The Enigmatic Smile Lives On

A cold, damp, windy day in Paris in late December 1962. Armored vehicles flanked by police cars full of detectives and armed police commandos escorting a single bullet proof, armored plated car with blue lights flashing and sirens screaming. This caravan of police cars and armed guards wound its way to the French port of Le Harve where the French luxury liner SS France lay berthed ready for its voyage to America. On board the ocean liner a luxury cabin had been prepared to receive the occupant of the high security motorcade traveling all the way from the Louvres museum in Paris.

Who was traveling under such tight security? A head of state? Some member of a royal family? Some eccentric billionaire? No it was only a painting 30 X 21 inches in size painted on wood about 400 years ago. This is the painting about which the famous French historian Jules Micelet said, “This painting calls me, invades me, absorbs me. I go to it in spite of myself.”

For her journey to America the Mona Lisa was in fact treated like nothing less than royalty. It took months of meticulous planning and a very large budget to make this journey possible. She had to be packed in a specially designed and constructed state of the art, rubber lined, shockproof box, which maintained a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 55 to 60 percent humidity. On arrival in New York the Mona Lisa was received like any head of state or some very important guest of the American Govt. From New York City she was escorted to Washington DC under tight security befitting some royal personage. She had traveled from France with her own retinue of six highly trained armed guards along with the director of the French museum and a curator who had occupied the two cabins adjacent to the cabin of the Mona Lisa.

As Mona Lisa’S motorcade started its journey from the piers of New York harbor, the Lincoln tunnel and the Baltimore harbor tunnel were both cleared of all vehicular traffic and her progress was monitored every inch of the way to the National Art Gallery in Washington DC where special generators had been installed to maintain the required temperature in case of a power failure. The exhibition at the National Art Gallery opened on Jan. 8 and the elite of America flocked to have a glimpse of the world famous lady with the mysterious smile. No other exhibition in American history attracted such a large and eager audience which included President Kennedy and his wife, senators, statesmen, art lovers, collectors and of course a very large number of simple ordinary people who stood in line patiently for hours on end just to catch a fleeting view of the most famous painting in the world. The exhibition continued for 27 days and broke all previous records for attendance. 10,77,521 people paid to have a glimpse of this painting during the exhibition that lasted less than a month. The highest number of people in attendance was 61,305 persons on the final day.

After competing her triumphant tour of the United States the Mona Lisa was taken back to France with flying colors and the return journey was undertaken in the luxury liner SS United States with the same pomp, ceremony and level of security reserved for visiting royalty or heads of state. In France the Mona Lisa is a national monument-the pride and joy of the nation- that attracts more visitors than the Eiffel Tower or the Notre Dame while displayed behind bullet proof glass in Louvre, Paris. The mystique of this portrait is not confined to France alone. Her appeal is international transcending all boundaries of cast color or creed. This mysterious lady has been the subject of books, songs, operas, sonnets and poems.

The mystery of the Mona Lisa can only be matched with the extra ordinary personality of the genius who created her. Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter but also a gifted writer who sang beautifully while playing the lyre to his own compositions. His razor sharp mind was not engrossed in art and music only. He was an engineer, architect, chemist and inventor as well. Born in 1452 as the illegitimate son of a Florentine landlord called Ser Piero. His education, which her received at home, included elementary education in subjects like reading, writing and basic mathematics. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrochio for the purpose of learning some useful trade. Here was a man with a tortured soul and the mind of a super genius born perhaps many centuries before his time. In 1472 he was accepted in the painters guild of Florence and in 1482 entered the service of the Duke of Milan who became his patron. The next 17 years of Leonardo’s life were spent in the service of the duke.

Leonardo is credited with the invention or design of at least on paper of many modern day wonders including a flying machine shaped like a helicopter. A deep sea diving bell, a howitzer a wide range of musical instruments which could make up a whole orchestra. He sketched all his ideas on paper and all his scientific notes are in a code language of his own making, but strangely not a word has been found in all his writings about his greatest creations: his works of art. We can only presume that Leonardo’s most prized and cherished possession was the Mona Lisa. This was the only thing that he took with him when he decided to go into exile. After crossing the Alps on horseback he arrived in France leaving behind sad and bitter memories of his native Italy. The French monarch Francis I bought the Mona Lisa, and it remained in France to date as a national heritage and treasure. It was only in 1913 when the Mona Lisa had her first misadventure. She was stolen by an Italian called Vincenzo Perruggia who managed to smuggle her to Florence and tried to sell her for the fabulous sum of $ 1000,000.00. The thief was caught and the painting restored to the museum in Paris.

After the French capitulation in the Second World War, the Mona Lisa was once again on the run- this time not from thieves and robbers but from the conquering armies of the Third Reich and the great art thief and connoisseur Herman Goering. Goering had plundered and looted art galleries right across the European continent to add to his private collection of stolen works of art. At the risk of their lives the curators of the Paris museum managed to keep one step ahead of Herman Goering. The Mona Lisa was moved four times from one hiding place to another, and it was only after the defeat of Germany that the painting was brought back to the Paris museum in late 1945.

But is the Mona Lisa the greatest work of art ever produced? Many art critics have emphatically denied this. Looking objectively at this masterpiece it is only a small painting on wooden background of Italian poplar. The paint has been applied with such delicacy that even after the application of numerous coats of thin paint, the brush strokes are not visible even under the most powerful microscopes, and even x-rays have failed to detect the touch of a human hand. The under coat is brilliant white which shines through the entire painting giving it a shiny luminous look as if it is naturally lit up from the inside.

To day, centuries after its creation, the Mona Lisa has been affected by the ravages of time and has started to show signs of age and decay. World-renowned art restorers at the Louvre are doing their best to ensure that the Mona Lisa retains her beauty, looks, and her international appeal for centuries to come. The absence of any form of makeup or jewelry, the straight hair falling to the shoulders, the simple flowing lines of the folded hands, the head and eyes slightly turned and the crowning glory, the simple yet mysterious smile. It is for these qualities, perhaps, that the Mona Lisa has been admired over the centuries.

After becoming the personal property of the king of France the painting was classified as “Courtesan in a gauze veil” and to date twenty other paintings have been identified as modeled by the same woman, some in the nude and some slightly clothed. Who was Leonardo da Vinci’s model for the Mona Lisa? The answer is a mystery, which may never be known. According to the popular and most widely accepted theory she was called Lisa Gherardini and was the wife of a common citizen of Florence called Francesco di Zoanobi del Giaconda and that is why she has also been called La Gioconda. According to this theory she was 20 years old when she modeled for leonardo and the sittings continued from 1503 to 1507. How did she manage to maintain this pose and specially that smile for four long years? The story is that Leonardo had to make use of musicians and storytellers to keep his model happy in order to maintain that smile which the genius of Leonardo captured and froze in paint for posterity.

Another lady credited with the honor of being Mona Lisa is princess Isabel D’Este as this royal lady is known to have made no secret of her love and admiration for leonardo da Vinci. Yet other experts insist that the real model was Costanza D’Avalos the mistress of Giulino de’ Medici. Whatever the identity of the model, this mysterious lady with the secretive and sardonic smile continues to charm and gladden the hearts of countless generations of not only art lovers but also ordinary people from all walks of life.