La Gioconda, as the picture is often called. Leonardo wished to make
this something more than a mere likeness. He wished it to show the
character and soul of the woman herself. It proved to be a most
difficult task, for after four years the portrait was put aside as
unfinished.
Many critics claim that he intended to paint a face that no one could
understand; others claim that the lady’s moods were so changeable and
her expressions so various that he tried to paint them all in one. The
picture remains a mystery which no one seems to understand, yet like all
mysteries it is fascinating and our interest in it grows stronger the
longer we study it.
Many do not care for it at first, especially those who see it without
its beautiful coloring, but few fail to find it interesting if they but
linger long enough.
But after all why should the fact that we do not understand the
expression of this face trouble us, or that nearly every time we look at
it we find a new expression, a different meaning? Is not the same thing
true at times even with our most intimate friends? We think we know just
what they will do and say, yet are we not often amazed at some sudden
change in opinion or action on their part? It but marks their
individuality, and we accept it as part of them. And that is one of the
reasons this portrait of Mona Lisa is considered the greatest ever
painted, because it represents so well the mystery of human personality.
If so great an artist as Leonardo da Vinci spent four years painting
this picture, and it is still considered by the great art critics the
most wonderful portrait ever painted, we must study it even more
carefully if we have not liked it at first.
Leonardo da Vinci had musicians playing or jesters with their funny
sayings to amuse Mona Lisa while he was painting her picture. He did not
wish her to think of herself or to grow weary and look tired.
As you look at the picture can you not imagine you hear the music of
stringed instruments and the splash of that rushing, roaring little
stream in the background? Mona Lisa is listening, dreaming, thinking.
She looks at us, then on beyond without seeing us. She seems to know
everything, feel everything, yet her smile is reassuring.
Her hands are beautiful. In that all will agree. The few details of her
dress and scarf are exquisite, even in a print.
We cannot be quite sure about the chair she sits in; some say it is of
marble, others that it is a wooden chair. And where is she seated? Some
say it is on the roof of a building, others say on a balcony, but that
is even less mysterious than that strange, winding, dashing, little
mountain stream that comes and goes we know not whither.
Critics cannot even decide what time of day it is in the picture, the
light is so uncertain; some claim it is twilight; others, early morning.
If we could see the original, we would perhaps be astonished to find
that the lady wears a very thin veil over her face and hair. Her eyes
are a deep brown, her hair a beautiful auburn, and her dress a rich
green with a touch of yellow. We cannot accuse her of vanity, for she
wears no rings or ornaments of any kind.
Leonardo da Vinci loved problems. Even as a boy he would make up
problems in arithmetic that would puzzle as well as interest his
teachers. Here he has found a different kind of problem, which he has
solved in his own way.
It seems as if each part of the face had an expression of its own, so
that if the rest of the face were covered we could see that one alone.
The left side of her face is thoughtful, the right side is smiling; her
eyes are sad, the mouth is cheerful yet firm. There is hidden strength
behind this face—it is as if she had discovered the secret of the world,
but would allow no word of it to pass those lips so firmly closed. It is
interesting to know, too, that the real Mona Lisa was one of the famous
beauties in Florence.
The artist kept this portrait for several years, and then sold it to the
King of France. It is now in the gallery of the Louvre at Paris.
Great consternation was caused by the loss of this picture a few years
ago, when it was stolen from the Louvre. The whole country was aroused,
until at length the thief, a young Italian workman, was captured. He had
been employed in the Louvre, and found no difficulty in taking the
picture from its frame, concealing it under his blouse, and walking off
with it. He placed it face downward in the bottom of his tool box, and
carried it past the customs inspectors into Italy. The only hard part
was to dispose of the much-sought picture. He was in the same
predicament as the man Mark Twain told us about, who showed how very
easy it was to steal a white elephant, yet how difficult a matter it was
to get rid of the elephant. So, two years later, the Italian was
captured, having tried in vain to dispose of “Mona Lisa.”
He claimed he had stolen the picture to take revenge on France for the
pictures stolen by Napoleon from Italy. This does not seem very
convincing, for “Mona Lisa” was not stolen from Italy, but purchased
from the artist by Frances I for four thousand dollars. At present it is
valued at five million dollars.
The fact that the thief was not discovered sooner proved rather
humiliating to the Paris police, because they had missed an important
clew. It seems the Italian had left two distinct prints of his thumb on
the glass and frame of the picture, and by means of the Bertillon method
of detecting criminals by thumb prints he should have been discovered at
once. This same Italian had been arrested some years before for
stealing, and the thumb prints taken by the police at that time matched
perfectly those left on the picture frame. The police, however, much to
their chagrin, did not discover this until after his capture. But we do
not wonder so much when we are told that they had seven hundred and
fifty thousand thumb prints to compare.
Great excitement prevailed in Florence when the “Mona Lisa” was
discovered safe and uninjured except for two slight scratches it had
received in the tool box. The picture was exhibited at the Uffizi
Gallery in Florence, and great crowds came to see it. Then began its
triumphal journey home, until at last it reached the Louvre Museum at
Paris, where it may now be seen.
=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= Who was Mona Lisa?
of what nationality? How many years did it take the artist to paint this
picture? What did he wish to show us in this picture? What do some of
the critics say about it? In what way is the expression mysterious? What
means did the artist use to produce that expression? Where is Mona Lisa
seated? What does she wear over her face and hair? What is the color of
her hair? her eyes? her dress? What can you see in the background? How
does it differ from the backgrounds painted in modern portraits? What
happened to this portrait? How was it recovered? Why is this picture
valued so highly?
=The story of the artist.= Leonardo da Vinci was born in the little
village called Vinci, about twenty miles from Florence, Italy. His
father was a country lawyer of considerable wealth. Very little is known
of Leonardo’s boyhood, except that he grew up in his father’s palace and
at an early age displayed remarkable talents. He was good-looking,
strong, energetic, and an excellent student. He was also a very amiable
person, of winning charm in temper and manners.
He loved to wander out into the great forest near the palace, where he
tamed lizards, snakes, and many kinds of animals. Here he invented a
lute, upon which he played wonderful music of his own composing. Then,
too, he sang his own songs and recited his own poems.
He loved to draw and paint because he could both represent the things he
loved and use his inventive genius as well. He seemed to be gifted along
so many lines, and was of such an active and inquiring mind, that it was
difficult for him to work long enough at one thing to finish it. We read
of him as musician, poet, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and last but
most important to us because of this great picture—as artist.
When he was fifteen years old he made some sketches which were so very
clever that his father took them to a great artist, Verrocchio, who was
delighted with them and was glad to take Leonardo as his pupil. The
story is told that when Verrocchio was painting a large picture he asked
Leonardo to paint one of the angels in the background. The boy spent
much time and study on this work, and finally succeeded in painting an
angel which was so beautiful that the rest of the picture seemed
commonplace. It is said that when Verrocchio saw the work his pupil had
done and realized that a mere boy could surpass him in painting, he
declared that he would paint no more pictures, but would devote the rest
of his life to design and sculpture.
One day one of the servants of the castle brought Leonardo’s father a
round piece of wood, asking him to have his son paint something on it
that would make it suitable for a shield, like the real shields which
hung in the castle halls.
Leonardo wanted to surprise his father. So he made a collection of all
the lizards, snakes, bats, dragonflies, toads, and other creatures that
he could find. Then he studied them carefully and finally painted a
fearful dragon in which all the grotesque characteristics of these
various creatures were combined. It was a terrifying thing, breathing
out flame and just ready to spring from the shield. Coming suddenly upon
this shield on his son’s easel, the father was indeed startled. He found
it so lifelike and wonderfully painted that he declared it was far too
valuable a present for the servant; so another shield had to be painted
and the first was sold at a great price. No one knows what finally
became of it.
Leonardo spent seven years with Verrocchio; then he opened a studio of
his own in Florence, Italy.
Later Pope Leo X invited him to Rome to paint, but most of his work
there was left unfinished. The story is told that one day the pope found
him busily engaged in making a new kind of varnish with which to finish
his picture. “Alas,” said the pope, “this man will do nothing, for he
thinks of finishing his picture before he begins it.”
From Rome, Leonardo went to Milan, where, with the Duke of Milan as
patron, he painted his masterpiece, “The Last Supper.” He also made a
model for a great equestrian statue of the Duke’s illustrious father
which won the admiration of all who saw it and was regarded as equal to
anything the Greeks had ever done. The model, which was twenty-six feet
high, was to have been cast in bronze, but Leonardo was called away on
other important duties and the work was never completed.
Leonardo da Vinci proved to be a great addition to the duke’s court,—his
fine appearance and his many talents made him very popular. He invented
a beautiful harp, shaped something like a horse’s head, and charmed the
people with his music and songs. He also helped the duke found and
direct the Academy at Milan, giving lectures there on art and science.
So his time was divided, as usual, among his many interests.
After the duke was driven out of Milan by the new French king, Leonardo
spent several years in Florence, and there he painted the famous. “Mona
Lisa” and other portraits.
The last years of his life were spent in France, where the king, Francis
I, gave him a castle and a liberal pension. The king and his court often
visited Leonardo, who was regarded with great reverence and respect, and
beloved by all.
=Questions about the artist.= Where and when was the artist born? What
did he like to do when he was a boy? In what ways was he talented? Who
was his teacher? Tell about Leonardo’s painting of the angel; the
shield. Why did Leonardo not finish his paintings for the pope? What did
the pope say of him? In what ways was he an addition to the Duke of
Milan’s court? Where was he when he painted “Mona Lisa”? How did he
spend the last years of his life? How was he regarded by the people?
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[Illustration]